What a trillion dollars means: Inside the scale and risks of Musk’s fortune

PARIS June 13 — As SpaceX completed the biggest initial public offering in history, controversial entrepreneur Elon Musk saw his wealth blow past the symbolic – and unprecedented – level of a trillion dollars.

Following strong demand for shares in the space technology as part of the IPO, they jumped more than 20 per cent when they began trading on the Nasdaq Friday.

That lifted the estimated wealth of the South Africa-born Musk, 54, to above US$1 trillion (RM4.05 trillion) , according to Bloomberg and CNBC.

That takes him into an uncharted zone of the mega-wealth stratosphere, leaving Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as well as Amazon creator Jeff Bezos trailing in his wake, according to data from Forbes and Bloomberg.

But what could a discerning unfathomably rich investor actually do with a cool trillion at his disposal?

That’s around the wealth produced over a year by entire countries, such as Switzerland or Poland (US$1,040 billion GDP in 2025, according to the International Monetary Fund).

Or, if you prefer, see it in terms of totalling three times the current value of France’s gold reserves.

Yet Musk’s wealth is considerably different to that afforded by precious metal, a tangible asset with safe-haven status owing to its reputation for stability.

Musk’s wealth mostly derives from his stock portfolio, the value of which fluctuates and can be decidedly volatile.

“If Elon Musk wanted to sell off a huge chunk of his shares to buy real estate or whatever, the stock price would drop hugely,” warned Alexandre Baradez, head of market analysis for investment company IG France.

That would mechanically see his total wealth follow the same trend.

“There’s the law of supply and demand,” Baradez said.

“But there’s also, and maybe even more importantly, the psychological effect: a massive sale of Elon Musk’s shares, given the strong influence he has on his companies’ strategies, would send a very strong signal to the market.”

Other investors would likely follow suit, which would further decrease the stock’s value, and ultimately, the fortune of a man who would revert from being a trillionaire to merely a multi-multi-billionaire. — AFP