First trillionaire: If Musk spends $1mn/day, it will take him 2,740 years to spend all his wealth!

Virendra Pandit

New Delhii: USD 1 trillion is a number so massive that it stretches the limits of human comprehension. Now imagine a man sitting upon this colossal wealth.

If Elon Musk spends USD 1 million (Rs. 9,52,96,150) every day, it would still take him 2,740 years to spend his wealth, which is now estimated to become more than USD 1 trillion on Friday, the media reported, quoting Oxfam, the UK charity.

As a trillionaire, he would be among the wealthiest humans ever, and worth roughly 3 percent of the USA’s GDP, multiple media reports said.

When Elon Musk’s SpaceX debuts on Wall Street on Friday, the controversial but hugely popular technology titan will almost certainly step into the history books as the world’s first trillionaire.

He already holds the crown of the world’s wealthiest man–worth roughly USD 696 billion before his space enterprise SpaceX announced its record-breaking initial public offering (IPO) on Thursday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.

But his 42 percent stake in the rocket-cum-AI company will take him into uncharted territory.

SpaceX will begin trading at a valuation of USD 1.77 trillion when it debuts on the Nasdaq stock exchange, selling 555.6 million shares at USD 135 each.

If all goes well, Musk, who also leads electric car maker Tesla, will officially cement his trillionaire status before markets close on Friday.

The SpaceX IPO

His SpaceX IPO is seen as propelling Elon Musk to world’s first trillionaire status. SpaceX, the satellite and AI company that together with electric-car maker Tesla form the center of Musk’s empire, raised a record USD 75 billion in its IPO public on Thursday.

Musk became a household name through Tesla and SpaceX before expanding his influence with the USD 44-billion acquisition of social media platform Twitter in 2022. The deal gave him a direct channel to hundreds of millions of users and made him a prominent voice on issues ranging from politics and immigration to government spending and free speech.

Few business leaders have been as deeply embedded in popular culture as Elon Musk, the ambitious entrepreneur who has become a central figure in internet culture and amassed a fortune that is making him the world’s first trillionaire.

While his millions of admirers view Musk’s no-filter style as part of his appeal, critics have accused him of wielding oligarch-like power, raised concerns about governance at his companies and objected to his increasingly partisan political interventions.

Still, SpaceX raised a record USD 75 billion on Thursday, highlighting investor enthusiasm for his business ventures. Prior to the share sale,Forbes pegged his net worth at roughly USD 780 billion, far ahead of the man next in line, Alphabet co-founder Larry Page.

“The second richest person has been hovering around USD 300 billion, so about less than one-third of what Musk can potentially be worth tomorrow,” said Matt Durot, deputy editor at Forbes Wealth. “And only one other person, (Oracle founder) Larry Ellison, has ever been worth USD 400 billion.”

Most of Musk’s wealth now rests with SpaceX, where he holds a stake worth roughly USD 866 billion. Along with Tesla and the rest of his properties, his net worth will exceed USD 1.1 trillion when the stock begins trading Friday.

His brief, 2025 move into politics, particularly his role in US President Donald Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), has been among his most contentious ventures. The political fallout coincided with weakening Tesla sales in several international markets in 2025 as protests and consumer boycotts targeted the electric vehicle maker.

Musk, 54, was born in Pretoria, South Africa, to a Canadian mother and South African father. He attended the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1997.

He took over as Tesla’s CEO in 2008 with the conviction that electric vehicles could combine high performance with software-driven features, helping redefine the global automotive industry. Some auto-industry watchers say Tesla’s success – and its trillion-dollar-plus market cap – helped produce traditional automakers to pivot to electric cars.

Many investors are betting he can repeat the feat in space and artificial intelligence. Yet SpaceX remains cash-hungry, and much of the company’s valuation rests on technologies that may take years or decades to become commercially viable.

Beyond Tesla and SpaceX, Musk has co-founded five other companies, including tunneling startup The Boring Company and brain implant maker Neuralink.

As CEO of Tesla, Musk has courted controversy and praise in equal measure. He is credited with turning Tesla into the world’s most valuable automaker.

‌Tesla has also faced legal challenges and shareholder concerns tied to its storied CEO, particularly his 2018 pay package, once worth USD 56 billion.

Over the years, Musk has turned clashes with regulators, billionaires, short sellers, journalists and media organizations into recurring public battles that often unfolded on social media. His alliance with Trump followed a familiar pattern. After helping bankroll Trump’s return to the White House and serving in a senior advisory role through the administration’s DOGE initiative, Musk became one of the President’s closest corporate allies.

Their relationship later fractured amid disagreements over policy and spending, spilling into a public feud. Though the two have since struck a more conciliatory tone, their falling-out highlighted the increasingly blurred lines between Musk’s business empire and political ambitions.

Yet for many investors, concerns about Musk’s often unconventional behavior are outweighed by his track record of turning ambitious ideas into some of the world’s most valuable companies.