Elon Musk’s fortune soars above US$600 billion on new SpaceX valuation

The company is the biggest player in the orbital launch industry with its Falcon 9 rockets

Elon Musk’s wealth has reached a new high, topping US$600 billion for the first time on the back of a new valuation for SpaceX.

The world’s richest person is worth almost US$638 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, after SpaceX hit a valuation of about US$800 billion in an insider share sale, a deal that makes the Starbase, Texas-based rocket maker the world’s most valuable private company. Musk is its founder and chief executive officer.

Musk’s 42 per cent stake is worth US$317 billion after a liquidity discount applied to private companies.

It’s the first time an individual has been calculated to be worth more than US$600 billion by Bloomberg’s wealth index. Musk, 54, first reached the US$100 billion mark in 2020 as the value of Tesla, where he’s also CEO, soared. He was worth just US$4.8 billion when he was added to the index in May 2013.

Musk’s fortune has further to run if SpaceX succeeds in an initial public offering as soon as next year, where it’s targeting a valuation of US$1.5 trillion. That would value Musk’s stake at more than US$625 billion, pushing him close to becoming the world’s first trillionaire.

SpaceX is the biggest player in the orbital launch industry with its Falcon 9 rockets, and provides Internet service through its Starlink satellite system. It was valued at about US$400 billion in an earlier secondary offering in July.

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More recently, Musk has touted plans for space-based artificial intelligence data centres. BLOOMBERG

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