Elon Musk could become world's first trillionaire thanks to SpaceX, says investment bank

[midian182]

Why it matters: Elon Musk reclaimed the title of world's richest person from Jeff Bezos last week when soaring Tesla stock boosted his net worth to around $242 billion—almost $50 billion more than the Amazon founder. But that would pale in comparison to what Musk could eventually become: the world's first trillionaire.

While it was a 3% share rise for Musk's EV company that propelled him to the top of the list rich, analysts at Morgan Stanley believe it could be his space exploration firm SpaceX that adds an extra digit to his already colossal fortune.

Speaking to The Guardian, analyst Adam Jones said SpaceX was "challenging any preconceived notion of what was possible and the timeframe possible, in terms of rockets, launch vehicles and supporting infrastructure."

"More than one client has told us if Elon Musk were to become the first trillionaire ... it won't be because of Tesla. Others have said SpaceX may eventually be the most highly valued company in the world – in any industry."

SpaceX's first all-civilian spaceflight took place last month. The four passengers spent three days circling the earth in the Inspiration4 rocket after launching into an orbit of about 575 kilometers—higher than the ISS and Hubble telescope.

Starlink, a subsidiary of SpaceX, properly launched its satellite internet service in Greece this week after a year of beta testing. Last month, SpaceX said it had shipped more than 100,000 Starlink terminals to users in over 14 countries, but there's still a backlog of over 400,000 pre-orders that have yet to be fulfilled.

The valuation of Elon Musk's SpaceX crossed $100 billion following a recent secondary share sale, making it the second-largest privately held company behind Chinese multinational internet firm ByteDance. Musk currently owns around 48% of SpaceX.

The Bloomberg Billionaires list currently has Musk at number one with $242 billion, followed by Jeff Bezos on $197 billion. Bill Gates is fourth with $133 billion, and Mark Zuckerberg is fifth thanks to his $127 billion valuation.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/91869-elon-musk-could-become-world-first-trillionaire-thanks.html

 

[thelatestmodel]

America's richest 400 people hold over 3 trillion between them.

They could fix so much, permanently, and not even notice the effect on their bottom line.

And yet they choose not to. Billionaires and trillionaires should not exist, at some point you should have to give back to society and help pay for things. It's so exhausting.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

America's richest 400 people hold over 3 trillion between them.

They could fix so much, permanently, and not even notice the effect on their bottom line.

And yet they choose not to. Billionaires and trillionaires should not exist, at some point you should have to give back to society and help pay for things. It's so exhausting.

It's your jealousy that's exhausting.

Why don't YOU go out and make the world better by adding value to it with your own invention/idea/company?

 

[Nintenboy01]

In a decade or two billionaires will be as ho-hum as millionaires today

 

[Watzupken]

It is a meaningless metrics. So what if one becomes a trillionaire? Chances of one needing that much money in their entire life is zero. When you are dead and at some point we all will, you can't use the money.

 

[R00sT3R]

Nothing but a modern day 'Robber Baron' pothead.

 

[Geralt]

America's richest 400 people hold over 3 trillion between them.

They could fix so much, permanently, and not even notice the effect on their bottom line.

And yet they choose not to. Billionaires and trillionaires should not exist, at some point you should have to give back to society and help pay for things. It's so exhausting.

It's their money. They are not bound to give back to society. This obligation only exists in the mind of some people. They can do whatever they want with their money. What is the problem with that?

 

[Geralt]

It is a meaningless metrics. So what if one becomes a trillionaire? Chances of one needing that much money in their entire life is zero. When you are dead and at some point we all will, you can't use the money.

It's not money only for private needs. They invest all the time, like Elon.

 

[Nintenboy01]

It's your jealousy that's exhausting.

Why don't YOU go out and make the world better by adding value to it with your own invention/idea/company?

let's be honest, the likes of Musk, Bezos and Gates don't truly deserve all that wealth especially when it's built by stepping on the backs of others. But at least Gates is more charitable

 

[Markoni35]

Whatever he earns, it won't come even be 0.01% of the amount people who control the banks, investment funds and almost all the rest of industry have.

