Rocket company CEO now worth more than three times the world’s second-richest person, as well as 46 percent of the world’s population combined
Elon Musk is poised to become the world’s first trillionaire as SpaceX’s IPO opened on Wall Street with a higher-than-anticipated share price.
SpaceX’s soaring stock price — $169 at press time after opening at $150 — helped propel its CEO, already the world’s richest man, to a net worth of over $1.1 trillion, Forbes reports. Per the report, Musk is worth about $813 billion prior to the SpaceX IPO, almost three times more than the world’s second-richest person, Google’s Larry Page.
Musk owns 42 percent of the company’s shares which, at its current stock price, translates to over $640 billion. It’s possible that, if SpaceX’s price goes down, Musk would become the world’s first former trillionaire, but at its current price, Musk is richer than 46 percent of the world’s population (roughly 3.8 billion people) combined, Oxfam America said in a response to Musk hitting 13-digit wealth.
Musk isn’t the only one enjoying the SpaceX IPO windfall: According to The New York Times, about 4,400 employees of the rocket company — from the C-suite level to cafeteria workers — instantly became millionaires Friday thanks to stock options built into their employment contracts.
However, SpaceX’s goals might be harder to achieve than becoming a trillionaire, as Musk told traders Friday that his hope is “to make life multi-planetary.” “Not just a few astronauts, I mean literally you,” Musk said from Texas’ Starbase during a ceremonial NASDAQ bell-ringing. “Whoever you are watching this, SpaceX wants to be able to take you to the moon, take you to Mars and ultimately beyond.”