Elon Musk becomes the world's first trillionaire after SpaceX shares soar on stock market debut.
The tech mogul reached that milestone when shares of his rocket company SpaceX began trading on the stock market, opening at $150, signaling a new era of ultra-affluence and widening wealth inequality.
SpaceX shares opened up 11 percent from their initial public offering price of $135.
Musk’s net worth, which comprises his stock in SpaceX and his electric carmaker, Tesla, as well as ownership stakes in other ventures including the brain implant company Neuralink and the tunneling firm the Boring Company — stood at around $1.1 trillion.
54-year-old Musk was already the world’s richest person.
He claimed that title from the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in January 2021, after Tesla’s shares surged to take his net worth past $185 billion.
The South African-born entrepreneur’s fortune has more than quintupled in a five-and-a-half year period, during which he bought the social media company Twitter, founded an A.I. start-up, fused them together with SpaceX and then took the conglomerate public. In that time, Mr. Musk also spent more than $250 million to help elect Donald J. Trump and advised the president.
Source: The New York Times
And Mr. Musk’s wealth-making has only accelerated, cementing his influence over society, culture and global politics. Since October, his net worth has doubled.
