Elon Musk is set to become the world's first trillionaire as SpaceX prepares for its initial public offering, a watershed moment that highlights both the staggering concentration of wealth and the political influence of tech billionaires.
The SpaceX and Tesla CEO, currently worth about $790 billion, could see his net worth surge past $1 trillion when the spacecraft and satellite communications company debuts on public markets Friday. The milestone would put Musk far ahead of other billionaires; Google co-founder Larry Page, the next closest, sits at roughly $290 billion.
“For him, it probably won't be a very meaningful change. He already has an enormous amount of wealth, and this will be some more zeros,” said Michael Morris, a professor of leadership at Columbia Business School. “I don't think for society it really matters that it's Elon Musk, as opposed to anyone else. But our institutions are under our control, and our institutions are allowing greater levels of inequality, and we just know empirically that that puts democracy at risk.”
SpaceX is planning a record-breaking IPO, aiming to raise $75 billion at a valuation of $1.77 trillion. At the proposed $135 per share price, Musk's stake would be worth about $866.5 billion on paper, pushing his total wealth to roughly $1.1 trillion when combined with his Tesla holdings. However, Morris noted that most of this fortune is not liquid but locked in company shares—unlike a lottery win, it's money with different time horizons for accessibility.
Musk first became the world's richest person in 2021, surpassing Amazon's Jeff Bezos, and has held the title for most of the past five years. The SpaceX IPO alone would make him richer than all but 21 national economies, according to IMF data, and wealthier than 46 percent of the global population—about 3.8 billion people—based on Oxfam International analysis.
“The creation of the world's first trillionaire is not something to celebrate or admire,” said Nabil Ahmed, senior director of economic justice at Oxfam America. “In fact, it's a frightening new peak for just how unimaginably unequal our world and how rigged our economy has become. This moment shows we've reached a new peak of oligarchy, and frankly, it's also a dark moment for democracy, for one person to have that much wealth, but also that much power in our society.”
Ahmed pointed to the Trump administration's tax cuts, deregulation, and government contracts as key accelerants for Musk's fortune, though he stressed the trend is bipartisan. “While Musk's power has culminated under Trump, it's actually been cultivated over the last couple of decades. I would say that Musk's top talent hasn't actually been in engineering as much as it is in getting public subsidies. It turns out a trillionaire is a bipartisan creation.”
Musk's companies have received at least $38 billion in government contracts, loans, subsidies, and tax credits over the past two decades, according to a Washington Post analysis. After donating more than $250 million to Trump's 2024 campaign, Musk led the Department of Government Efficiency cost-cutting effort but left after four months amid friction over a spending bill. The two have since reconciled, with Musk appearing at White House events.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) seized on the news, saying, “This milestone is a jarring reminder that Donald Trump kicked millions of Americans off their health insurance to give tax breaks to the rich, including the world's first trillionaire. Has there ever been a better time to pass a wealth tax?”
Not everyone is convinced the SpaceX IPO's valuation is justified. “Investors are naturally excited about the SpaceX IPO, but with investment bankers suggesting a 1.75 trillion valuation, we believe it's overvalued,” said Michael Field, Morningstar's chief equity strategist. “We believe the business has real strengths, particularly in Starlink, but with so many unknown and untested technologies underpinning much of its projected growth, the risks are substantial.”
Musk also has a potential $1 trillion pay package from Tesla awaiting approval, contingent on the electric vehicle maker hitting ambitious milestones—though that payout remains years away. The SpaceX IPO opens the door to small investors, but as experts caution, the risks are considerable.
