Elon Musk’s journey to becoming the world’s first millionaire is likely to be propelled by rockets rather than cars, with SpaceX now controlling nearly two-thirds of the world’s fortunes. tesla property of the president.
According to Forbes, Musk this week surpassed the $800 billion mark for the first time in history, and his net worth is now around $845 billion. He is worth more than the following three richest people – google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin; meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg – Combined.
The tech mogul’s unprecedented wealth has soared after his aerospace and defense company SpaceX acquired his artificial intelligence and social media company xAI this week, valuing the combined company at $1.25 trillion, according to financial documents reviewed by CNBC.
Musk’s ownership in the combined company is estimated at about 43%, making his stake worth more than $530 billion, and his fortunes could change rapidly.
It’s also likely that Musk’s priorities have shifted to SpaceX over Tesla, a fact the EV company acknowledged in its latest proxy filing, stating that “the majority of Musk’s wealth now comes from other businesses.”
Last year, Musk confirmed his intention to take SpaceX public in 2026, which would reduce Tesla’s presence in his liquid assets. But he still needs buy-in from public market investors. They may be reluctant to pay money to a company that combines a defense contractor, a satellite business, and a cash-wasting AI model developer looking to compete with Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic.
SpaceX has received more than $20 billion in federal contracts, according to a FedScout study, and even more lucrative contracts are in the works, but Musk is framing the acquisition as the next step toward “orbital data centers.”
“As a pure shareholder in SpaceX, you’re muddying the waters a little bit, but the opportunity is much greater,” said Greg Martin, managing director at Rainmaker Securities, which deals with pre-IPO companies. “For them, especially in the case of xAI, it makes sense to access a much larger capital market because there is an insatiable demand for capital.”
XAI is currently being investigated by authorities in Europe, Asia, Australia, and California for allowing users to create and share explicit “deepfake” images of children and women using the company’s Grok image generator.
It’s unclear whether Mr. Musk’s merger will require regulatory review. Democratic senators this week called on the Pentagon to investigate SpaceX over an undisclosed Chinese investor in the company.
Mr. Musk still has a strong incentive to remain focused on Tesla. Late last year, shareholders voted to approve a new compensation package worth $1 trillion if Tesla hits certain milestones over the next 10 years, including market capitalization growth and business performance. This reward will be paid in 12 installments. The first tranche of shares will be paid out if Tesla reaches a market cap of $2 trillion, about $460 billion above its current valuation.
Tesla said in a proxy filing detailing the plan that the structure is intended to “prevent him from prioritizing other businesses.”
But Dorothy Rand, a Columbia law professor who specializes in corporate and securities law, told CNBC in an email that this strategy may not work.
Musk is currently “negotiating compensation packages at each company, and each board is trying to induce them to pay attention to him through compensation,” Lund wrote. “If SpaceX/xAI gives him more money and a bigger share, that Tesla package might become less attractive.”
Before the xAI acquisition, Musk owned about 42% of SpaceX and controlled 80% of the vote, according to the FCC report. His current ownership of Tesla stock is between 11% and 15% of the company’s outstanding shares, depending on what his shares include, according to public filings.
Tesla’s stock has fallen about 9% this year as its brand value and core car sales have declined and its long-promised robotaxis and humanoid robots are still in development.
Based on Musk’s SpaceX ownership, assuming Tesla stock remains flat, the rocket and AI company would need to reach a valuation of about $1.6 trillion for the world’s richest man to reach trillionaire status.
Ross Gerber, CEO of investment firm Gerber Kawasaki, is betting that Musk never wants SpaceX to go public as a separate entity. Rather, he expects a merger between SpaceX and Tesla, and speculated this week that the company could go public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol X, which previously belonged to U.S. Steel.
Gerber is a longtime Tesla investor and currently owns SpaceX stock after his firm previously backed Musk’s 2022 leveraged buyout of Twitter. Musk rebranded Twitter as X and integrated the social network with xAI last year.
Gerber said it makes sense to strengthen his empire because it would allow Musk to realize his dream of running one large company under the X brand name. of the alphabet Mr. Gerber, who announced this week that he would spend up to $185 billion in capital spending this year, said Mr. Musk needs access to large amounts of cash.
“This huge organization will make it easier to raise money and borrow,” he said. “How else should Mr. Musk compete and become a major player in AI?”
Mr. Musk did not respond to requests for comment.
Spotlight: SpaceX acquires xAI
