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In the span of just three days, SpaceX founder Elon Musk ascended to trillionaire status before crashing out of the club in a billion-dollar downturn. And while he remains the richest person in the world by a $600-billion longshot, the entrepreneur says his wealth is always at the whim of his companies\u2019 success.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrillionaire represents some percentage ownership in companies that I built, and it\u2019s not sitting in a bank account,\u201d Musk said in an interview with entrepreneur Peter Diamandis earlier this year, about\u00a0three months before he first became a trillionaire following\u00a0 SpaceX\u2019s IPO in June.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Musk\u2019s net worth started to fall from its recent high of $1.05 trillion on Tuesday, dropping down to $987 billion on Thursday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. <\/p>\n
His aerospace company\u2019s shares were down 3.5% and trading under $162 yesterday, just as his EV car business Tesla was also down over 2%. Forbes estimates that Musk lost $21 billion Wednesday morning when SpaceX shares fell following a report that the company plans to raise $40 billion to buy Nvidia chips. The strategy could have impacted shares due to potential concerns about the company\u2019s spending needs and debt load, even as it invests heavily in AI infrastructure.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a steep $63 billion loss after he regained his trillionaire status this Monday; SpaceX shares rose nearly 8% at the start of the week, as Morgan Stanley analysts even called the stock \u201ccheap\u201d at the day\u2019s prices. And as Musk owns around 4.76 billion shares of SpaceX\u2014including another 1.3 billion shares of unvested restricted stock\u2014his net worth shot up from $976.9 billion to $1.04 trillion afterward.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Very few people\u2014if any others at all\u2014will ever reach a 13-figure net worth in their lifetimes. But the jaw-dropping number isn\u2019t actually what it seems, Musk has said. And in 10 years, he\u2019s predicted his fortune may mean nothing at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI own a percentage of the companies. The companies are doing lots of useful things, the value of the company grows,\u201d the tech entrepreneur continued. \u201cI own a percentage of the companies, and that sums up to that number, which seems high.\u201d<\/p>\n
Musk and other billionaire fortunes are at the whim of the stock market<\/p>\n
Musk is just one of the world\u2019s richest entrepreneurs who have watched their net worths dramatically rise and fall with the motions of the stock market.<\/p>\n
Oracle founder Larry Ellison dethroned Musk as the richest person in the world briefly last year after his company\u2019s breakout earnings report sent shares soaring by 36%. The now-82-year-old entrepreneur, who owns 40% of Oracle, experienced an eye-watering $101 billion wealth surge. But Ellison\u2019s net worth fell by an estimated $34 billion just two days following Oracle\u2019s stock surge, while Musk enjoyed a $35 billion gain, putting him back on top.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And on the flipside, Michael Dell, who owns 40% of his namesake tech company, gained around $122 billion between September of this year and the same time in 2025\u2014nearly doubling his wealth within the span of that year. Larry Page\u2019s net worth had grown $16.3 billion in the same period, while Jeff Bezos watched his wealth surge $24.5 billion.<\/p>\n
But despite the massive wealth surge, Ray Dalio, the billionaire founder of Bridgewater Associates, has also echoed Musk in arguing that paper wealth and spendable money are two different things. Rising asset values can make people wealthier on paper, but they must sell those assets to turn that wealth into money they can actually spend.<\/p>\n
\u201cWealth is not the same as money,\u201d Dalio said on Steven Bartlett\u2019s The Diary of a CEO podcast earlier this year. \u201cYou see a lot of people getting wealthy but you can\u2019t spend the wealth. You have to sell the wealth to get money because you can only spend money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Musk says money won\u2019t matter in the next decade anyway<\/p>\n
As billionaires\u2019 fortunes balloon while many workers struggle to keep up with their paychecks, Musk, the richest person on earth\u2014and occasionally, the only trillionaire\u2014believes that monetary wealth will be less meaningful thanks to gains from AI.<\/p>\n
In response to how companies would earn returns in the era of AI, Musk told The Economist that \u201cMoney won\u2019t matter in 2036.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The reason, he said, is that AI would take over so much human work that jobs will be voluntary, and cash itself would become irrelevant. Back in 2024, Musk also proposed the idea of \u201cuniversal high income\u201d to distribute money in a non-working world. The 55-year-old entrepreneur took inspiration from Iain M. Banks\u2019 Culture sci-fi novels, which feature a world filled with intelligent robotic beings and no traditional jobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn those books, money doesn\u2019t exist. It\u2019s kind of interesting,\u201d Musk said in an episode of the Moonshots with Peter Diamandis podcast earlier this year. \u201cAnd my guess is, if you go out long enough\u2014assuming there\u2019s a continued improvement in AI and robotics, which seems likely\u2014money will stop being relevant.\u201d<\/p>\n
#Elon #Musk #lost #trillionaire #statusbut #sitting #bank #account<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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