Elon Musk is now worth more than $1,000,000,000,000

UPDATED SpaceX priced its blockbuster initial public offering at $135 a share on Friday, raising $75 billion and valuing Elon Musk's rocket biz at roughly $1.78 trillion. Retail investors piled in to get a handful of Musk's magic beans, sending shares up 19% on the first day, valuing the company at over $2.1 trillion, and …

[Anonymous Coward]

Fools, money, successfully parted. I bet they're cheering in mission control now.

[Lon24]

Sadly, betting against Elon doesn't have a terribly good track record. He is the undisputed master of pan-galactic hype which finds a ready market across the pond. The only question is this time has he gone past the end of the universe triggering a total collapse into a worm hole that will suck every dollar from sucker's pocket into the ultimate black hole - and indeed lots of unsuspecting folks who have indexed investments?

The US Government can't afford to let him go bust - until they literally can't afford it.

[cyberdemon]

Not buying these shares isn't "betting against Elon".. It's just not giving him the opportunity to convert his dodgy monopoly money into (any of your) real money.

This is not a SpaceX IPO - it's an xAI IPO, and Elon, along with his mates at Anthropic, is desperate to insulate himself from the coming AI crash.

> He is the undisputed master of pan-galactic hype which finds a ready market across the pond.

So was Charles Ponzi

[Charlie Clark]

Yes, but unfortunately, the loosening of the rules and the lack of a "seasoning period" means the shares will be bought by index funds, automatically raising their price and this will give him pretty all the leverage he needs to buy the competition…

[simonlb]

Along with numerous pension funds being forced to buy stock which they'd really prefer not to buy but which they now have to due to regulatory changes. And with this being a fucking massive ponzi scheme, it will not end well for anyone.

[Philo T Farnsworth]

Always remember, stocks aren't real money, book value even moreso.

They're just numbers times other numbers in a database and you can't buy diddly with them.¹

In Elon's (or, to be fair, any other CEO's) case, his "wealth" is even more illusory than the stock in your 401-K or stock portfolio.

If you sell off your shares in Spacely Space Sprockets, unless it's more than fractions of a percent of shares outstanding, the market will probably take zero notice.

If Elon does, the market takes notice, the price tanks, and he ends up on the business end of a shareholder lawsuit.

_________________

¹ Yes, I know companies buy other companies with stock shares and there's also the concept of leverage (aka, debt) but stil. . . And, also, yes, I know that money itself is entirely a shared delusion centering around "the movements of small green pieces of paper," as per D. Adams, but it is one of the more useful of delusions, at least for the nonce.

[anthonyhegedus]

At least for the what?

[FIA]

but it is one of the more useful of delusions, at least for the nonce.

Potentially libeling the worlds richest man is a bold move, I admire it. :)

Oh, wait, this isn't a British site anymore is it.

[Philo T Farnsworth]

> Oh, wait, this isn't a British site anymore is it.

That's why it's called the Internet, I suppose. Anybody, anywhere, can read it.¹

This Yank, of course, meant it in the more formal dictionary version; e.g., "the time being."² Though now that I think about it, there are the Epstein files...

But thanks for the "slanguage" lesson.³ Always appreciated.

__________________

¹ Some restrictions may apply. Offer may not be valid in China, Iran, and other localities. Check your local listings.

² Mirriam-Webster: nonce (n)

³ Slangsphere: What is Nonce in British Slang?

[Fruit and Nutcase]

If Elon does, the market takes notice,

I'd watch what he does/does he slowly liquidate his stock for assets like Gold, Rare Earths, Horse Tranquilliser* etc. And also watch SpaceX to see if they are stockpiling Falcon 9s.

The Falcons will be needed to transport all this loot back home to Mars

*There are horses on Mars, right - otherwise, I guess some use can be made of it

[Philo T Farnsworth]

I was curious about that.

According to the US Security and Exchange Commission's rules

Section 16 of the Exchange Act applies to an SEC reporting company's directors and officers, as well as shareholders who own more than 10% of a class of the company's equity securities registered under the Exchange Act. The rules under Section 16 require these “insiders” to report most of their transactions involving the company's equity securities to the SEC within two business days on Forms 3, 4 or 5.¹

Of course, given the current state of collapse of regulatory structure in the US and Elon's own apparent disdain for the SEC,² specifically, and regulation, in general, he may feel reporting is optional, to wit:

According to the SEC’s complaint, after Musk failed to timely file a beneficial ownership report by March 24, 2022, he purchased more than $500 million worth of Twitter common stock between March 25, 2022 and April 1, 2022. As alleged, because Musk failed to timely file a beneficial ownership report with the SEC, he was able to make these purchases of Twitter common stock at artificially low prices from the unsuspecting public...³

Substitute "artificially high" for "artificially low" and you have stealth liquidation.

