Elon Musk loses trillionaire status as global tech rout hits SpaceX
Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk lost his trillionaire status on Tuesday. less than two weeks According to Bloomberg’s data, he became the first person to achieve this after SpaceX went public.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index, updated daily at 5.30pm (22:30 BST) in New York, valued his fortune at $957bn (£727bn) on Tuesday, down from a $1.11tn valuation 14 days earlier.
The reversal follows a sharp pullback in shares of SpaceX and Tesla, with tech stocks falling largely fueled by growing doubts about the long-term profitability of artificial intelligence.
Despite his loss, Musk remains the richest person in the world, and his fortune is still dwarfed by his closest rivals.
The billionaire first made history on June 12 with the highly anticipated IPO of his rocket company SpaceX on the Nasdaq exchange.
The blockbuster initial public offering (IPO) was priced at $135 per share and opened at $150 when it began trading.
At launch, the rocket and satellite giant was valued at more than $1.77 trillion. Since Musk owns roughly 42% of SpaceX, the listing instantly increased his paper fortune to over $1 trillion.
As of June 16, growing investor excitement pushed SpaceX shares to $225.64, increasing Musk’s total net worth to $1.32 trillion.
However, the recovery in the market did not last long.
Concerns about capital spending, AI infrastructure costs and stubborn interest rates have triggered a widespread technology sell-off, hitting high-flying tech giants like Nvidia, Intel and AMD particularly hard.
However, SpaceX shares took the brunt of the correction; It traded around $156, down more than 30% from its mid-June peak.
On a single turbulent Monday on June 22, a single-day 16% drop wiped an estimated $240 billion from Musk’s personal balance sheet.
Simultaneously, shares of electric vehicle startup Tesla fell by almost 6% just one day later, compounding the financial damage. Musk owned approximately 12% of Tesla’s outstanding shares.
Musk’s trillionaire status is uniquely vulnerable due to the extreme concentration of his wealth. Unlike traditional billionaires with diverse portfolios, his wealth is almost entirely tied to equity in just two companies: SpaceX and Tesla, which represent almost 80% of his total net worth.
Market analysts note that post-IPO volatility is completely standard for highly valued growth companies, but the scale of the move reflects a deeper tug of war between hype and reality.
“For a stock like SpaceX, a lot of the decision-making can be emotional and based on the expectation of huge leaps forward in space exploration and use, but even with such large numbers involved, investing should be something that needs to be approached with a clear eye and patience,” said Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell.
Market pressure may continue as restrictions are lifted in late July, allowing company insiders to finally sell their shares in phases.
But Musk could become the world’s first recurring trillionaire, as a modest 6% rebound in SpaceX shares would restore his 13-figure status.
