Elon Musk Tops $1.11tn as Ftse 100 Index Watches SpaceX
Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire on Friday, with his fortune estimated at about $1.11tn after SpaceX’s record-breaking stock market debut. The ftse 100 index is not moving this story, but it is the kind of benchmark that shows how concentrated wealth has become in a handful of listed names.
Musk’s net worth is built mainly on stock holdings, not cash, and that leaves it tied to daily moves in Tesla and SpaceX valuations. For investors, that means the headline number can change fast if either company’s market value shifts.
SpaceX adds $2tn value
SpaceX is now worth more than $2tn, while Musk owns a 42% stake in the company. That holding, alongside his 12% stake in Tesla, is the main reason his wealth now sits at a scale once reserved for the top end of sovereign balance sheets rather than a single individual.
Less than 0.1% of Musk’s net worth was held in cash, he said on X in February. Many of his shares have also been pledged as collateral against personal loans, which leaves the paper value of his holdings doing most of the work behind the number.
Tesla still drives the total
Tesla’s market valuation is around $1.5tn, and Musk’s stake in it remains central to his fortune. The stock’s direction has already helped push his wealth through several sharp turns, so the new trillion-dollar mark rests on prices that can move far more quickly than cash can.
In January 2020, Musk was the 35th richest person in the world with a fortune of around $28bn. By January 2021, he had become the world’s richest person, briefly overtaking Jeff Bezos, before his fortune dipped in 2022 amid a downturn in US tech stocks.
The swing from 2020 to 2025
In early 2025, Musk’s fortune fell sharply again as investor concerns over his role in the Trump administration coincided with a slump in Tesla’s share price. That drop made the latest jump more striking, because the same stock-linked structure that cut his wealth also powered the rise back above $1tn.
Back in 2015, only two of the world’s top 10 richest people were from the tech world; now seven of the top 10 are from tech, and the entire top six are from the sector. That shift leaves Musk, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Jeff Bezos, Bernard Arnault and Mark Zuckerberg inside a much more technology-heavy elite than a decade ago.
For readers tracking the wealth of the world’s richest names, the practical point is simple: Musk’s total is being driven by two companies, little cash and market prices that can reverse quickly. If Tesla or SpaceX weakens, the trillion-dollar label moves with them.
