SpaceX IPO Makes Elon Musk World’s First Billionaire | Today’s news

Few business leaders have been as deeply embedded in popular culture as Elon Musk, the ambitious entrepreneur who became a central figure in Internet culture and amassed a fortune that made him the world’s first billionaire.

At a time when inequality is rife and public attitudes toward the ultra-rich have crumbled, Musk has managed to retain a loyal following despite his stratospheric net worth and without the folksy persona that endeared him to the masses of other tycoons like Warren Buffett.

While admirers see Musk’s unfiltered style as part of his appeal, critics accuse him of wielding oligarch-like power, raise concerns about governance at his companies and object to his increasingly partisan political interventions.

Quick answers to key questions

•5 QUESTIONS

SpaceX’s IPO raised $75 billion, which should push Elon Musk’s net worth past $1.1 trillion, making him the world’s first billionaire.

The $75 billion IPO represents the largest initial public offering to date, significantly boosting SpaceX’s valuation to around $1.77 trillion.

SpaceX’s $1.77 trillion valuation is driven by its ambitious projects, investor enthusiasm and a perceived “Elon Musk premium” based on Musk’s influence in technology and innovation.

Investors see Elon Musk’s behavior and governance issues as potentially risky because of his unconventional approach and the concentrated power he wields in his companies.

SpaceX plans to use the IPO proceeds primarily to fund expansion efforts, including the development of its Starlink satellite internet service and ambitious space infrastructure projects.

SpaceX, the sprawling rocket, satellite and artificial intelligence company that forms the center of Musk’s empire along with electric car maker Tesla, raised a record $75 billion in its initial public offering on Thursday, underscoring investor enthusiasm for its business. Before the stock sale, Forbes pegged his net worth at about $780 billion, far ahead of the next man in line, Alphabet co-founder Larry Page.

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“The second richest person is worth around $300 billion, so about less than one-third of what Musk could potentially be worth tomorrow,” said Matt Durot, deputy editor of Forbes Wealth. “And only one other person, (Oracle founder) Larry Ellison, was worth $400 billion.”

Most of Musk’s wealth now resides in SpaceX, where he holds a stake worth roughly $866 billion. Along with Tesla and the rest of his real estate, his net worth will exceed $1.1 trillion when the stock opens for trading on Friday, according to Forbes and Reuters calculations based on company filings.

Musk rose to prominence through Tesla and SpaceX before expanding his influence with the $44 billion acquisition of social media platform Twitter in 2022. The deal gave him a direct channel to hundreds of millions of users and made him a prominent voice on issues ranging from politics and immigration to government spending and free speech.

His move into politics, particularly his role in US President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency last year, has been among his most controversial. The political fallout coincided with weaker sales for Tesla in several international markets in 2025 as protests and consumer boycotts targeted the electric vehicle maker.

ELON PREMIUM

Musk, 54, was born in Pretoria, South Africa to a Canadian mother and a South African father. He attended the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1997.

He took over as CEO of Tesla in 2008 with the belief that electric vehicles can combine high performance with software-controlled features to help redefine the global automotive industry. Some auto industry observers say Tesla’s success — and its trillion-dollar market capitalization — has helped traditional automakers shift to electric vehicles.

Many investors are betting that it can repeat the feat in space and artificial intelligence. Still, SpaceX remains cash-hungry, and much of the company’s valuation rests on technologies that may take years or decades to become commercially viable.

In addition to Tesla and SpaceX, Musk has co-founded five other companies, including tunneling startup The Boring Company and brain implant maker Neuralink.

Read also | Box office blockbuster SpaceX debuts on Wall Street: $75 billion IPO at $135 a share

As CEO of Tesla, Musk courted controversy and praise in equal measure. He is credited with turning Tesla into the world’s most valuable automaker. For years, executives at legacy automakers dismissed the threat and were skeptical that an upstart automaker could figure out how to profitably mass-produce electric vehicles.

“He restored the world’s respect for American ingenuity in automotive engineering,” said Bob Lutz, former vice chairman of General Motors.

At the same time, Tesla has faced legal challenges and shareholder concerns related to its famous CEO, particularly his 2018 pay package that was once worth $56 billion.

Musk’s influence has become so pervasive that market watchers have dubbed the network of businesses around him the “Muskonomy.”

This phenomenon has given rise to what some investors call the “Elon premium,” an increase in valuation that is driven by both confidence in Musk’s vision and traditional financial metrics.

“Like Tesla, SpaceX is a bet on Elon Musk,” said Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, an IPO research and ETF provider.

“A market cap of $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion would certainly throw all traditional valuation methodologies out the window and is instead best characterized as an ‘Elon Musk premium.'”

Musk UNFILTERED

The concentration of influence around a single entrepreneur has heightened concerns about corporate governance, conflicts of interest, and the risk of tying the company’s fortunes too closely to one individual.

Over the years, Musk has turned clashes with regulators, billionaires, short sellers, journalists and media organizations, including Reuters, into recurring public battles that often took place on social media.

Musk’s alliance with Trump followed a familiar pattern. After helping finance Trump’s return to the White House and serving in a senior advisory role through the government’s DOGE initiative, Musk has become one of the president’s closest corporate allies.

The relationship later broke down over disagreements over policy and spending and escalated into a public feud. Although the two have since taken a more conciliatory tone, their splits have highlighted the increasingly blurred lines between Musk’s business empire and political ambitions.

But for many investors, concerns about Musk’s often unconventional behavior outweigh his track record of turning ambitious ideas into some of the world’s most valuable companies.

“Elon is the Edison of our time,” JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said during a recent interview with Musk.

The banker, a former adversary of Musk in a long legal battle, has since become an admirer. Dimon told CNBC last year that the pair “embraced” and hailed Musk as “our Einstein.”

(Reporting by Manya Saini and Niket Nishant in Bengaluru and Mike Colias in Detroit; Editing by Noor Zainab Hussain)