The fortune of Elon Musk It seems to have no roof. This Friday, the technology magnate will become the first person in history to enter the billionaires club after the IPO of SpaceXthe aerospace company founded in 2002 by the also owner of Teslala red social X o Neuralink. And, according to the list of billionaires in real time of Forbescould be the only member of that club for a while, since the number 2 of the top ten of ultra-rich is very far from amassing a heritage of a million million: it is about Larry Pageco-founder of Google and Alphabet, with a fortuna of ‘only’ 290,000 million dollars.
The most important part of the controversial businessman’s wealth currently comes from his stake in SpaceX, valued at about $866 billion. Added to his shares in Tesla and the rest of his properties, his net worth will exceed $1.1 trillion, according to an estimate by The Washington Post based on SpaceX projections, which goes public today. However, to become the first billionaire in history, its shares will have to revalue when trading begins, he clarifies. Forbes.
Musk’s new milestone – never seen before – highlights the increasingly greater inequality in the world. A report of Oxfam International estimates that the assets accumulated by what was one of the closest allies of Donald Trump at the beginning of his second term is equivalent to that of the 46% of the world’s poorest populationsome 3.8 billion people. And, according to the analysis of The Great Continentexceeds the GDP annual from 172 countries. To reach that exorbitant figure, an average-income American would have to work 11 million years.
To reach Musk’s fortune, a middle-income American would have to work 11 million years
“Advance of the power of the oligarchs”
“The fact that Elon Musk’s fortune exceeds one trillion dollars marks an unprecedented milestone in the advance of oligarchic power and a dark day for the democracy“says Susana Ruiz, head of Tax Justice at Oxfam, in a statement where she also highlights that this “extreme concentration of wealth” is the result of “an era of regressive public policy decisions” with “rules designed by a minority to multiply their own fortunes and widely endorsed by political leaders.”
To help understand the magnitude of the figures, the international cooperation organization proposes several scenarios: to earn a trillion dollars, Musk would need to spend a million dollars a day for 2,740 years; In addition, you could donate $100 to every inhabitant of the planet and you would still be among the 10 richest people in the world; and only by paying 10% taxes (the average personal income tax rate in Spain is 16%) on your total fortune, enough money would be raised to end the extreme poverty in the world for a year.
Elon Musk, with his son XAE A 12, and Donald Trump, in the Oval Office, in February 2025. / JIM WATSON
Trump Help
In his analysis, Intermón highlights the aid that Musk has obtained from the Government of USA after being, with more than 250 million dollars, one of the main financiers of Trump’s electoral campaign to return to the White House. One fifth of the income of SpaceX, for example, are due to the contracts signed with the federal governmentsome of them during the time that the owner of X was in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGEfor its acronym in English), where he dismantled development aid programs and laid off tens of thousands of public employees, according to an investigation by The New York Times. In addition, the aerospace company has also benefited from tax advantages approved by the Trump Administration and its predecessors.
But SpaceX’s market launch, the largest in history, will also line the pockets of other prominent investors, many of them in the Persian Gulf. It is the case of the prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabiawhose 0.63% stake in the company could be worth about $10.6 billion. That’s not counting its indirect participation through the Saudi firm Kingdom Holding. His net worth has already reached its highest level in a decade, according to Bloomberg.
That Elon Musk’s fortune exceeds one trillion dollars marks an unprecedented milestone in the advance of oligarchic power and a dark day for democracy
However, Alwaleed is not the only Gulf investor who will benefit. And the fact is that highly relevant sovereign funds in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates “have been expanding their presence in Elon Musk’s technological empire for years”, both in SpaceX and in xAI, his artificial intelligence firm, he points out. Wired. That participation, experts warn, goes beyond money and seeks to reinforce the alliance between the petromonarchies of the Gulf and the US.
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