For most of human history, wealth was measured in land, armies, ships, palaces, mines, and monarchies. Then capitalism produced a new kind of financial creature: the millionaire.
The word itself did not even exist until the 18th century, when the French term “millionnaire” emerged during the speculative madness surrounding John Law’s Mississippi Company bubble. Suddenly, there were people whose fortunes were not merely large, but numerically shocking. Seven digits became a symbol of unimaginable financial power.
The first documented millionaire is generally considered to be Jacob Fugger, the German merchant and banker who dominated European finance, mining, and trade in the late 1400s and early 1500s. Fugger helped bankroll emperors and kings, controlled vast mining interests, and built a fortune so large that his ledgers are widely regarded as the first in recorded history to show a seven-digit net worth.
America’s first millionaire was John Jacob Astor. After arriving in the United States in the 1780s, Astor built a fortune through fur trading, international commerce, and Manhattan real estate. By the early 1810s, he had reportedly crossed the $1 million threshold. When he died in 1848, his estate was worth roughly $20 million. Adjusted for inflation and measured against the size of the American economy at the time, Astor’s fortune was the same as roughly $260 billion in modern terms.
A century later came the world’s first billionaire: John D. Rockefeller.
Rockefeller’s fortune was built on Standard Oil, the monopoly that dominated the American oil industry so completely that the government eventually forced it to break apart. Ironically, that breakup made Rockefeller even richer. His holdings were split across 34 successor companies, many of which surged in value. By 1916, newspapers across the country reported that Rockefeller had crossed the $1 billion mark, a number so large that it almost sounded fictional. By the time Rockefeller died in 1937, he had already given away over $500 million to philanthropic causes. Despite this massive reduction in his capital, his net worth was still $1.4 billion. It’s difficult to accurately estimate the modern equivalent of Rockefeller’s net worth, but most historians generally use $350 billion on the low end and $650 billion on the high end. Using the low end of the range, Rockefeller held the record as the richest person in history for more than 80 years. He lost the title in November 2021 to… Elon Musk.
First came the millionaire. Then came the billionaire. Now, more than a century after Rockefeller crossed that once-unthinkable threshold, Elon Musk appears to be closing in on the next one.
The world’s first trillionaire.
And the company that may get him there is not Tesla. It is SpaceX. Musk’s rocket and satellite internet company is reportedly preparing for what could be the largest IPO in history. Recent reporting has indicated that SpaceX is targeting a valuation of at least $1.75 trillion, with some reports pointing to a possible valuation north of $2 trillion. If SpaceX goes public anywhere near the high end of those estimates, Elon Musk’s personal net worth would almost certainly cross the $1 trillion mark.
(Photo by Antonio Masiello/Getty Images)
The Biggest IPO In History
SpaceX is shooting for an initial public offering in mid-June. According to Wall Street whispering, the company is aiming to go public at a $1.75 trillion valuation. And frothy rumors claim the valuation actually could land as high as $2 trillion.
SpaceX is targeting a raise of as much as $75 billion in the offering. That would more than double Saudi Aramco’s $29 billion IPO from 2019, which currently stands as the largest public offering in history.
At a $1.75 trillion valuation, SpaceX would instantly become one of the most valuable companies on Earth. At $2 trillion, it would be valued in the same broad neighborhood as the largest technology giants in the world.
The Trillionaire Math
Earlier this year, SpaceX combined with Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI in a deal that valued the combined company at roughly $1.25 trillion. The IPO target would represent a major jump from that already-staggering private valuation.
Musk is believed to own roughly 40% to 43% of SpaceX. For the sake of easy math, let’s use 43%.
At a $1.25 trillion valuation, Musk’s 43% stake is worth:
$1.25 trillion x 43% = $537.5 billion
At a $1.75 trillion IPO valuation, that same stake would be worth:
$1.75 trillion x 43% = $752.5 billion
At a $2 trillion valuation, the math becomes truly absurd:
$2 trillion x 43% = $860 billion
CelebrityNetWorth currently pegs Musk’s net worth at $800 billion. FYI, Forbes says $808 billion. Bloomberg says $680 billion.
Let’s just use CNW’s number. If you set his SpaceX equity aside, we can pretty safely estimate his other assets (primarily Tesla) are worth around $260 billion combined. If you subtract $260 billion from $800 billion, you get $540 billion. In other words, we currently peg the value of his SpaceX stake at $540 billion. That lines up exactly with the math above.
So, following CNW’s numbers, if Tesla stays flat and SpaceX goes public next month at a market cap of $1.25 trillion, Elon’s net worth won’t actually change from where it is right now. However. If SpaceX goes public at $1.75 trillion, his net worth will be $1,012,500,000,000. If SpaceX goes public at a $2 trillion market cap, Elon’s net worth will be $1,120,000,000,000. AKA $1.12 trillion 🙂
The Trillion-Dollar Frontier
When the opening bell rings on the Nasdaq—currently expected as early as June 12—SpaceX will not just be testing the limits of public market valuation. It will be testing the limits of how we measure human wealth.
For John Jacob Astor, the $1 million mark was a testament to the raw, untamed commerce of a young American nation. For John D. Rockefeller, the $1 billion milestone reflected the monopolistic power of the industrial age. For Elon Musk, the $1 trillion threshold represents something entirely different: the financial consolidation of the future. By packaging rockets, satellite internet, artificial intelligence, and a global social data network under a single ticker symbol, SpaceX is pitching investors on a vertically integrated empire that operates above the atmosphere and beyond the reach of traditional borders.
Whether the public market ultimately supports a $1.75 trillion floor or pushes toward the $2 trillion ceiling, the math points to an inevitable conclusion. Sometime this summer, the financial ledgers will likely record a 13-digit net worth for the first time in human history. The era of the billionaire is drawing to a close. The era of the trillionaire is about to begin.
Let me leave you on this note – When we first started writing articles for CelebrityNetWorth about 16 years ago, I sat down and came up with a handful of categories for each article to be assigned to. One of the main article categories I chose was “Billionaire News.” That’s the category this very article is assigned to. But it just occurred to me that we soon may need to add a new category: “Trillionaire News” 🙂