My opinion, of course. Others may differ.

_________________

¹ SEC: Officers, Directors and 10% Shareholders

² Reuters: Elon Musk: I do not respect the SEC

³ Securities and Exchange Commission v. Elon Musk, No. 1:25-cv-00105 (D.D.C. filed Jan. 14, 2025)

[Anonymous Coward]

To borrow a Reddit comment: Elon can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.

I'm just bummed that he rolled in the AI crap. I would have liked to invest in Starlink. I would have considered investing in Starlink+SpaceX. This mess, no thanks.

[Dinanziame]

It's only a matter of time until the company merges with Tesla as well

[retiredFool]

I and others have said this from the beginning, musk will merge them. He has control of both, so can make the decision. Musk is a total control freak. I think he got like 80% of the voting rights of spaceX thru preferred shares. 80%. It means it really is NOT a public company. Shareholders are along for the ride in the back seat with their mouth taped shut. And tesla he controls more than 50 with the latest stock grant resolved.

What is truly sad to me is leon being a T now, it really shows how distorted the wealth equality is now. For context, Rockefeller was the first billionaire in 1920ish. Dollar is worth about 1/100th of what it was then. So leon is worth 10x relatively to Rockefeller, who was obscenely wealthy. Not sure what comes after obscenely, but we are there. And leon isn't even the only one in Rockefeller territory.

[MachDiamond]

"The only question is this time has he gone past the end of the universe triggering a total collapse into a worm hole that will suck every dollar from sucker's pocket into the ultimate black hole"

I'll be ok, I've put all my money into canned food and shotguns.

[FF22]

"Sadly, betting against Elon doesn't have a terribly good track record."

Oh, it does. Actually, there are barely any examples of Elon being right about something or delivering on something as he originally promised.

Because of that, it's a pretty safe bet to assume that whatever he says will not happen, or not at the time he said, or not the way he said.

The real problem is that a large part of humanity is far too dumb to know or realize that, and is easily parted of his money, or can be tricked into becoming a useful idiot for Elon.

[MachDiamond]

"Because of that, it's a pretty safe bet to assume that whatever he says will not happen, or not at the time he said, or not the way he said."

I was watching part of an interview where Elon made the claim that the more energy a civilization uses, the more advanced it is. He got the wrong end of the stick on that extrapolation. There IS a correlation between average wealth and energy use on Earth. There is a limit to how well that works. There's a huge amount of waste as the most wealthy populations have enough spare money to leave lights on and run the HVAC more than necessary. There's also a correlation between a woman's education and the size of the family they will have. The more education, the fewer the children, on average.

A smaller world population that's more efficient could have a much higher average standard of living than exists today. That would also lower the world's annual generation and use of energy so the little green men would be wrong to consider a planetary population's use of energy as a good measuring stick.

[lnLog]

Its the suckers that invested in the twitter / xitter takeover that have finally got some semblance of retrieving the cash they threw down that well.

[Lee D]

They're all rich now, so they don't need to work for a fascist twat any more, so they'll leave.

[Anonymous Coward]

They have restrictions on how long they have to hold the shares before they sell. So it won't be happening yet. Let's hope for their sake they don't completely bomb.

Imagine working for a company that does cool stuff and you enjoy it, but the boss is a complete wanker on a global scale.

[Anonymous Coward]

A lot already have. They still have their stock though, and many of the early employees will - rightly, given what they achieved from an engineering point of view - be lottery-win levels of rich when they cash their stock in.

As a former SpaceX employee once said to me - we needed Elon's investment but not his meddling; Shotwell is the real genius here, she kept Musk close enough that he thought he had meaningful input, but far enough away from any of the real engineers that they could actually get on with doing the difficult rocket-science without getting bogged down in flamethrowers or tunnel boring or whatever this week's batshit scheme his ket-addled brain dreamt up.

[Scene it all]

I wonder what her opinion is of all this merger activity with his other failing businesses. She is 62. Thinking about retiring?

[Oneman2Many]

She has talked about retiring a few times, I guess she wants to see out HLS or some other milestone.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not just fools money, but due to self-serving rules *YOUR* tracker 401K will be fighting over these too from this week boosting the market with no basis other than rules and supply and demand.… with *more to come*. The original investors and staff vesting will be cashing in ASAP and running away as quickly as they can.

https://youtu.be/C4wtgmYkIJ0?is=ka-5bp-GYYE_FHPv

Who’s be cheering Standard and Poor’s 500 for saying ‘Hell No!!’ to this financial gerrymandering.

[Aladdin Sane]

EAT

THE

RICH

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a heck of a lot of Trotskys for every Stalin.