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

let's be honest, the likes of Musk, Bezos and Gates don't truly deserve all that wealth especially when it's built by stepping on the backs of others. But at least Gates is more charitable

I doubt Elon Musk will ever get to over $1T because of one simple reason: he plans on using his money to establish civilization on Mars. There aren't really lucrative money making ventures on Mars, so it's bound to cost a ton of money to bring supplies over from Earth for decades until humanity on Mars can live on its own.

That is the point of SpaceX, to make humanity multiplanetary (note the full name is Space Exploration for a reason). He's always said that the point of Tesla is to bring sustainable transport to humanity more quickly, and that when he's finished there he will take his profits from Tesla to fund SpaceX's mission.

Sure he isn't exactly being a philanthropist addressing today's problems like Bill Gates. Instead he is attempting to solve future problems he believes are existential crises for humanity which may "lose the light of consciousness" as he puts it. To devote decades of your life preventing something with no imminent risk (Tesla addressing climate change) or indication of happening (SpaceX addressing an extinction event) takes an incredible conviction (I personally do not see either being existential risks).

And at least as a consumer, you can avoid Tesla and SpaceX easily whereas avoiding using Microsoft or Amazon's products is not so easy.

 

[BadThad]

It's your jealousy that's exhausting.

Why don't YOU go out and make the world better by adding value to it with your own invention/idea/company?

BRAVO!

It's amazing what a great job the MSM and politicians have done at brainwashing the ignorant into hating the companies that provide us with products, services and jobs we all want, need and desire. The ignoramuses' that rail against companies day in and day out are communists.

 

[wiyosaya]

I doubt Elon Musk will ever get to over $1T because of one simple reason: he plans on using his money to establish civilization on Mars. There aren't really lucrative money making ventures on Mars, so it's bound to cost a ton of money to bring supplies over from Earth for decades until humanity on Mars can live on its own.

That is the point of SpaceX, to make humanity multiplanetary (note the full name is Space Exploration for a reason). He's always said that the point of Tesla is to bring sustainable transport to humanity more quickly, and that when he's finished there he will take his profits from Tesla to fund SpaceX's mission.

Sure he isn't exactly being a philanthropist addressing today's problems like Bill Gates. Instead he is attempting to solve future problems he believes are existential crises for humanity which may "lose the light of consciousness" as he puts it. To devote decades of your life preventing something with no imminent risk (Tesla addressing climate change) or indication of happening (SpaceX addressing an extinction event) takes an incredible conviction (I personally do not see either being existential risks).

And at least as a consumer, you can avoid Tesla and SpaceX easily whereas avoiding using Microsoft or Amazon's products is not so easy.

Musky may be attempting to solve future problems, and that is admirable; however, without solving the existing problems first, problems will reappear where ever humanity establishes itself in the universe, and IF anyone cares enough to try to figure out what went wrong and correct the problems, I bet that the basis of the new problems will be found in the uncorrected problems on Earth. Trying to solve the problems that will crop up probably will not happen, though, instead, they will just deny them, or try, once again, to run away from them. Corruption is, unfortunately as I see it, part of human nature and a venture off Earth will be just as plagued by corruption is anything on Earth.

So he establishes a colony on Mars, and F the rest of the Earth? Yes? IMO, he has just that type of personality to do so, and he will not like people pointing it out. The problem with that is that, like I said above, without solving the existing problems with humanity, they will crop up in one form or another.

It's that simple Einstein definition of insanity quote in action - trying to do the same things over and over again and expecting different results.

Musky is a dreamer, and though he claims to be doing what he's doing with Tesla and SpaceX for the betterment of humanity, I really do not see him as having the required wisdom to do so.

 

[wiyosaya]

BRAVO!

It's amazing what a great job the MSM and politicians have done at brainwashing the ignorant into hating the companies that provide us with products, services and jobs we all want, need and desire. The ignoramuses' that rail against companies day in and day out are communists.

