Elon Musk pictured at SpaceX in Brownsville, Texas.
Marvin Joseph The Washington Post | Getty Images
The richest man in the world is on the verge of becoming a billionaire.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk holds a stake in his reusable rocket maker worth $866.5 billion on paper, according to an updated IPO filing published Wednesday. SpaceX said it plans to price its upcoming IPO at $135 a share, valuing it at about $1.77 trillion.
For the 54-year-old Musk, the SpaceX donation, expected next week, comes 16 years after he took it. Tesla the community. He now owns about $355 billion in electric vehicle assets, and has options that could add more than $100 billion to that value.
Musk’s voting control of SpaceX after the offering will be north of 82%, according to Wednesday’s filing. However, he must hold on to all his shares throughout the year.
“We believe that Mr. Musk’s significant ownership interest in us provides him with an economic incentive to help us succeed,” SpaceX said in the risk factors section of the prospectus. After the 366-day closing, “Mr. Musk will not be under any obligation to retain his ownership interest in us and may choose at any time thereafter to sell all or a substantial portion of or reduce his ownership interest in us,” the filing said.
Musk’s net worth has been growing steadily for more than a decade, while Tesla’s stock began to rise significantly in 2013. He first became the richest person in the world in 2021, and passed. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. But Tesla’s stock fell 65% in 2022, before rallying again in subsequent years.
Forbes currently lists Musk’s net worth at $826 billion, more Google founder Larry Page, who sits in second place at just under $300 billion.
Assuming SpaceX hits the Nasdaq next week with its expected valuation, Musk will oversee two of America’s eight most valuable companies. SpaceX will be ahead of Tesla again Meta among trillion-dollar words.
But by revenue, SpaceX is much smaller than those megacaps. Last year, SpaceX generated sales of $18.67 billion. The Meta, on the other hand, posted $200 billion in revenue, while Tesla recorded nearly $95 billion in sales.
Some investors have speculated of late that Musk’s ultimate plan could be to merge SpaceX with Tesla as a way to combine artificial intelligence services and facilitate future capital raising. You have profitable economic incentives for each company including distant benchmarks.
SpaceX linked Musk’s compensation rewards to two key milestones: achieving a $7.5 trillion market cap and colonizing Mars with at least one million inhabitants. Meanwhile, Tesla shareholders approved a pay plan late last year that consists of 12 components, each payment tied to market profit and operational achievements.
— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.
WATCH: SpaceX is looking at an IPO price of $135 per share