[Anonymous Coward]

*to add, more poignantly, Chaumette, who attributed that saying to Rousseau was violently murdered as a counterrevolutionary by people who were, only months later, violently murdered as counterrevolutionaries.

I'm unsure if people who spout it without a thought are ignorant of history or keep wondering why their lottery tickets don't win.

[BBRush]

On the one hand....

...I really want this to go badly and tank, wipe the smile off that w***ers face for a while. Let him experience consequence for a single, brief moment. He won't GAS about that, I don't think he can, but it would be nice.

But on the other hand, I can't see how this will not work out for him. He's moved all of the stuff that people want to invest in into a single place and then, in a master-stroke, given himself utter control over it. He has a legion of Meme-Minions and fanboys and the tactic backing of a hugely corrupt major world power so, unfortunately, I can't see how this will not succeed.

[Oneman2Many]

Re: On the one hand....

"He has a legion of Meme-Minions and fanboys"

Fanbois and individual investors are going to make zero difference regardless how much they zombified, sadly they will just be on the receiving end of some big losses when the real investment tanks start dumping.

[MonkeyJuice]

Re: On the one hand....

sadly?

[FF22]

Re: On the one hand....

"He's moved all of the stuff that people want to invest in into a single place and then, in a master-stroke, given himself utter control over it. He has a legion of Meme-Minions and fanboys and the tactic backing of a hugely corrupt major world power so, unfortunately, I can't see how this will not succeed."

You just listed all the reasons why it won't succeed. You can fool people and fight against reality only so long.

The question is not when it will all come down crashing, but when will that happen. Elon folding up all of his companies into each other is the perfect proof that all of those business operations are failing.

It's essentially a ponzy scheme, with all the losses being hidden in what's essentially a shell company. But Elon is running out of companies to do that.

[Cruachan]

Re: On the one hand....

It rather depends on the next US Administration and how they decide to regulate, if they can given the damage done under this one.

His rightward shift was at least in part fuelled by his daughter's rejection of him, but his quarter billion investment in to getting Trump re-elected got him a lot in return and ended a lot of investigations and projected regulation of his companies.

[GlenP]

I just hope none of my pension funds have bought into the hype, or at least not too deeply!

Market cap is a falsehood anyway, valuing the whole business based on a limited number of shares being traded is not a true reflection - if Musk put all his shares on the market tomorrow they'd be relatively worthless.

[Jellied Eel]

if Musk put all his shares on the market tomorrow they'd be relatively worthless.

The way its been rigged, Musk's shares are pretty much the only ones that have worth, ie they get to vote. It's truly bizarre though the way a loss making company gets such a bonkers multiple. It has 'only' raised $75bn, so enough to keep it afloat for maybe a couple more years. And on the plus side, a bit more financial transparency now that it's public. Downside is there are a couple more AI behemoths in the pipeline to help swell a highly contagious bubble. A lot of the megadeals reek of the swap deals that lead to the Dot.Com implosion, only the AI deals have been far larger.

[cyberdemon]

Indeed, and at least the fibre-optic infrastructure build-out of the Dot Com bubble actually proved useful later on.. Whereas I can't see AI bit-barns being any use to man nor beast after this bubble collapses. Maybe some could be sold as gas turbine power plants.. But that's about it. The silicon will be pretty much worthless.

[MachDiamond]

"Maybe some could be sold as gas turbine power plants."

Not even those. For grid power applications, it's more efficient to use much larger ones as there's little need to move generation up and down in such small increments. The in the case of xAI, the turbines are considered only allowed for temp power, not full time operation. Of course, if you are Elon, you can get away with polluting a lot more than the average punter.

[retiredFool]

Unfortunately, not sure much more transparent. I thought reporting requirement are now annual, and really who is going to audit musk and say he lied? He'll sue them. And likely win. It has taken a decade I think for someone to actually win in court after a tesla killed them with autopilot. And of course he is appealing. And how can anyone forget the guy who actually saved those kids in a cave getting called a pedo by musk because his wanker sub didn't work and couldn't stand someone else was the hero. Guy sued for defamation, and lost. Duh, how, being called a pedo in public by someone with the biggest megaphone on earth isn't defamation? Only in the bought and paid for US court system.

[Jellied Eel]

Unfortunately, not sure much more transparent. I thought reporting requirement are now annual, and really who is going to audit musk and say he lied? He'll sue them.

The SEC could still investigate, along with the DoJ. I think that brings political risk, ie Trump & Musk may have a falling out (or bailing out), if the Dems win the next election, they may decide to go after Musk for buying Twitter, or just what happened with DOGE turning off taps. They may not win, but would enrich lawyers. Shareholders have limited power over SpacX, but could try SolarCity-style legal challenges, but might not get very far.

