SpaceX founder and Chief Executive Officer, Elon Musk, has become the first individual in history to amass a net worth exceeding $1 trillion, following the highly successful stock market debut of his aerospace company.
According to CNN, the landmark achievement was fuelled by the strong performance of SpaceX shares after the company’s initial public offering.
SpaceX priced its IPO at $135 per share, a move that pushed Musk’s estimated wealth beyond the $1 trillion mark.
Trading under the ticker symbol “SPCX” on the NASDAQ, the company’s shares surged to $165 shortly after the opening bell on Friday, representing a gain of about 22 per cent above the offering price. The rally lifted SpaceX’s market valuation to more than $2 trillion.
Prior to the public listing, Musk’s fortune was estimated at $813 billion, already more than double that of the world’s second-richest individual, Google co-founder Larry Page, whose net worth stands at approximately $288 billion, according to Forbes.
With the latest increase, Musk’s wealth now surpasses the combined fortunes of the next three individuals on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as well as Oracle founder Larry Ellison.
The valuation boost also places SpaceX among the most valuable publicly traded companies in the United States. The company is now ranked sixth, behind only Nvidia, Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon.
SpaceX serves as the parent company of Starlink, the rapidly expanding satellite internet provider, and xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence venture behind the Grok chatbot.
The company’s successful market debut marks another milestone for Musk, whose business empire spans electric vehicles, space technology, artificial intelligence and satellite communications.