The rich get richer, especially when their name is Elon Musk.
The divisive tech mogul became the world’s first trillionaire after SpaceX made its world record initial public offering Friday, according to Bloomberg. The stock launch shores up Musk’s position as the world’s richest person for the foreseeable future.
The entrepreneur reached the milestone as soon as the rocket company made its public market debut on Friday. He owns roughly $860 billion of the company’s stock, which started trading at $150 per share, up 11 percent from the I.P.O. price of $135, according to TechCrunch. The price has risen since, reaching a high of $176 early Friday afternoon.
Elon Musk speaks via video during the launch of the SpaceX initial public offering
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SpaceX may have gone public, but Musk’s control over the company and how it operated is unlikely to change anytime soon. The businessman will retain around 80 percent of the company’s voting rights, according to CNBC. He can also hand select its board of directors and has structured it in a way that limits legal challenges to his power.
Following the SpaceX stock launch, Musk’s net worth—which also includes his stock in Tesla and other companies he has an ownership stake in, like Neuralink and the Boring Company—ballooned to around $1.1 trillion, according to The New York Times. Crossing into 13-digit territory cements his position as the world’s richest person. The mogul first gained the title in 2021 but has swapped it with billionaires like Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, and Bernard Arnault in the years since. But Musk has held on to the position since September of last year, during which time his net worth has doubled.
Musk’s bank account is expected to keep growing in the near future. Last year, Tesla stockholders awarded him a pay package that could be worth another $1 trillion if he continues to grow its value and hit certain operational milestones.
The SpaceX I.P.O. means that there is, somehow, even less of a limit on what Musk can spend as of today. Still, it’s important to remember that there are some things that still remain outside the trillionaire’s grasp, no matter the vast resources at his disposal. As he posted on X earlier this year: “Whoever said ‘money can’t buy happiness’ really knew what they were talking about.”
No word if Musk, who was, according to Gallup, found to be the most hated man in America last year, has changed his mind about this.
