SpaceX’s long-awaited stock market debut is here, and investor demand is sky-high.Elon Musk’s rocket company finalized its IPO price at $135 per share with an implied market cap of $1.8 trillion—a record debut—and demand is reportedly oversubscribed more than four times over. Retail traders have submitted orders for more than $100 billion in shares of the firm, Bloomberg reported.Still, not everyone is convinced of the company’s value. Morningstar analysts recently projected SpaceX to trade at $63 per share, with Chief Equity Strategist Michael Field calling the valuation “extremely speculative.” This is a published version of the Forbes Daily newsletter, you can sign-up to get Forbes Daily in your inbox here. First UpPresident Donald Trump canceled strikes on Iran Thursday, claiming Iranian leaders have approved a peace deal to be signed “shortly,” but Tehran has reportedly not yet decided.In a bid to compete with rival Anthropic, OpenAI is considering slashing its prices on AI tools as both companies expect to go public later this year.Wealth + EntrepreneurshipOracle cofounder Larry Ellison (left), SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell and Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud of Saudi Arabia are all winners from the IPO.Jamel Toppin for Forbes; Joe Raedle/Getty Images; Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesElon Musk is on the verge of becoming a trillionaire thanks to SpaceX’s record-breaking IPO price: Forbes now estimates he’s worth $982 billion. Musk isn’t the only person whose fortune soared: Others include a Saudi prince, Twitter’s cofounder and several SpaceX board members and executives, including the company’s longtime chief financial officer Bret Johnsen, who is now a billionaire. Tech + Innovation Iran added Elon Musk’s Middle East assets to a list of military targets, according to state media, including Starlink and X operations in Arab countries and Israel. SpaceX has become an increasingly important contractor for the U.S. military—the government recently awarded the company a contract worth $2.29 billion.As Anthropic prepares for its own IPO, its chatbot Claude saw worldwide traffic surge nearly 16% in May. Meanwhile, OpenAI’s ChatGPT is losing ground, falling from 76.4% of all AI chatbot web visits last year to just 52.7% market share as of May.Sports + EntertainmentKylian Mbappe of France celebrates with the World Cup trophy following the 2018 FIFA World Cup Final.Matthias Hangst/Getty ImagesThe FIFA World Cup is being played in three different countries and 16 cities, and it also presents cross-border tax issues: income connected to a certain match could be sourced to the place where it was played. The U.S. does have income tax treaties with around 65 countries, but treaty coverage is uneven, and state and local taxes can add even more layers of complexity.With lackluster demand for hotel bookings, the U.S. would need a last-minute surge of visitors for the World Cup to deliver its promised economic boost. But it’s easier for Europeans to book a late trip to the U.S. due to visa rules, and supporters often wait to see whether their national team advances before committing to travel.DAILY COVER STORYFrom Rockefeller To Musk: The Wealth Boom That’s Leading To The First TrillionaireIllustration by Macy Sinreich for Forbes; Images by Lauren Nicole/Getty Images; BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI /Getty ImagesThe world could gain its first ever trillionaire as Elon Musk takes his rocket and satellite company SpaceX public today in the biggest IPO in history. But the making of the world’s first trillionaire, if sudden—Musk was worth less than $25 billion just six years ago and $150 billion five years ago—has always been inevitable.It took more than a century for the U.S. to go from its first millionaire to its first billionaire. But by 1918, John D. Rockefeller had achieved the feat, having amassed a fortune of $1.2 billion (roughly $29 billion in today’s dollars). Henry Ford soon followed Rockefeller, yet for much of the 20th century, as corporate America developed but taxes on the wealthy remained high, billionaires were few and far between. By 1987, when Forbes published the first World’s Billionaires list, we found 140 ten-figure fortunes around the globe worth $295 billion combined, including more than 40 Americans. The billionaire population doubled to 291 within five years, then stretched to nearly 500 as the dot-com bubble inflated fortunes in the late 1990s. It’s not just Musk—billionaires everywhere are smashing records. There are now a record 3,400-plus billionaires worldwide, up 50% from a decade ago. They’re worth $20 trillion combined, up from $7.7 trillion in 2017. A record 19 people are now worth $100 billion or more, each of them at least three times richer than Rockefeller was in 1918, even after adjusting for inflation. WHY IT MATTERS “Viewed in the context of America's long tradition of creating great fortunes, Musk’s rise to riches never seen before is both remarkable—and inevitable,” says Forbes Assistant Managing Editor Chase Peterson-Withorn. “In an era of millionaires, John D. Rockefeller became a billionaire. In an era of billionaires, Musk is poised to become a trillionaire. But, as Forbes has chronicled over a century of wealth generation, if Musk does break the 13-digit barrier, he may be the first but won't be the last.”MORE Forbes World’s Billionaires List: The Top 200FACTS + COMMENTSThe Canadian travel boycott of the U.S. could be easing, as the number of Canadians who visited the U.S. in May increased year-over-year for the second consecutive month. Still, visitation from the country was down from two years ago:9.5%: The increase in Canadians traveling to the U.S. last month compared to the previous year, according to new data from Statistics CanadaAround a quarter: The share of all foreign visitors to the U.S. that Canadians have historically comprised$4.5 billion: The cost of last year’s drop in Canadian visitation STRATEGY + SUCCESSSome of the most common career advice is no longer relevant or just flat-out wrong. For instance, hard work doesn’t always speak for itself—it’s important to make your contributions visible. And loyalty doesn’t guarantee job security, but constantly adapting yourself to new technology and trends can help ensure that your role remains valuable.VIDEOQUIZThe New York Knicks pulled off a historic comeback from 29 points behind against the San Antonio Spurs in Game 4 of the NBA Finals this week. What was the previous NBA Finals comeback point record?A. 17 pointsB. 20 pointsC. 24 pointsD. 26 pointsCheck your answer.Thanks for reading! This edition of Forbes Daily was edited by Sarah Whitmire and Chris Dobstaff.
Forbes Daily: Elon Musk Is On The Verge Of Becoming A Trillionaire
Today’s Forbes Daily covers the long-awaited SpaceX IPO, OpenAI considers price cuts, Claude traffic surges, World Cup tax issues, Trump cancels Iran strikes and more.













