Elon Musk became the world’s first paper trillionaire on Friday as SpaceX’s record initial public offering valued the rocket company at $1.77 trillion and pushed his combined holdings past $1.1 trillion.
SpaceX priced shares at $135 each and raised about $75 billion, surpassing Saudi Aramco’s 2019 debut as the largest IPO in history. The listing makes SpaceX one of the world’s most valuable publicly traded companies.
According to the company’s prospectus, Musk will hold about 849.5 million Class A shares and 5.57 billion Class B shares after the offering, giving him 84.4% of voting power. At the IPO price, his SpaceX stake is worth roughly $866.5 billion.
With an estimated 717.1 million Tesla shares valued at about $286.2 billion, Musk’s total holdings are about $1.1 trillion on paper.
*Trillionaire vs paper trillionaire*
The distinction matters for accuracy, financial analysts said. A “trillionaire” holds $1 trillion in liquid assets — cash, bonds, or assets already sold. No person has reached that status.
A “paper trillionaire” holds assets valued at $1 trillion based on current market prices, but has not converted them to cash.
Musk’s wealth is almost entirely in SpaceX and Tesla shares. If he tried to sell large amounts, the share price would fall and the valuation would drop. The title also depends on daily market moves. Tesla lost more than 60% of its value in 2022, cutting Musk’s paper wealth by hundreds of billions.
“Paper wealth is theoretical until it is realised through a sale,” said Daniel Waldenström, professor at the Research Institute of Industrial Economics in Sweden.
Market valuation can change.
Despite its $1.77 trillion valuation, SpaceX remains loss-making. The company reported revenue of $18.7 billion in 2025, up from $14 billion the previous year, while posting a net loss of $4.9 billion.
Part of Musk’s valuation includes performance-based stock awards tied to ambitious targets, such as establishing a permanent human colony on Mars and developing large-scale space-based computing infrastructure. Those awards only vest if SpaceX meets technical and financial milestones.
Musk’s paper wealth would equal roughly 3% of US GDP. John D. Rockefeller was worth about 1.5% of US GDP when he died in 1937 with a $1.4 billion fortune, according to the MeasuringWorth Foundation. Guido Alfani, professor of economic history at Bocconi University, estimated Musk could command the labour of about 557,800 people in 2025, versus 116,000 by Rockefeller in 1937.