SpacX published a prospectus that was chock full of forward looking statements, which model assorted scenarios and projections that may never happen. Biggest being their total addressable market (TAM), which is the chunk that seems to have lead to the totally implausible valuation (TIV). But investors have lapped it up, and as always, caveat emptor. SpacX said they're losing money and may never make any money, yet they've been given a P/E ratio that's an imaginary number.

But regulators might have some luck looking very closely at some of the transactions. XAI bleeds cash, which is why SpacX invested in it. Tesla is one of the biggest 'customers', but that transaction is.. a bit odd, with SpacX buying a surprisingly large number of Cybertrucks, helping Tesla hit sales targets. Or the way Anthropic is the largest tenant for XAI, but Anthropic is also bleeding cash. Or the way SpacX has become a software business, rather than a space business, with the largest chunk of SpacX's TAM being from flogging business software. It's not like there's any shortage of competitors in that space.

And then there's space itself. Also an area where there's a lot of competition, and perhaps a limited demand for rockets that can hoist 100t payloads to orbit. Much of that business has been wooden dollars launching Starlink satellites, and there's a growing number of competitors in that space as well. Especially when Starship hasn't actually achieved orbit yet, and may never hit the rapid reusability & thus cost goals. But the IPO side-steps that issue by imagining a market for space-based datacentres, which nobody has done, yet, and may never become economically or physically viable.

But anyone who's ever worked with sales would be used to seeing fantastical projections that ignore externalities like competition, saturation or regulation, or just plain'ol physics. But those have a nasty habit of turning projected revenues into massive liabilities that wipe out any shareholder value. Theranos could have been a brilliant service, generating billions in revenues and was briefly worth billions.. Except their tech didn't work and Theranos lied about it. If they hadn't, they could have kept pouring money into trying to create a viable product until investors pulled the plug.

But there's been nothing really rational about the IPO. I'm a bit old fashioned and like to look at the fundamentals when risking my own cash. And they're waaaay out of wack for SpacX. Plus there are I think some inevitabilities. The insane valuation has been based on a relatively small float and pent-up demand. There will be more shares hitting the market when insiders get to sell or exercise their options. Then maybe decide to take their millions and no work in a perma-crunch culture any more. Which could be a tad risky in a business that prides itself in being lean, and sweating their human assets.

Or the one I don't really get, but might happen, ie merging SpacX and Tesla. Which would probably be a stock swap, otherwise it'd need a LOT of cash to buy out Tesla stock holders.. Which would include one E.Musk Esq. Which would be SolarCity writ large, especially given Tesla's also bleeding cash and facing a lot of competition in the EV space. But based on my own investment criteria, SpacX is far from being a multi-trillion dollar enterprise. I think it's worth the $75bn it just raised, but has many, many times that amount in potential liabilities.

[retiredFool]

You think you're old fashioned! I'd never buy stock in any co that wasn't profitable. I'm old enough to remember when startup HAD to be profitable to go public. For like a couple quarters. The startup I was in was waiting for that criteria to be met and did go public and was profitable. But today, heck stick the letters AI in your co name and go public. Nope, not for me. I like profitable and ideally pay me a dividend. I also don't do index's. Granted I missed out on the boom in large measure, but again old enough to remember 08, 98 and 87. I think I have the years right where there were busts. And they often happen almost overnight. I expect there will be another very soon and could be the mother of all busts, like bigger than 29. Wealth inequality is at new heights, the Iran thing, the US orange clown, global debt, ... I'm sort of in disbelief it hasn't collapsed already. I mean does anyone really believe an Iran deal is in days???? Although the one glimmer that says maybe this time might be this time is UAE has apparently tossed around 20B over to Iran. That might grease the deal some.

[Oneman2Many]

Amazon went public in 1997 and hadn't turned a profit by then. In fact it was 2001 before they reported a profit.

[retiredFool]

The startup I was in went public on 95. It was around the netscape time shortly thereafter that the "web" mania hit where co's started going public even though unprofitable. I still believe a mistake for investors/wall street to be hyping this stuff. Sure amazon was a success. But what happened to the investor who invested in netscape, pets.com, ... Before a co is profitable it is just too difficult for the average investor to assess if it has a workable biz model. And lets be real, Amazon is not the same co it was when it went public. They sold books. What % of the sales/profits are from books today? No what investors did is keep giving money to bezos until he had a success. GameStop comes to mind is a failed example of that approach.

Basically we are in a FOMO stage of investing. Spacex is a prime example. Read the hype articles. Basically they boil down to "Don't miss out".

[MachDiamond]

"But anyone who's ever worked with sales would be used to seeing fantastical projections that ignore externalities like competition, saturation or regulation, or just plain'ol physics."

