Elon Musk Set to Become Trillionaire following SpaceX IPO
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has announced plans to go public in the US, a move that could position him as the world’s first trillionaire.
The company IPO is also set to be the largest in Wall Street History and could start in June under the ticker symbol SPCX.
SpaceX values itself at US$1.25tn and Elon’s majority ownership of the company means his share could be worth more than US$600bn.
If the company succeeds in its eventual goal of a US$2tn valuation, it would position SpaceX as one of the most valuable companies in the world by market capitalisation.
In 2025, Elon became the first person to achieve a net worth of more than US$500bn, meaning the SpaceX listing could push his total net worth to over US$1tn.
Ruth Foxe-Blader, Managing Partner at Citrine Venture Partners, discussed SpaceX’s IPO, saying: “SpaceX is just an absolutely sprawling, enormous project with so many different selling points, and so many points that really point to the future.”
In 2025, SpacX brought in around US$18.6bn in revenue but saw a net loss of US$4.3bn.
Meanwhile, the company’s balance sheet shows it has US$102bn in assets, such as rockets and other equipment, but also carries US$60.5bn of debt.
Following the IPO, SpaceX says Elon will hold 85% voting control over the company and will serve as its CEO, Chairman and Chief Technology Officer.
Competition within the tech industry
The filing, released on 20 May, also revealed the financial terms of the deal SpaceX struck with AI competitor Anthropic.
It states that Anthropic will pay US$15bn a year to access US data centres for Elon’s xAI company, which was recently acquired by SpaceX.
While Elon’s AI ambitions have undergone several legal challenges, SpaceX’s rocket business and Starlink are considered leaders in their respective industries.
The IPO filing comes just days after Elon lost a high-profile legal battle against rival AI company OpenAI and former colleague Sam Altman.
Elon had accused Sam of breaching a nonprofit contract by repositioning the company as a for-profit firm after Elon had donated millions of dollars in funding.
Ultimately, the jury voted unanimously to dismiss the case, finding that the timeframe to bring Elon’s claims expired because he had waited too long to file his 2024 lawsuit.
At trial, Musk told jurors that xAI was small in comparison to OpenAI, which is also expected to sell shares to the public in the coming months.
Controversies and ongoing challenges
Despite the prospect of the IPO, SpaceX has been at the centrepoint of several controversies and has seen the company pay more than half a billion dollars in expected legal costs stemming from multiple lawsuits.
In particular, one lawsuit alleged that Grok, the chatbot made by xAI, was being used to create sexualised deepfakes of real women and girls.
Elon has said he intends to dissolve xAI and focus on AI ambitions under SpaceX.
Other ongoing cases against SpaceX listed in the IPO include patent infringement claims, claims of noncompliance with EU content moderation, music copyright infringement claims, and data breach claims.
