Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk lost his trillionaire status on Tuesday, less than two weeks after becoming the first person to achieve it following SpaceX’s public debut, according to data from Bloomberg. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index – updated daily at 17:30 in New York (22:30 BST) – valued his fortune at $957bn (£727bn) on Tuesday, down from the $1.11tn valuation less than 14 days ago.
The reversal followed a sharp retreat in SpaceX and Tesla shares as technology stocks broadly tumbled, fuelled by growing doubts over the long-term profitability of artificial intelligence.
Despite the loss, Musk remains the world’s richest person, and his wealth still dwarfs that of his nearest rivals.
The billionaire originally made history on 12 June with the highly anticipated public market debut of his rocket company, SpaceX, on the Nasdaq exchange.
The blockbuster initial public offering (IPO) was priced at $135 per share and opened at $150 when it began trading.
The debut valued the rocket and satellite giant at more than $1.77 trillion. Because Musk owned roughly 42% of SpaceX, the listing instantly propelled his paper fortune past the $1 trillion mark.
By 16 June, surging investor enthusiasm drove SpaceX shares to a peak of $225.64, pushing Musk’s total net worth to a peak of $1.32 trillion.
However, the market rally did not last.
Concerns over capital spending, artificial intelligence infrastructure costs, and stubborn interest rates triggered a widespread tech sell-off and hit high-flying technology giants such as Nvidia, Intel, and AMD, particularly hard.
But SpaceX shares bore the brunt of the correction, plunging more than 30% from their mid-June peak to trade around $156.
On a single turbulent Monday, 22 June, a 16% single-day drop erased an estimated $240 billion from Musk’s personal balance sheet.
Concurrently, shares of his electric vehicle venture, Tesla, slid nearly 6% just a day later, compounding the financial damage. Musk owned about 12% of Tesla’s outstanding shares.
Musk’s trillionaire status is uniquely vulnerable due to the extreme concentration of his wealth. Unlike traditional billionaires with diversified portfolios, his fortune is almost entirely tied to equity in just two companies: SpaceX, which represents nearly 80% of his total net worth, and Tesla.
Market analysts note that post-IPO volatility is entirely standard for highly valued growth firms, though the scale of the movement reflects a deeper tug-of-war between hype and reality.
“For a stock like SpaceX, a lot of decision making might have been emotional and based on the anticipation of huge leaps forward in space exploration and utilisation, but investing should be something treated with clear eyes and patience, even when such huge numbers are involved,” said Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell.
With restrictions lifting in late July that will allow company insiders to finally sell their shares in stages, market pressure may continue.
However, because a modest 6% recovery in SpaceX stock would restore his 13-figure status, Musk may simply become the world’s first recurring trillionaire.
By BBC News
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