Don't leave out economics. If the plan requires every man, woman and child in the first world to chuck Elon $20,000/yr, it doesn't seem likely the business plan will work.

[Charlie Clark]

The market cap and the inclusion in various indices means he can use the notional valuation to go on a buying spree. In the increasingly monopsodic capital markets he'll find many willing partners who'll happily take new shares and then sell them straight to true-believing chumps, including pension funds full of FOMO.

[DS999]

The pension holders could/should vote them out if they do.

There's no world in which buying in to a loss making company at a $2 trillion valuation makes sense when the most valuable companies (Nvidia, Apple, Google) in the $4 trillions range are making money hand over fist. There's simply no path to it ever justifying that valuation based on profit. Even if you say "well not anyone soon but maybe a couple decades from now" but what would investing the same money in Nvidia/Apple/Google or the S&P 500 index be worth in that time frame?

[Jellied Eel]

The pension holders could/should vote them out if they do.

I think this is where the deal is especially evil and why I sold out of my index funds when it was announced. The companies offering index funds and trackers pretty much have to buy and allocating 20% to retail investors limits supply and inflates the price. Pension or fund holders can't do anything because those funds have to buy, or find some way to hedge. And there's two more mega AI IPOs still to come where investors can get rinsed and repeated.

what would investing the same money in Nvidia/Apple/Google or the S&P 500 index be worth in that time frame?

I think Nvidia is going to be the most interesting to watch given they've bet the farm on AI and are deeply embedded in the whole vendor financed swap machine. But then so is SpacX given a lot of their AI 'revenues' come from the triangular firing squad.

[MachDiamond]

"The pension holders could/should vote them out if they do."

No, they can't. The index fund manages can't. After Elon was in-ceremoniously sacked from Confinity, he's made sure he has all the votes he needs to prevent such a thing happening again. With SpaceX, his shares have 10x the voting power and he has a lot of them. For a shareholder to bring a suit against the company in Texas, they much hold at least 3% of outstanding shares. There are also many other restrictions which is why Elon moved company flags from Delaware to Texas. He loses certain tax advantages and a very competent business court, but he gains a court he can influence politically and is far more pro-big company.

Apple and Nvidia make tangible products that people want and Google sells services that lots of people use, even reluctantly. (We'll just forget that Google's main line of revenue is harvesting and selling PII for the sake of the argument). Elon sells promises, more promises all doused in a wishful thinking sauce topped with whipped fantasy, served hot from a recipe popular in central Europe in the 1930's. Zero calories per servings as the ingredients list shows only hot air.

[DS999]

I was talking about the pension holders voting out the pension fund managers. The pension fund might end up holding some SpaceX stock if they own a NASDAQ index fund and if so that would be excused but if they are buying SpaceX shares outright at the current valuation they should be sacked.

[MachDiamond]

"I was talking about the pension holders voting out the pension fund managers. "

That might be able to happen, but it might also require a rewrite of the fund's by-laws which will also take a vote and more wrangling so it's prohibited from buying indexes crammed with dogs and will have to sell if one of them winds up in that position.

[Charlie Clark]

Maybe at CALPERS and the like but the rest have already outsourced investing to Blackrock et al., and index funds.

It was a nice world for a while.

[Taliesinawen]

Only the Connectivity segment is turning a profit ?

Whilst the "Space" division reports a net loss on paper. Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy do generate revenue which is re-invested into the development of Starship and its massive AI infrastructure.

[Dan 55]

Re: Only the Connectivity segment is turning a profit ?

SpaceX/xAI/X/whatever it is' AI infrastructure is not massive, otherwise they wouldn't be able to rent servers out to Anthropic and Google because they'd need all the space they can get.

If you're thinking of buying into this lunacy, please be advised it's quicker and there's less paperwork if you just set fire to your money.

[Oneman2Many]

Re: Only the Connectivity segment is turning a profit ?

There infrastructure is a reasonable size and expanding, there is a issue with link capability between Colossus 1 and 2 which are not on the same LAN infrastructure.

The spent heavily on NVidia before some of the market and thus have excess capacity now plus factor in their own AI plans are not progressing as fast as they had planned.

[Dan 55]

Re: Only the Connectivity segment is turning a profit ?

SpaceX have an agreement to lease out data centres which they haven't built yet to Anthropic. Likewise they have a similar agreement with Google. But it's okay because Anthropic and Google are paying SpaceX with money that doesn't exist yet.

Patrick Boyle

[MachDiamond]

Re: Only the Connectivity segment is turning a profit ?

"Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy do generate revenue which is re-invested into the development of Starship and its massive AI infrastructure."

