Elon Musk is already the richest person on the planet, but he may be about to enter a league of his own.

With SpaceX completing its record-breaking $75 billion initial public offering at a valuation of $1.77 trillion, Musk’s stake in the company has surged in value. Depending on how the stock trades after its Nasdaq debut on Friday, the Tesla CEO could become the world’s first trillionaire on paper, a feat no individual has ever achieved before.

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However, despite having a fortune worth hundreds of billions of dollars, he still draws a salary of only $54,080 a year from SpaceX. That amount has remained unchanged since 2019. 

How Musk could cross the $1 trillion mark 

While many chief executives receive multi-million-dollar salaries and bonuses, Musk’s compensation at SpaceX looks modest on paper. According to company filings and reports, he receives an annual base salary of $54,080. Similar to the symbolic $1 salary he once took at Tesla.

The real source of Musk’s wealth comes from the shares he owns in the companies he has built. At SpaceX, his rewards are tied to long-term goals rather than yearly salaries. If those goals are achieved, the value of his equity awards could eventually reach hundreds of billions, and potentially even trillions, of dollars. 

Musk currently owns about $273 billion worth of Tesla stock and options. But the real game changer is SpaceX. The rocket, satellite internet and artificial intelligence company has now priced its IPO at $135 a share, giving it a valuation of about $1.77 trillion.

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When combined with his Tesla holdings, Musk’s total wealth could reach roughly $1.11 trillion.

Still, it’s important to note that this is not money sitting in a bank account. Most of Musk’s fortune exists on paper and depends on how investors continue to value Tesla and SpaceX in the future.

Just how much is a Trillion dollars? 

One trillion dollars equals one million million dollars. Even spending that money would be nearly impossible in a single lifetime. If someone spent $1 million every hour, every day, without stopping, it would still take more than 100 years to burn through $1 trillion.

To understand how enormous that figure is, it helps to compare it with things around the world that are worth less than Musk’s projected fortune. 

According to data from the International Monetary Fund, only 20 countries in the world have economies larger than $1.1 trillion.  That means Musk’s wealth could exceed the entire economic output of most nations on Earth.

Some examples include:

  • Taiwan, with an economy worth about $977 billion
  • Ireland, worth around $779 billion
  • Sweden, worth about $760 billion
  • Singapore, at roughly $660 billion
  • South Africa, Musk’s birth country, with an economy of about $480 billion

Even, Manhattan, home to Wall Street and many of America’s largest corporations, generated just over $1 trillion in economic output in 2024, according to the latest available Federal Reserve data. 

Musk could be worth more than other tech titans combined

Musk already sits at the top of the global rich list, but the gap may soon become even wider.

The combined fortunes of four other tech giants, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, are estimated at about $1.09 trillion.

That total would still be slightly below Musk’s projected $1.11 trillion fortune after the SpaceX IPO. Like Musk, all four built their wealth largely through shares in the companies they founded.

All eyes on June 12

As of June 11, Musk’s fortune is estimated at around $780 billion to $830 billion. SpaceX is expected to make its stock market debut on June 12 through an initial public offering, or IPO.

However, there is no guarantee that Musk will remain a trillionaire once SpaceX achieves its target. If SpaceX debuts below expectations or if investors later sell off the stock, the value of Musk’s stake could fall sharply. 

For example, a 10% drop in the value of a company worth $1.8 trillion would wipe out about $180 billion in market value. Since Musk owns a large portion of the company, even relatively small swings in the share price could add or erase tens of billions of dollars from his personal fortune in a matter of days.