Elon Musk becomes world's first trillionaire

Forbes on Friday declared Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire after SpaceX began trading on the Nasdaq at $150 per share, giving the company a market capitalization of nearly $2 trillion.

According to Forbes, the IPO boosted Musk's fortune to an estimated $1.1 trillion as of Friday morning. His net worth had already risen by $188 billion to approximately $982 billion on Thursday evening, when SpaceX priced its shares at $135 during the initial public offering.

The SpaceX chairman, chief executive officer and chief technical officer owns 4.8 billion shares in the company, valued at about $715 billion. He also holds 350 million stock options worth an estimated $50 billion, giving him a 38 percent stake in SpaceX.

Musk first appeared on Forbes' annual World's Billionaires List in 2012 with an estimated net worth of $2 billion, ranking him the 634th-richest person globally. Just nine years later, in January 2021, he became the world's wealthiest person for the first time as Tesla's soaring share price propelled him past Jeff Bezos to the top spot.

"Elon Musk's ascent to a $1 trillion fortune represents a milestone once considered unimaginable, highlighting how rapidly wealth can be created in an increasingly interconnected and technology-driven world," said Matt Durot, Forbes Deputy Editor for Wealth.

"Forbes remains the definitive source for understanding who is creating wealth, how they are creating it, and what it means for the future of business. Today marks a new chapter in the evolution of global business and entrepreneurship," he added.

For more than four decades, Forbes has tracked and analyzed the wealth of the world's richest individuals. Since publishing its first World's Billionaires List in 1987, the media company has built a vast repository of wealth data, research and financial analysis, establishing itself as a leading authority on global wealth measurement.

"No other media brand combines the same depth of historical wealth data, editorial credibility and global reach, making Forbes the most trusted source for understanding who holds the world's wealth, how it was created and how it continues to shape the global economy," said Randall Lane, Chief Content Officer at Forbes.

In May, during the Forbes Innovator 250 Celebration, which honoured leading American innovators, inventors and founders featured on the Forbes 250 Innovators List, Lane hosted a virtual conversation with Elon Musk, who ranked first on the list.