Musk's net worth plunges up to $700B in 5 weeks from SpaceX-IPO peak
Musk's paper fortune peaked near $1.45T on June 16, days after SpaceX's record-setting IPO, but had fallen to $738B by the July 23 close per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index — a swing of up to $700B in five weeks. The drop tracks a joint pullback in Tesla and SpaceX valuations, underscoring how concentrated his wealth is in the two companies' shares.
Three days after SpaceX's record IPO on June 12, the company's market cap hit an all-time high of $2.64T on June 16, and Musk's paper wealth peaked near $1.45T alongside it.
The reversal came fast. Tesla's Q2 earnings, released July 22, missed consensus as AI spending weighed on margins, and shares tumbled the next day (see the $4B short-seller windfall and analyst price-target cuts covered elsewhere in this briefing). SpaceX's post-IPO valuation has also cooled from its initial highs.
As a result, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index pegged Musk's net worth at $738B at the July 23 close — down $650B to $700B from the peak. Year-to-date, though, he's still up $118B; the swing looks more like a brief June spike deflating than a new decline.
The number itself doesn't change Tesla's fundamentals, but it does illustrate how much of Musk's wealth rides on just two stocks — he holds roughly an 11% Tesla stake, and this is a mark-to-market paper loss, not a sale of shares. He remains the world's richest person by a wide margin, about $650B ahead of second place.
Summaries are prepared by the Tesla Briefing editorial team and may not capture every nuance of the original reporting. You are solely responsible for your own investment decisions.