Elon Musk became the world's first trillionaire, but his companies received crucial government support when they needed it most.
SpaceX got more than $500 million in early grants from NASA when it was nearly out of cash.
Tesla received a $465 million federal loan and billions more from regulatory credit sales that kept the company afloat.
AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.
Elon Musk has many people to thank for becoming the world’s first trillionaire — his companies’ engineers who produced technological breakthroughs, Wall Street investors who were eager to shower him with their dollars despite questionable financials, but most of all, American taxpayers and government policymakers.