Falcon 9 primarily launches Starlink satellites with the odd customer payload from time to time. Falcon Heavy isn't flown very often as there's far less demand for launching heavier payloads or going out much further. SpaceX had something like 39 equity raising rounds to the current date to keep money coming in for operations and Starship. I expect that interest from private investors to keep putting money in was waning pretty hard which has required Elon to take the company public. It also needed a heavy AI component as that's the flavor of the month.

[Oneman2Many]

Re: Only the Connectivity segment is turning a profit ?

"I expect that interest from private investors to keep putting money in was waning pretty hard which has required Elon to take the company public. It also needed a heavy AI component as that's the flavor of the month."

Nope, interest from private investors isn't waning at all. The issue is scale,. currently spending $2bn a year for starship development, $15bn so far and no sign of letting up.

The real investment is AI. The fab plant alone is likely going to going to cost in excess of $10bn and add on satellite, launch and operations costs, easily add another $20bn.

And scaling out more launch pads that they are going to need, they are a few billion a piece. I believe SpaceX are already talking to Space Force about Vandenburg and a possibility of an international launch site (Oz ?). They are in the process of buying 200 sq miles in Louisiana though probably not for launch purposes.

[MachDiamond]

Re: Only the Connectivity segment is turning a profit ?

"Nope, interest from private investors isn't waning at all. The issue is scale,. currently spending $2bn a year for starship development, $15bn so far and no sign of letting up.

The real investment is AI. The fab plant alone is likely going to going to cost in excess of $10bn and add on satellite, launch and operations costs, easily add another $20bn."

Your numbers are, as Elon likes to say, "an order of magnitude", low.

The spending for Starship isn't 10x, but more like $5-$6bn/year. The Terra Fab is supposed to be a Tesla project and will cost them more than $100bn. Starlink doesn't seem to have a full cost-accounting applied to it and "accounting" seems to have been done.

In SpaceX's S-1 filing, they identified $235bn of spending by 2030. $20bn of the $75bn raised had already been pledged to pay off a bridge loan from earlier in the year. If xAI continues to burn $1bn/month, that's $42bn of the $55bn from the IPO. Yes, they are renting some computer time to other companies, but those customers aren't on very solid ground themselves and have a 90-day cancellation they can exercise. Let's not forget the $60bn acquisition of Cursor or a $10bn cash penalty due if Elon backs out.

We've also seen that there wasn't any liquidity nor ways for private investors to sell any shares they had before the IPO. They might be happier now to buy stock as they can sell it as and when they like to the open market.

I'll be out in the garden making sure I have plenty of food being grown.

[Groo The Wanderer - A Canuck]

And the pyramid scam of Musk's fraudulent claims of what is going to be delivered continues unabated... fed by people too stupid to realize he's nothing more than a spoiled rich-kid con-artist who has personally invented absolutely nothing and personally created absolutely nothing, just been there to invest and demand control, followed by outright lies about the capabilities and plans of the business to boost the stocks.

[elsergiovolador]

Poodle

Putin's most expensive poodle.

That must be Musk's personal tragedy. So much money, yet zero freedom.

[Bebu sa Ware]

Getting in on the ground floor…

No guarantee that the lift [elevator] isn't heading for the (sub-)basement… with the doors permanently jammed.

[werdsmith]

Re: Getting in on the ground floor…

Well it will resemble a Paternoster more than any kind of conventional lift. There are no doors.

As with Tesla there were many predictions of doom yet I know people who jumped on an off the upside and made an absolute mint.

Something like with bitcoin, I had got involved early and sold up after some years for 1000x investment. Left a little bit in to cover fees and now that little bit is a big bit again.

[pimppetgaeghsr]

Just openAI and Anthropic to go.

The free token dispensers have nearly a billion users combined. Don't ask questions, just buy the FOMO

[Omnipresent]

the tax payers

will wind up paying for this crime, as there are no consequences when the criminals are in charge.

It also proves two things,

A: The monkeys really are too stupid to live. It's an act of God's mercy we made it this far.

B: Social media will be that self destruction, as this is purely speculative hype driven by social media.

[mwcer]

Stunning...

First, Musk combines the X (formerly Twitter) and xAI turds with SpaceX, then does the SpaceX IPO at $135. Currently, SPCX is at $175.08. I'm simply stunned. Don't regular investors realize that Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are unloading all the private risk they've accumulated by investing in Musk with this IPO??

[MachDiamond]

Re: Stunning...

"Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are unloading all the private risk they've accumulated by investing in Musk with this IPO"

Yes, it's the worst sort of IPO where the private investors are using it as a way to cash out as there doesn't seem to be a good (profitable) way forward. For employees that opted for shares in the company to partially compensate them for 70 hour work weeks, they should do pretty well. I wonder how many will decide to leave the company once they can unload their shares and are set, if not for life, for starting their own company or being able to work somewhere else for much less that gives them more of a life.

