Elon Musk’s brief run as the world’s first trillionaire has ended, after a sharp pullback in SpaceX (SPCX) and Tesla (TSLA) shares erased part of the wealth surge that followed SpaceX’s blockbuster market debut.
Musk’s net worth fell to $946 billion on Wednesday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, down from about $1.11 trillion less than two weeks earlier and a recent peak of $1.32 trillion.
Despite the drop, Musk remains the world’s richest person by a significant margin.
SpaceX IPO Rally Cools Fast
Musk crossed the trillion-dollar mark after SpaceX’s June 12 Nasdaq debut.
The company priced its IPO at $135 per share, opened at $150 per share, and was valued at over $1.77 trillion.
Since Musk owned 42% of SpaceX, the listing instantly pushed his paper fortune past $1 trillion.
SpaceX shares later surged to $225.64 on June 16, lifting his net worth to around $1.32 trillion.
That rally has cooled sharply since then.
SpaceX has dropped over 30% from its peak, recently trading at $154, as investors weighed soaring tech valuations, AI spending and capital-intensive expansion plans.
Meanwhile, Musk has confirmed that Starmind is the official name of SpaceX’s AI data center in orbit, which is a proposed network of up to one million satellites that would process AI workloads in space instead of functioning as a Starlink-style internet relay system.
The biggest blow came on Monday, when SpaceX plunged 16%, wiping an estimated $240 billion from Musk’s personal balance sheet. Tesla shares then deepened the pressure, sliding nearly 6% the next day.
Musk’s fortune is unusually exposed to these moves as it is concentrated in two stocks: SpaceX, which accounts for most of his net worth, and Tesla, where he owns about 12% of outstanding shares.
The selloff also comes amid a broader pullback in tech stocks, with investors growing more cautious about AI infrastructure costs, heavy capital spending, and stubborn interest rates.
Despite the steep slide, bearish bets remain modest.
About 40 million SpaceX shares are sold short, or 5% to 7% of the public float, according to S3 Partners.
