Less than two weeks after becoming the first person in history to reach a personal fortune of one trillion dollars, Elon Musk has watched roughly $350 billion of that wealth disappear in a matter of days, as shares in his rocket and satellite company continue to slide sharply from the highs reached shortly after its record stock market debut.
Musk’s net worth, which Forbes estimated at $1.4 trillion as recently as the 16th of June, had fallen to approximately $1.1 trillion by Tuesday the 24th, according to the same publication’s tracking of his personal holdings. The speed of the reversal is remarkable by any measure. It represents one of the fastest destructions of paper wealth belonging to a single individual that financial markets have ever recorded.
The source of the decline is straightforward. Musk owns approximately 38 per cent of SpaceX, a stake held through around 4.8 billion shares and stock options. When the share price rises, his personal wealth climbs in step. When it falls, the effect on his net worth is equally direct. On Monday alone, as SpaceX shed sixteen per cent of its value in a single session, Forbes calculated that more than $152 billion was erased from Musk’s personal balance sheet in one trading day.
SpaceX listed on the Nasdaq on the 12th of June in what was described as the largest stock market debut ever recorded, raising $75 billion from investors at a starting price of $135 per share. The first days of trading were extraordinary. Shares surged 67 per cent above that offer price within four days, touching a peak of $225.64 on the 16th of June. At that moment, SpaceX’s total market value approached $3 trillion, briefly ranking it ahead of Amazon and Microsoft as the world’s fourth most valuable publicly listed company. Musk, whose wealth was already substantial, crossed the trillion dollar threshold for the first time in recorded financial history.
Then the reversal began. Shares fell five per cent on Wednesday the 18th and three and a half per cent on Thursday the 19th, before the market closed for the Juneteenth public holiday on Friday. When trading resumed on Monday, the selling accelerated sharply. The stock closed at $154.60, its lowest closing price since the very first day of trading, and had by that point lost more than 30 per cent of its value from the peak. SpaceX’s total market value had retreated to around $2 trillion, placing it seventh globally and behind Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which had overtaken it during the slide.
Several factors combined to produce the selloff. The most immediate trigger was SpaceX’s announcement that it intends to raise money through its first ever bond offering, a form of corporate debt in which the company borrows from investors and repays them with interest over time. The proceeds are partly intended to refinance a bridging loan that must be repaid by September 2027. The fact that a company sitting on more than $100 billion in cash was choosing to take on new debt rather than use its own resources raised questions among investors about how quickly it was spending money and what its true financial position looked like.
Separately, the financial data scoring firm MSCI assigned SpaceX a CCC rating, the lowest possible on its seven tier scale for assessing how well a company manages its social, environmental and governance responsibilities. The rating flagged concerns about the concentration of control in Musk’s hands relative to other shareholders and noted that the company lagged behind comparable businesses on a range of those measures. For institutional investors who use such ratings as part of their decision making process, a CCC assignment at the bottom of the scale is a meaningful red flag.
The broader technology sector compounded the pressure. The Nasdaq 100 index, which tracks the largest companies listed on the exchange, was on track to shed more than one trillion dollars in combined market value on Tuesday as chipmakers and large technology stocks fell across the board.
As Nairametrics reported, the scale of the losses from the peak is striking even when placed alongside SpaceX’s continued inclusion among the world’s most valuable companies. From its intraday high of $225.64 to the closing price of $154.60 on Monday, Forbes calculates that SpaceX shed roughly $928 billion in total market value, making it one of the most rapid collapses in absolute terms that any publicly listed company has experienced.
What makes the episode particularly notable is the compressed timeframe in which it played out. The record listing, the record peak, the milestone of the world’s first trillionaire and then the $350 billion reversal all occurred within a single fortnight. The average investor who bought shares in the open market after the listing and before the peak has now lost roughly a third of what they paid.
SpaceX’s shares remain above the original offer price of $135, meaning the company’s public debut has not technically resulted in a loss for buyers who participated at the very beginning. But the lesson for everyone who joined later is one the stock market regularly delivers, often without much notice: the distance between a historic high and a sobering correction can be measured in days.
About the Author
Marcel Chidozie is a tech analyst and writer covering foreign news, fintech, and emerging technologies at TechRegard. Based in Nigeria, He's passionate about translating complex tech developments into compelling, accessible stories for diverse audiences. His work focuses on how technology shapes innovation across Africa and globally.
