Elon Musk becomes a trillionaire again as SpaceX shares hit highest since June

NEW YORK, Oct 6 – Elon Musk's net worth rose back above $1 trillion on Monday as shares of SpaceX and Tesla climbed, making him a trillionaire for the first time in about three months. His fortune rose by $65 billion to $1.04 trillion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

SpaceX stock rose 7.63% to $171.09, its highest level since mid-June. Bloomberg said SpaceX shares had risen 13% since the start of October, while Tesla shares had gained 6.7%. Together, Musk's SpaceX and Tesla holdings account for more than 98% of his net worth, Bloomberg said.

Forbes put Musk's net worth at about $1 trillion on Monday morning, up $30.6 billion from Friday's close, and said he is more than $628 billion ahead of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the next richest person, at $371.5 billion.

Musk first became a trillionaire in June, when SpaceX listed on the Nasdaq on June 12. Bloomberg put his fortune at $1.11 trillion that day. The listing valued SpaceX at more than $1.77 trillion at the IPO price, and Musk owned about 42% of the company. SpaceX shares later reached a high of $225.64 on June 16, lifting his net worth to about $1.32 trillion, according to Bloomberg figures reported by Fox Business.

The gain did not last. Musk fell below $1 trillion within two weeks as a technology sell-off hit SpaceX and Tesla, with Bloomberg valuing him at $946 billion on a Wednesday in late June. By late July, he had lost more than $600 billion from his peak, a fall larger than the entire net worth of any other person in Bloomberg's top 500, apart from Musk himself.

Several developments supported the recent recovery. Forbes said SpaceX's first successful orbital flight of its Starship rocket last week gave the stock a lift, and that Morgan Stanley analysts had flagged the shares as undervalued. Tesla's third-quarter vehicle deliveries beat analyst expectations on Friday, adding $61 billion to Musk's net worth that day, according to Forbes.

SpaceX also includes xAI, Musk's artificial-intelligence company, which was merged into it. Bloomberg's profile of Musk notes the company went public at a $1.8 trillion valuation.

Musk, who was born in Pretoria, South Africa, remains the richest person on both the Bloomberg and Forbes real-time lists. His wealth is highly sensitive to share prices: Bloomberg and Forbes calculate it from market values, so another fall in SpaceX or Tesla could take him back below the $1 trillion mark.