[Andy the ex-Brit]

Several colleagues were trying to get in on this. I moved my savings to a mix of bonds and index funds today that were the least exposed to NVIDIA and AI of all the options in my 401(k) plan. I want boring right now.

[MachDiamond]

"I want boring right now."

Our family trust is quite boring and let us weather the lockdowns without needing to pull in the oars and batten down hatches. I've had to direct more income to bring my share back up to where it should be, but that's a choice rather than a necessity. I just wish we had formed the trust much sooner.

[Groo The Wanderer - A Canuck]

You know, if you greedily horde a trillion dollars in a world full of starving and suffering people, you're just an ignorant asshole, not somebody to be admired in the least. :(

[jdiebdhidbsusbvwbsidnsoskebid]

Well, yes, but Musk doesn't actually have a trillion dollars or even access to a trillion dollars. It's just the hypothetical valuation of all those shares. Hypothetical because he can't cash them in for the total value because they way shares work, if he tried to, they would immediately devalue.

Your point about lots of money held in the hands of not many people is still valid. But, hey ho, that's just the way the cookie gets completely stomped on and obliterated.

[_wojtek]

granted that it's "hypothetical" but that's not 100% accurate in the sense that he can't by anything with shares (and thus doesn't have to pay any taxes " but he can borrow a shitload of money from the banks using his "supposed" valuation as colateral...

it's "Schrödinger" money where it let's you off the hook for taxation yet gives you enormous power and actual wealth...

parasites basically

[MachDiamond]

"but he can borrow a shitload of money from the banks using his "supposed" valuation as colateral..."

What so many seem to miss is that banks want regular payments on money they've loaned out. Principal AND interest. Collateral is just a guarantee of repayment, not a golden ticket to free money. Elon claims he doesn't take a salary. If that were true, he'd have no way to service a loan. I expect it's more true to say that he isn't taking compensation in cash, but mostly in-kind and through bonuses structured to pay him much like a salary but treated differently for tax purposes.

[_wojtek]

either way he avoids paying taxes, which isn't the best scenario....

[Oneman2Many]

You or Woljek seem to be confusing Elon with SpaceX

[PhilipN]

Elon - World’s greatest (manipulator)

Where can I place a bet that he gets a spacecraft to Mars but not a human?

[Fonant]

Re: Elon - World’s greatest (manipulator)

I live in hope that he starts to believe his own bullshit, and the AI bullshit from the others, and all these obscenely-rich people hop on a Starship to emigrate to Mars.

Then the rest of us can sigh with relief and get on with being nice to each other and cooperating for a better future.

[Excused Boots]

Re: Elon - World’s greatest (manipulator)

That’ll be the ‘B Ark'

[Not Yb]

Re: Elon - World’s greatest (manipulator)

He's already gotten a 'spacecraft' to Mars orbit, as a publicity stunt.

[MachDiamond]

Re: Elon - World’s greatest (manipulator)

"He's already gotten a 'spacecraft' to Mars orbit, as a publicity stunt."

If you mean with the Roadster that was supposed to go to Martin, no. Elon was told in no uncertain terms that he must not send the rocket on any trajectory that has a possibility of hitting Mars. He'd have been required to go through all the protocols for "planetary protection" to make sure there was little chance of introducing biological contaminants to do such a stunt and it's unlikely the Roadster would meet those requirements since it was used.

[MachDiamond]

Re: Elon - World’s greatest (manipulator)

"Where can I place a bet that he gets a spacecraft to Mars but not a human?"

Just give that money to me and I'll make sure it does some good. (it's good when I get to eat steak)

The Falcon Heavy can get to Mars, empty. Starship is nearly out of propellants just getting to the Indian Ocean. They also don't have any systems for mid-route corrections. Replacing the heat tiles with more propellant wouldn't even git 'er done.

[DrewPH]

Elon Musk is now worth more than $1,000,000,000,000

No he's not FFS. If he broke, would we pay $1Tn to replace him? I feel confident we would not.

In fact I feel reasonably confident in saying there may actually be nobody on the planet who would even piss on him if he was on fire.

[MachDiamond]

Re: Elon Musk is now worth more than $1,000,000,000,000

"No he's not FFS. "

There's also no way he'd sell or even risk is Class B Super Shares so those are exceptionally light and thin paper currency. I'm sure he'll also have some Class A shares he can use as collateral for loans and to sell from time to time so he can finance another half dozen children.

[Gary Stewart]

How big is a trillion?

A stack of a trillion US pennies (a penny is 1.52 mm thick) would reach the moon 4 times.

It would take around 33,000 years to count up to a trillion.

