Elon Musk Is One Step Closer to Becoming the World’s First Trillionaire

The gap between Elon Musk and the average person is about to get even wider.

According to a newly released SpaceX filing, the company is preparing an IPO that would value the rocket maker at roughly $1.77 trillion – moving Musk, 54, one step closer to becoming the world’s first trillionaire.

The filing estimated that Musk’s stake in the rocket company would be worth approximately $866.5 billion on paper if the offering reaches its projected valuation. SpaceX also revealed that the South African native would maintain more than 82 percent voting control of the company following the IPO.

While Musk became the richest person in the world in 2021, the latest numbers suggest his bank account could grow to record-breaking amounts. However, he’ll be required to hold his shares for at least one year after the offering before he would be able to sell any substantial portion of his stake in the company.

Musk’s rise to amassing astronomical amounts of wealth began in the ’90s when he cofounded the software company Zip2. The startup was sold less than 10 years later in 1999 and earned him millions.

He later cofounded an online banking company called X.com, which eventually became PayPal. When eBay acquired PayPal in 2002, Musk reportedly received around $180 million from the sale.

The tech mogul used much of that money to launch SpaceX and invest in Tesla, and those two companies ultimately transformed his fortune. Musk’s net worth surged into the hundreds of billions as the values of those two companies grew.