Elon Musk becomes the world's first trillionaire after SpaceX's record debut on the stock market
Elon Musk became the world's first trillionaire on Friday, after the record debut of his company, SpaceX.
Elon Musk became the first trillionaire in the world PHOTO GettyImages
With a net worth currently estimated at around $1.11 trillion, Musk is well above other billionaires who dominate the charts of the rich, including Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, or the head of the French luxury goods group LVMH, Bernard Arnault, notes the BBC.
Musk, who began to attract attention in the tech industry in the late 90s, was not always at the top of the rankings of the world's richest people.
As of January 2020, he was only ranked 35th worldwide, with an estimated fortune of around $28 billion.
But his fortune exploded that same year as the value of his two main companies, electric car maker Tesla and space exploration and artificial intelligence company SpaceX, began to soar. Musk has significant stakes in both firms.
Musk's wealth consists mainly of shares in companies, the value of which can rise or fall based on investor sentiment. In fact, in February, the tech mogul told X that less than “0.1%” of his wealth is held in cash.
Musk currently owns 12 percent of Tesla, a company valued at about $1.5 trillion, and 42 percent of SpaceX, which is now worth more than $2 trillion. Much of his stock was pledged as collateral for personal loans.
Musk also owns stakes in smaller companies, including The Boring Company, which specializes in tunnel construction, and Neuralink, which develops implantable brain-computer interfaces.
