{"id":653945,"date":"2026-06-12T19:09:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T17:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=653945"},"modified":"2026-06-12T19:11:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T17:11:32","slug":"elon-musk-is-the-worlds-first-trillionaire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/business\/653945-elon-musk-is-the-worlds-first-trillionaire.html","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk becomes the world’s first trillionaire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a post on the social media platform he owns, Elon Musk recently lamented, \u201cWhoever said \u2018money can\u2019t buy happiness\u2019 really knew what they were talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the world\u2019s richest person can put that maxim to an even bigger test as he adds a new title: world\u2019s first trillionaire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SpaceX shares opened at $150 each, 11% above their offering price after they began trading in New York on Friday, valuing the rocket and AI-company Musk founded at roughly $2 trillion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His fortune now stands at the once-unimaginable figure of almost $1.05 trillion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s more than three times the fortune of the world\u2019s second-richest person, Google co-founder Larry Page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was less than 10 years ago that Bloomberg\u2019s wealth index registered its first fortune of more than $100 billion \u2014 a milestone Musk blew past in 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has since come to dominate the ranks of the world\u2019s richest, first as Tesla Inc. evolved into one of the all-time best performing stocks and later as investors scrambled for a piece of Space Exploration Technologies Corp., as SpaceX is formally known, now among the world\u2019s most valuable companies.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A trillion-dollar fortune \u2014 roughly equivalent to Switzerland\u2019s gross domestic product \u2014 almost defies comprehension. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve Cohen, who made $3.4 billion last year as the world\u2019s\u00a0highest-earning hedge fund manager, would have to earn that amount for almost 300 years before reaching a trillion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each of Musk\u2019s 14 children would rank 29th among the world\u2019s richest individuals if they inherited equal shares of his estate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not talking about generational wealth,\u201d said Dan Walter, an independent pay consultant. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about infinite.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a watershed moment for Musk, 54, whose wealth has already made him one of the globe\u2019s most powerful and divisive individuals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And he hasn\u2019t hesitated to deploy his fortune in pursuit of his vision: Buying social-media company Twitter in 2022 to defend against \u201cthe woke mind virus,\u201d funding an AI chatbot that embraces much of his worldview and helping propel Donald Trump to a second term in the White House through donations.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The more than $291 million he spent on the 2024 federal election represents less than 0.03% of his current net worth \u2014 the equivalent of a $291 donation for a millionaire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bumpy road<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Somehow, though, Musk skated through. Twitter, later renamed X, saw the value of its data soar from AI demand, and he eventually merged it with xAI, his own artificial intelligence startup. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tesla relocated to Texas from California and last year won an appeal allowing Musk to keep his original pay package, while also awarding him a new deal worth as much as $1 trillion if the company meets certain targets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tesla\u2019s investors have looked past declining car sales to focus on future offerings like robotaxis and Optimus robots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Musk\u2019s rise to trillionaire is largely due to SpaceX, the Starbase, Texas-headquartered company he founded in 2002, it was Tesla that initially powered his rise up the ranks of the world\u2019s richest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shares of the Austin-based electric-car maker \u2014 where Musk remains the largest owner \u2014 have gained about 35,000% since the company went public in 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But SpaceX\u2019s dominance in the orbital launch market, along with its satellite broadband service, Starlink, which it began offering in 2019, attracted growing investor attention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Valued at about $100 billion in a 2021 investment round, that number had jumped to $1 trillion by February after Musk merged it with xAI and social media network X. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The combined business \u2014 which now holds the record for largest ever initial public offering after raising $75 billion \u2014 makes up more than 70% of his net worth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk\u2019s fortune remains largely on paper with few assets outside of holdings in his own companies, according to Bloomberg\u2019s wealth index. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he were to liquidate a stake in any of his businesses it could sink their value with his investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, Tesla and SpaceX have compensation deals to pay Musk, the CEO at both firms, and additional equity awards should the companies make a series of ambitious financial and operational milestones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If all the targets are hit the value of both deals combined would be worth roughly $1.8 trillion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elon Musk’s fortune has reached $1.05 trillion, which is more than three times the fortune of Google co-founder Larry Page, the world’s second richest person.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":640633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[27887,48573,11373,11375,48987,20719],"class_list":["post-653945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-ai","tag-boring-company","tag-elon-musk","tag-spacex","tag-starlink","tag-tesla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653945"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653945"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":653949,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653945\/revisions\/653949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}