While I realize that most of Elon's wealth is not liquid, it is still a staggering sum for a man and his uber rich friends who whine oh whoa is me about paying (actually paying!) even slightly more in taxes. And no, I am not talking about "tax the rich, feed the poor, 'til there are no rich no more". The redistribution of wealth is not as tricky as Dennis Moore would have you believe. They have so much wealth now that even they can't really comprehend it except as a game of who is the biggest with Elon currently in the lead.

I always found this dialog in the movie Key Largo explains it perfectly. The hero (played by Humphrey Bogart) asks the mobster (played by Edward G. Robinson) what he wanted. His reply was I don't know. To which the hero replied you want more. And the mobster replied yea that's it I want more. And the replay to that was will you ever get enough? And of course the mobsters answer was, well I haven't so far.

They can be rich all they want to if they just realize that several billion goes a long, long, long way. Several hundred million goes a long, long way, and several 10's of millions goes a long way. Currently they are just keeping everybody else in the dog house asking them much to their delight please sir can I have some more. They will never fix this on their own because for most of them it ain't big enough so far, and it never will be.

[brainwrong]

Re: How big is a trillion?

"It would take around 33,000 years to count up to a trillion."

The current issue of Private Eye features a piece about a nigerian named Favour Ogechi Ani, who has set a new record for counting aloud, up to 1,070,000. He says he did 2 sessions a day of 7 hours each, and it took him 70 days. Scaling that up linearly (ignoring the ever increasing pronounciation time) gives over 179,000 years, or over 104,000 years if you cut out sleeping and eating and life.

I don't know who was checking he didn't miss any.

[Not Yb]

Re: How big is a trillion?

Even $1million is enough for a fairly comfortable retirement in most places in the US. At least, if your taste doesn't run to fast cars, huge houses, and high-end fashion accessories..

[Bebu sa Ware]

Elon Musk is now worth more than $1,000,000,000,000

His sorry carcass potentially valued at USD 10¹², worth ? — SFA.

Interestingy only during probate does the world discover the true value and worth of an individual.

[MachDiamond]

Re: Elon Musk is now worth more than $1,000,000,000,000

"Interestingy only during probate does the world discover the true value and worth of an individual."

Even then......

The term "Net worth" is a misnomer as it implies that both sides of the ledger are taken into account. Nobody mentions what liabilities Elon has.

[Anonymous Coward]

Seems you can fool most of the people

Most of the time.

Ye gods!

[frankyunderwood123]

but he’s still a dick

worth a trillion but it doesn’t stop him from being an infantile scumbag.

The reality is the man is poor, missing something that money can’t buy - a soul.

[Jonathan Richards 1]

That headline...

...Elon Musk is now worth more than $1,000,000,000,000

My usual definition of 'worth' is 'the amount a buyer would willingly pay'. Now, what would someone pay for a fully-indentured Elon Musk, I wonder?

If by personal worth, however, one uses the definition 'could afford to spend this amount of money', then I still don't believe the headline is supportable.

[MachDiamond]

Re: That headline...

"My usual definition of 'worth' is 'the amount a buyer would willingly pay'."

It's an issue with the English language. Worth, Value and market cap get used interchangeably when they shouldn't. It would be more true to say Elon has a market cap of a trillion (units don't matter at that point). He's not worth that much to any couple of dozen companies in honest return. His value is ~$40 on Earth. Maybe on Dune the Freman would offer more since his water would be worth something.

[BartyFartsLast]

and yet

I still don't think he's worth the steam off my piss

[Rol]

Seen it all before.

I've placed a sizable bet with the bookies, that Elon will end his days in the penthouse suite of a Vegas casino with CIA agents tending to his every need.

[Not Yb]

Re: Seen it all before.

Don't forget the bottles of urine on the floor.

[Pete 2]

Bankers!

> Musk is now worth ..

To whom?

[JWLong]

401K

I cashed out my pension in 1997 when corporate want to roll it over to a 401K.

Today I only have investments in commodities, things that have real value.

I sold all my MS stock but still have my stock in the company I worked for 20+ years because they make real products. their stock is +-$80.00 a share. They are a 4 billion dollar corporation because that's the amount of sales they do per year.

I don't go near anything like this IPO because it's all madeup SHIT!

[MachDiamond]

Re: 401K

"Today I only have investments in commodities, things that have real value."

If you can purchase things with cash, The savings in interest can be more advantageous.

[Nematode]

By any rational measure of a person's genuine worth in human characteristics, including kindness, care for one's human co-earth-habitees, generosity, empathy*, etc., Elon is broke.

* I realise he said that is the "fundamental weakness of Western civilization", well, he would wouldn't he?

[Excused Boots]

As of posting, one downvote. Is that you Elon?