SpaceX IPO could push Elon Musk’s wealth past $1 trillion, Forbes says

NEW YORK: Elon Musk could become the world’s first trillionaire if SpaceX proceeds with its expected stock market listing.

Forbes estimated on Tuesday that Musk’s net worth had climbed to nearly $835 billion, up sharply from $342 billion in its annual rich list published in March 2025. The magazine said that a SpaceX debut on the Nasdaq, expected around June 12, would likely take his fortune beyond the $1 trillion mark. Forbes had said in early April, when the company first filed to go public, that the listing would all but ensure that outcome.

SpaceX, founded in 2002, is expected to seek a valuation of between $1.7 trillion and $2 trillion, compared with a ceiling of $1.5 trillion in March. On Tuesday, private trading platforms were valuing the company at roughly $1.5 trillion, with shares changing hands at about $129 on Forge Global, up from $53 in mid-December, and $118 on Nasdaq Private Market.

A filing submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission showed that Musk, 54, currently owns 12 per cent of SpaceX common stock and about 94 per cent of its Class B shares, which carry 10 votes each. Based on AFP calculations, that would leave him with around 42 per cent of the company’s equity and 79 per cent of voting power after the listing, equivalent to roughly $735 billion to $840 billion at the latest valuation estimates.

Wealth concentration and broader holdings

William Robinson, a sociology professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told AFP that global wealth was becoming increasingly concentrated among a relatively small number of billionaires.

"Current trends are an incredible and continued centralization and concentration of wealth"

Robinson said this concentration was taking place in the hands of about 3,000 billionaires and added:

"At the top end of those billionaires, the concentration is accelerating"

He further said that around five billion people were living below the poverty line, producing what he described as extreme inequality that could contribute to civil wars and other crises. Robinson said the emerging billionaire elite, which he described more specifically as a tech oligarchy, had structural influence over states, economies and society that echoed the rise of Nazism and fascism a century ago.

In February, SpaceX absorbed Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, which itself had taken over the X social media platform, formerly Twitter, a year earlier. Musk also owns around 12 per cent of Tesla, which currently has a market capitalisation of about $1.58 trillion. In mid-February, he said nearly all of his personal wealth was tied to SpaceX and Tesla shares, with less than 0.1 per cent held in cash.

Possible merger and future compensation

Analysts are also looking ahead to a possible combination of SpaceX and Tesla in 2027. The two companies are already working together on projects including the large semiconductor manufacturing plant Terafab.

Analysts at Wedbush Securities said they believed the two companies would eventually combine.

"We continue to believe that SpaceX and Tesla will eventually merge into one company in 2027 with the groundwork already in place for both operations to become one organization"

Wedbush also noted that Tesla is a minor shareholder in SpaceX through its investment in xAI.

Beyond SpaceX and Tesla, Musk also has stakes in The Boring Company, which provides tunnel construction services, and Neuralink, which is developing implantable brain-computer interfaces. Robinson said becoming the first trillionaire could give Musk an aura of divinity for some people, while also potentially encouraging a god complex.

Musk’s fortune could rise further if he meets the terms of a Tesla compensation package approved by the company’s board in 2025. If he achieves the financial and operational targets attached to that plan, he could receive roughly another $1 trillion over 10 years. At SpaceX, he could also gain more than $130 billion under two compensation plans, though one condition requires the establishment of a permanent human colony on Mars with at least one million people.