Trillionaire one day, billionaire the next: SpaceX sell-off wipes $240 billion from Elon Musk’s fortune
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Less than two weeks after becoming the world’s first trillionaire, Elon Musk is back in billionaire territory.
The sharp correction in SpaceX shares has slashed Musk’s net worth to about $957 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, after his fortune briefly touched $1.32 trillion following the company’s record-breaking Nasdaq debut. Even after the slide, Musk remains comfortably the world’s richest person, with a lead of roughly $660 billion over Alphabet co-founder Larry Page.
SpaceX, which raised $75 billion in the world’s largest initial public offering, priced its shares at $135 and opened trading at $150. Investor enthusiasm quickly drove the stock to an intraday high of $225.64, taking the company’s market capitalisation above $2 trillion and pushing Musk’s fortune past the trillion-dollar milestone.
The rally, however, proved short-lived. On Monday, June 22, SpaceX shares recorded their biggest decline since listing, tumbling 16.4% in a single trading session. The sell-off wiped out around $400 billion in the company’s market value and erased an estimated $240 billion from Musk’s personal fortune in what ranks among the largest single-day wealth losses ever recorded. The stock has since fallen to around $154, leaving it nearly 30% below its peak, though still above its IPO price.
At the same time, SpaceX announced a $60 billion all-stock acquisition of Anysphere, the company behind AI coding assistant Cursor, in one of the largest artificial intelligence deals on record. The transaction expanded SpaceX’s ambitions beyond aerospace and reinforced investor optimism around its AI strategy.
Tech sell-off deepens losses
The correction followed SpaceX’s announcement of a bond offering to refinance bridge loans and fund long-term investments, including its Starship programme and AI infrastructure, although analysts also pointed to the wider weakness across technology stocks.
The decline came amid a broader retreat in technology and artificial intelligence stocks as investors booked profits following weeks of strong gains. The selling spread across the technology sector over the next trading session. The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.21%, while the S&P 500 lost 1.44%. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plunged 7.9%, with Nvidia down 4.1%, Advanced Micro Devices falling 5.8%, Marvell Technology dropping 9.4%, and Micron Technology shedding around 13%. Tesla also declined about 6%, adding to the pressure on Musk’s overall fortune.