He was the world’s first trillionaire. He’s now the world’s first ex-trillionaire.And he may be struggling to pay his bills.Elon Musk has taken bold strides into international politics, pushing his tech bro-branded views to all who want – and don’t want – to hear. He has opinions on everything, from women’s rights to reproductive rates, movie scripts to extraterrestrial influencers … and whether or not we are living inside a cosmic video game.So much so that some fear leading his businesses has become an afterthought.His much-hyped Cybertruck has run flat.His much-hyped Starship is struggling to take off.His much-hyped X social media algorithm is losing its voice.His much-hyped Grok artificial intelligence needs re-education.His much-hyped Doge bitcoin is in a spin.His much-hyped Optimus android is mired in pessimism. His much-hyped Robotaxi is lost somewhere in transit.And his much-hyped political pull over US President Donald Trump and the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement isn’t going all that great either.One thing is doing okay. His Tesla electric vehicle sales have rebounded some 25 per cent from a terrible 2025 thanks to the Hormuz Strait global oil shock. But it still missed investor earnings expectations.Now Musk must pay a $US500 million bill for the 2024 construction of Grok data centres near Memphis.Ohio-based Darana Hybrid has filed $US136 million in creditor liens (property seizure claims) on SpaceX (which has subsumed xAI) in a bid to secure their cash. And more are set to come.“The contractors are alleging they haven’t been paid for years of construction work,” says Memphis Business Journal investigative reporter Dima Amro. “So it looks like more liens are going to be coming to the surface. About $400 million more worth of liens. I was told that that would be filed in Mississippi for the SpaceXAI facilities there.”Move fast, break thingsDatacentres the world over are unpopular. But they’re big business for local governments, contractors – and competitive tech bros.Memphis thought it was in on a winning deal when Musk sought the fast-tracked construction of two ‘Colossus’ data centres in the districts of Boxtown and Whitehaven. Two gas turbines were hurriedly installed to power the beasts.Musk got what he wanted. Fast.But he may have broken things in the process.Nearby residents say they are struggling to breathe from noxious fumes. Then there’s the noise.And local contractors – who put in great effort (and tons of overtime) to meet Musk’s deadlines – are starting to get worried about ever being paid.Memphis Business Journal reports that two more companies, USW-Menard and TorcSill Foundations, have also issued liens for unpaid work totalling $2.2 million. Darana Hybrid says it plans to file several more liens over total outstanding debts of more than $US500 million.Musk may have broken the bank. His much-hyped SpaceX public listing in May sought a $US75 billion cash injection from enthusiastic investors.He promised big things.SpaceX was building “the systems and technologies necessary to make life multiplanetary, to understand the true nature of the universe, and to extend the light of consciousness to the stars,” he promised.His true believers believed.They rushed to snatch up shares, whatever the cost. They hit the market at $US135 apiece. Within a month, prices soared to $225. This made Musk the world’s first trillionaire.The hype soon fizzled out, however.Reality set in. Share prices have tumbled to about $US115.That wiped more than a trillion dollars from Musk’s paper value.He’s still supposed to be worth $US700 billion though. But how much of that is liquid, and not just paper assets, is unclear.His unpaid bills may be the best clue investors have.Selling the dreamMusk says everything is going to plan.Even his ambition to build a city on Mars.“One of the challenges with being a public company is the pressure to have great results every single quarter and not really invest in things that may only pay off in five to 10 years,” he said in a recent interview with The Economist. “We’ll be spending all this money on a moon base or a Mars base … People will say, ‘You missed your earnings this quarter because you spent too much on Mars’. I’m like, ‘Yes’.”Musk blames the media for his spate of misfortunes.“They (the public) hate you far more than they hate me,” he told The Economist.“I think you’re the problem. The media.”He didn’t like being questioned about the disinformation he and his Grok AI chatbot were disseminating about immigration, politics, demographics and economics.So he called the interviewer “a traitor”.But he still used the opportunity to push the product potential of his robot and AI businesses. “At times, I think, well, even if there was a stop button, we probably shouldn’t press it because the most likely outcome is incredible abundance for all. There seems to be inexorable progress in AI and in robots that even if I wanted to stop it, I couldn’t.”Such things may not be in his hands, however.His “apocalypse-proof” Cybertruck has failed to live up to expectations.Not in reliability, performance or sales.Musk proclaimed he would sell 500,000 of the all-electric Sports Utility Vehicles a year. Tesla sold less than 40,000 examples in its first year. About 8000 have been registered so far this year (with an unknown number bought for Musk’s company carpools).Now, analysts are comparing the Cybertruck flop with the greatest American automotive disaster in history: The Ford Edsel. Then there’s Starship.Musk once promised “space-based industries will vastly exceed the value of all of Earth”.His new super rocket was supposed to take humanity to Mars. Then the Moon.Now NASA’s worried its Artemis program will end up grounded. The promise of its potential is what drove his trillion-dollar valuation.But his Starship prototypes have been crashing, burning and exploding. Few have managed to achieve what was expected of them.And that’s sending SpaceX share prices up in smoke.“I know this sounds totally nuts,” Musk told investors during SpaceX’s first public earnings report this week. “We are going to land a lot of tonnage on the Moon. We’re going to build the factories on the Moon. The (Optimus) robots will be helpful with that. “It sounds super sci-fi right now, but it’s going to happen.” SpaceX shares fell a further 8 per cent after this news.Jamie Seidel is a freelance writerRead related topics:Elon Musk