Elon Musk has shed more than $350 billion from his personal fortune in a matter of days after SpaceX shares fell sharply from their peak, in what ranks among the largest wealth destructions in modern financial history.
The stock dropped 16.4% in a single session to below $155, down from an opening price of $160 at listing. It has now fallen more than 31% from its all-time high of $225.64, reached on June 16. In that one session alone, Musk’s net worth fell by more than $152 billion, according to Forbes estimates. His wealth has since declined from a record $1.45 trillion to below $1.1 trillion, though he remains above the trillion-dollar threshold.
SpaceX’s market capitalisation has dropped by close to $928 billion from its June 16 peak of roughly $2.99 trillion, pushing the company from fourth to seventh place globally by market value, behind TSMC. The company had briefly overtaken Amazon and Microsoft before the sell-off began.
Several factors appear to have weighed on investor confidence. MSCI assigned SpaceX a “CCC” rating on its sustainability scale, its lowest possible score, citing the company’s lag behind peers on environmental, social, and governance risk management. SpaceX responded by announcing plans to issue new bonds to refinance a short-term loan, opting against fresh share issuance that would dilute existing shareholders.
A $60 billion all-stock acquisition of AI software company Cursor also drew criticism. Morningstar described the deal as causing “significant dilution” for shareholders and cut its fair value estimate for SpaceX to $62 per share.
On the other side of the ledger, SpaceX disclosed a computing agreement with AI startup Reflection AI potentially worth $6.3 billion, under which Reflection will pay approximately $150 million per month between 2026 and 2029 for access to Nvidia GB300 chips to train and run AI models.
Musk holds approximately 4.8 billion SpaceX shares along with 350 million share options, meaning his net worth tracks the stock closely. Despite the decline, he remains one of the wealthiest individuals in history.
