Canadian Elon Musk holds title many wish didn't exist: World's first trillionaire
Canadian Elon Musk has just crossed a threshold that other billionaires can only dream of reaching: becoming the world’s first-ever trillionaire.
Elon Musk, who holds citizenships in South Africa, Canada, and the United States, saw his net worth surge to an estimated US$1.1 trillion when SpaceX went public on Friday, reports Forbes. The company is now valued at nearly US$2 trillion, dramatically increasing the fortune of the 54-year-old entrepreneur, who has a 38 per cent stake in the company.
Musk is also the chairman, CEO, and chief technical officer of the U.S.-based private aerospace company, which was founded in 2002. In addition, he owns Tesla Inc., xAI, X (formerly Twitter), Neuralink Corporation, and The Boring Company.
In a video that Musk shared on Friday, he stated in his speech, “It is certainly hard to believe that a little company that started in a warehouse in El Segundo is now going public with the largest IPO ever. If people had told me this was going to happen, I was like, man, you must be smoking some really good crack, because I think this company is gonna fail. I gave SpaceX less than a 10 per cent chance of succeeding at all.”
“It is certainly hard to believe that a little company (@SpaceX) that started in a warehouse in El Segundo is now going public with the largest IPO ever.” @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/zLcXt0gJ97
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) June 12, 2026
For perspective, The Wall Street Journal shared a clip demonstrating how US$1 trillion in stacked pennies would reach the moon and the earth twice.
Elon Musk is officially the world’s first trillionaire after SpaceX went public.
$1 trillion is such a large number and so far beyond the human imagination that we can’t wrap our minds around it. So let’s make it possible—by stacking pennies.
Read more: https://t.co/Z5JY8lTO0D pic.twitter.com/abSBCDTTp6
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) June 12, 2026
But Musk won’t be the only one benefiting, according to Fortune, as the company’s decision to go public will lead to over 4,400 current and former SpaceX employees becoming millionaires. Musk had offered welders, machinists, technicians, manufacturers, and company stock as part of their compensation.
However, Tesla Inc. faces multiple employment-related lawsuits. Recently, a California court blocked the company from forcing factory workers into one-on-one arbitration. The company faces a class-action lawsuit by Tesla employees alleging racial discrimination, unfair wages, and failure to pay for overtime.
Tada Images/Shutterstock
News of Musk’s soaring wealth has drawn sharp criticism.
In a video shared on X, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren said that the news comes at a time “when more and more people are hanging on by their fingernails to survive in this economy.”
“I want to be clear: this is not just some fluke. It is a feature of a rigged economy,” she said. “Today’s marker should be a wake-up call that enough is enough. Time to make a change.”
Elon Musk just became the world’s first trillionaire. This needs to be a wake up call. pic.twitter.com/H3w4OxA91U
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) June 12, 2026
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders also weighed in.
Today, Elon Musk, a trillionaire, pays the same amount into Social Security as someone making $184,500.
If we end that absurdity and lift the cap on taxable income, we can make Social Security solvent for 75 years and expand benefits by $2,400. My Social Security bill does that.
— Sen. Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) June 12, 2026
On Thursday, Jimmy Kimmel reminded audiences of Musk’s anti-migrant stance and that SpaceX posted US$5 billion in losses in 2025. He also called Musk “one of the weirdest people we’ve ever seen on this planet.”
“This obscenely wealthy weirdo has the ability and means to blow up the moon if he chooses and also to put a lot of people’s money in his pocket,” he said.
After Musk, the next richest Canadian is Changpeng Zhao, who has a net worth of US$109.5 billion. Forbes gives Musk a philanthropy score of one out of five, a ranking based on how much of their money the richest Americans have donated over their lifetimes.