Elon Musk becomes first ever trillionaire as SpaceX boom pushes net worth past Sh142 Trillion

Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire on Friday after SpaceX’s record-breaking stock market debut, pushing his estimated net worth to roughly Sh142.4 Trillion ($1.11 trillion), according to Reuters.

That puts him well ahead of other high-profile billionaires such as Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and LVMH’s Bernard Arnault.

The 54-year old’s rise was not a walk in the park.

In January 2020 he ranked only 35th on the global rich list with about Sh3.6 Trillion ($28 billion). His fortune accelerated as the value of his two biggest holdings, that are Tesla and SpaceX, soared. 

He owns roughly 12% of Tesla, which is valued near Sh195 Trillion ($1.5 trillion), and about 42% of SpaceX, now estimated at more than Sh 325 Trillion ($2 trillion).

Many of those holdings are deemed as collateral for loans, and Musk has said less than 0.1% of his net worth is held in cash, underscoring that most of his wealth is tied up in stocks that can swing dramatically.

The last six years of Musk’s net worth was an up and down progress, sharp spikes and sometimes steep drops driven by Tesla’s volatile share price, growing valuations for SpaceX, and shifts in political and investor sentiment, particularly around his involvement with the Trump administration. 

He briefly overtook Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest person in January 2021, then saw declines during the 2022 tech downturn and again in early 2025 amid heightened scrutiny and a drop in Tesla shares.

Each plunge has been followed by recoveries, culminating in his new trillionaire status.

To grasp a trillion dollars, imagine breaking that sum into dots or blocks, Musk’s wealth is overwhelmingly concentrated in two corporate blocks, with little actual cash remaining. 

His fortune illustrates a broader change at the top of global wealth rankings. Whereas financiers and manufacturers dominated a decade ago, tech founders now occupy most top positions.

In 2015 just two of the world’s ten richest were from tech, today seven of the top ten are tech figures, including the entire top six, according BBC.