Before this deal, Musk owned approximately 42% of SpaceX shares, which were valued at $336 billion at that time. According to a tender offer published in December, the company's value was set at $800 billion. He also controlled about 49% of xAI shares, which were valued at $122 billion, according to a recent funding round that estimated the company at $250 billion earlier this month. After the merger, SpaceX was valued at $1 trillion, and xAI at $250 billion. Forbes reports that Musk now owns 43% of the combined company's shares, worth $542 billion.
Thus, SpaceX is Musk's primary asset. He also owns 12% of Tesla shares, valued at $178 billion, as well as stock options for this company worth another $124 billion. This does not include the record compensation package that Tesla shareholders approved in November, which could bring Musk up to $1 trillion in additional shares (after taxes and the cost of unlocking restricted shares) if Tesla achieves ambitious targets, including increasing its market capitalization more than eightfold over the next ten years.
This is Musk's second merger of companies in less than a year. In March of last year, he merged his company xAI with the social network X (formerly known as Twitter), which valued xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion, almost matching the amount Musk paid for Twitter in 2022 excluding debt. Questions about the accuracy of the valuations given to him in these deals have become relevant, but considering that all companies are now part of SpaceX, which plans to go public this year, they will be under close scrutiny from the public market.
Over the past four months, Musk has crossed several significant financial milestones. In October, he became the first person with a net worth of $500 billion when Tesla shares surged after his departure from the Department of Efficiency of Government Administration (DOGE) under President Trump to focus on the electric vehicle company. On December 15, he became the first to reach a net worth of $600 billion after private investors valued SpaceX at $800 billion, compared to $400 billion in August. Four days later, he reached $700 billion for the first time in history when the Delaware Supreme Court reinstated his Tesla stock options, which had been canceled by a lower court in 2024.
As of now, Musk's net worth stands at a record $578 billion, significantly exceeding the net worth of the second richest person in the world, Google co-founder Larry Page, estimated at $281 billion. This brings Musk closer to the status of the world's first trillionaire, leaving him just about half a billion dollars away from that mark.
