Elon Musk is no longer a trillionaire

It’s official. Elon Musk is no longer a trillionaire. But while that’s welcome news for many, he is, in fact, still a billionaire.

Earlier this month, the tech mogul became the first person on the planet to achieve trillionaire status after his company, SpaceX, went public and stocks surged on Wall Street.

This record-breaking stock market debut catapulted his net worth to an estimated $1.11 trillion.

The initial public offering valued the artificial intelligence

At the time, it made his wealth five million times the average American family’s salary.

This staggering figure didn’t last for long, though — literally not even a month — as SpaceX’s stock plummeted this week.

On Tuesday, shares closed around $156, according to Business Insider. This was ‘down more than 30% from an intraday peak of $225 on June 16.’

However, the outlet said it was still higher than when the shares began trading on June 12 at $150.

What is Elon Musk’s net worth now?

While no longer a trillionaire, Elon Musk’s current bank account is still eye-watering.

Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index now puts the total net worth of the world’s richest man at $957 billion.

Elon’s net worth has historically experienced huge fluctuations, though, so this is likely nothing new to him.

Typically, they are characterised by dramatic surges followed by sharp declines.

This is because the majority of his wealth is tied to stock holdings in his companies, including SpaceX.

For example, he is Tesla’s largest individual shareholder and CEO, and holds a significant equity stake in the electric vehicle and AI company.

Tesla is widely considered one of the most volatile large-cap stocks in the market.

Therefore, whenever the stock market becomes volatile, so does his wealth.

What can a trillion dollars buy?

After Elon became a trillionaire, Forbes did some research into what he could actually buy.

They reported that America’s national defense budget is around $1 trillion. While Elon would have no change left, technically, he could fund it.

In the US, federal spending on Medicare, a federal health insurance program, is around the same.

$1 trillion also equates to the GDP of Switzerland or Poland.

In terms of how it compares to other celebrity net worths, Elon was worth 500 times more than Taylor Swift, who is valued at $2 billion, and 100 times more than Dr Dre, whose wealth sits at $1 billion.

Size-wise, a stack of 100 trillion $1 bills could reach from the Earth to the moon and back 14 times.

Even more bleak, the UN reports that approximately $93billion per year is needed to end world hunger by 2030. Collectively, that’s around $372billion — just over a third of Elon’s previous $1 trillion net worth.

Similarly, UK-based charity Crisis said $1.9billion would be needed to completely eradicate homelessness in the UK. 

In the US, it would cost approximately $20billion to end homelessness.

Let that sink in. No one should be a billionaire, let alone a trillionaire.