How the SpaceX IPO made Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire

For years, analysts predicted that someone would eventually become the world’s first trillionaire. In June 2026 it happened, and the trigger was not Tesla but SpaceX. Its stock-market debut was the largest initial public offering ever and lifted Elon Musk’s paper fortune above $1 trillion.

The pricing

On 11 June 2026 SpaceX priced its IPO at $135 a share, selling about 555 million shares and raising roughly $75 billion. That made it the biggest IPO in history — more than double the previous record, set by Saudi Aramco in 2019. The shares trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX.

The first day

Trading began on 12 June. The stock opened at $150 and closed at $160.95, up about 19% on the IPO price. At that level SpaceX was valued at around $2.1 trillion, placing it among the most valuable companies in the world on its first day.

Musk owns about 42% of SpaceX. Combined with his stake in Tesla, the listing pushed his estimated net worth above $1 trillion, according to widely followed billionaire rankings.

A volatile summer

The shares kept rising at first, reaching a record close of $201.80 within the first few sessions. They then fell back, closing at $135.27 on 15 July — almost exactly the IPO price. Like any fortune held mostly in shares, Musk’s net worth rises and falls with the market, so the “trillionaire” label can change from day to day.

Why SpaceX was worth so much

Investors were buying into several businesses at once:

Launch. SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rockets carry most of the world’s commercial satellites and NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.
Starlink. The satellite internet service has millions of customers in more than 100 countries and is the company’s largest source of revenue.
Starship. The giant fully reusable rocket is designed to cut the cost of reaching orbit dramatically. In September 2026 it reached orbit for the first time.
Artificial intelligence. In 2026 Musk’s AI company xAI, which also owns the social network X, became part of SpaceX, bringing the Grok chatbot and its data centres under the same roof.

How SpaceX started

Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 with money from the sale of PayPal. Its first three Falcon 1 launches failed; the fourth, in September 2008, reached orbit and saved the company. A NASA contract to resupply the space station followed later that year. In 2015 SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 booster for the first time, and in 2020 it became the first private company to fly NASA astronauts to the ISS.

Day-to-day operations have long been run by president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell.

Tesla’s pay package

In November 2025 Tesla shareholders approved a new long-term pay plan for Musk worth potentially up to about $1 trillion in shares, but only if Tesla meets very ambitious targets for market value and operations over the next decade. It is separate from his SpaceX wealth.

Criticism and concerns

Some investors worry about how much power Musk holds across his companies, the time he divides between them and his involvement in politics — he led the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the first half of 2025. Others point to SpaceX’s large spending on Starship and AI. Supporters argue that his record of building companies others thought impossible justifies the confidence.

A historic milestone

The phrase “first trillionaire” captures headlines, but the deeper story is how a rocket company that nearly went bankrupt in 2008 became one of the most valuable businesses on Earth. For Musk, it confirmed SpaceX as the centre of his empire.

This article is for general information and is not investment advice.