FILE PHOTO: Elon Musk walks on Capitol Hill
| Photo Credit:
Elon Musk, who already enjoys the title of world’s richest person, could soon have one more feather in his cap. The Tesla and SpaceX boss could become the world’s first trillionaire as his space and AI company prepares to go public.Musk, who is the majority owner in SpaceX, will see his wealth soar and could touch the trillion-dollar mark once the shares are available for trading. Musk’s control of SpaceX comes from 85% voting power that he has owing to the supervoting Class B shares that get 10 votes for every one vote held by Class A shares. The rocket maker that has been in existence since 2002 has made bold bets with ambitions ranging from colonising Mars to setting up AI data centres in space.The shares are likely to list next month with Musk having around a month’s time to market the IPO and gather support for the public listing.The IPO is going to be the biggest ever and will surpass Aramco’s 2020 listing which saw the Saudi oil giant raising $29.6 billion.It is not yet clear how much SpaceX would raise from the public but the papers filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed a tough financial picture with losses mounting. The company reported losses of $4.3 billion for the three months ended March.The SpaceX merger with Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI in February made things difficult for the space company because of the massive spending needs of the AI firm on building data centres in a highly competitive market. On the merger, Musk said that the coming together of these companies will create an “innovation engine” putting AI, rockets, space-based internet, and media under one roof.SpaceX also revealed that it has signed a deal with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic which will pay the Musk-owned company $1.25 billion a month for access to its compute data centres. The deal period extends till May 2029.The filing showed that SpaceX would trade on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol SPCX. The IPO would test investor interest in Musk’s vast business interests even as he grapples with mounting challenges at Tesla.Published on May 21, 2026