It's also amazing that the ignorant are incapable of realizing that corruption is ripe in humanity everywhere and with that corruption, all humans on the lower branches of the tree of life will continually have to put up with the that constantly drops down on them.

 

[wiyosaya]

let's be honest, the likes of Musk, Bezos and Gates don't truly deserve all that wealth especially when it's built by stepping on the backs of others. But at least Gates is more charitable

This. But now that Gates no longer has the guiding voice of a good woman in his life, I have to wonder how this will affect his supposedly charitable nature.

 

[wiyosaya]

It's your jealousy that's exhausting.

Why don't YOU go out and make the world better by adding value to it with your own invention/idea/company?

Musky has not invented anything. All of SpaceX technology is based on the full use of NASA patents - royalty free. It's a US government hand out.

His hyperloop - it appeared in several episodes of Babylon 5 from the mid/late 1990s.

His electric car - nothing more than a scaled up RC car that runs on AA batteries.

There's only one thing Musky is interested in - Musky.

 

[Sathi43]

America's richest 400 people hold over 3 trillion between them.

They could fix so much, permanently, and not even notice the effect on their bottom line.

And yet they choose not to. Billionaires and trillionaires should not exist, at some point you should have to give back to society and help pay for things. It's so exhausting.

This is such a misnomer. What do you think these guys do with money? Stuff them under the bed?

Most of these wealth is already in the form of share ownership. When it's cash they have, what they do is put them into investments, (ie- putting it back into circulation in the economy.) Even the raw cash they hold in bank, guess what the bank is gonna do with it? You as a participant in that economy, earn and spend that money all the time without even realizing it.

 

[Kotters]

Musky has not invented anything. All of SpaceX technology is based on the full use of NASA patents - royalty free. It's a US government hand out.

His hyperloop - it appeared in several episodes of Babylon 5 from the mid/late 1990s.

His electric car - nothing more than a scaled up RC car that runs on AA batteries.

There's only one thing Musky is interested in - Musky.

I'm sorry, can you produce evidence that all of SpaceX's work on hypersonic retropropulsion is taken from NASA? Full flow staged combustion? Methane engines?

If you're trying to equate invention with "someone imagined something like this, once, " then you're working with a very different dictionary from the rest of us.

 

[Sausagemeat]

It's also amazing that the ignorant are incapable of realizing that corruption is ripe in humanity everywhere and with that corruption, all humans on the lower branches of the tree of life will continually have to put up with the that constantly drops down on them.

You’re right. Corruption is rife in humanity. But under our current capitalist system if a corporation becomes corrupted we can choose not to give them money. We have a means to take power (money) away from those who abuse it.

However in alternative systems like socialism and communism where everything is controlled by the state, if the state becomes corrupted you have no choice but to continue paying your taxes.

And funnily enough when you concentrate all the power and wealth in society in one place (the state) it attracts corruption. Practically every country with socialism or communism in its constitution is a corrupt hell hole.

Corruption is precisely why we need capitalism and rich people. Individuals can only become rich if the market allows them to.

 

[Xelions]

I blame Reagan! But there is still time to (re)-introduce new efficient innovative tax laws on the rich

 

[ManuelV]

America's richest 400 people hold over 3 trillion between them.

They could fix so much, permanently, and not even notice the effect on their bottom line.

And yet they choose not to. Billionaires and trillionaires should not exist, at some point you should have to give back to society and help pay for things. It's so exhausting.

Yeah, they could give $8,333 dollars to everyone of the 360 milliones americans or $428 dollars to every people on earth. That would be good times for everyone. But after that, no tesla, no microsoft, not windows, not xbox, not amazon, not space x, etc and not any ot those direct and indirect jobs . Sad

And that is if they could sell every single stock they own at the same time wihout the price going down.... and who would buy those stocks?... our next billionaries to target.

When you talk about humans, and I think everything else, you can't say "permanently fix" anything.

 

[merikafyeah]

America's richest 400 people hold over 3 trillion between them.

They could fix so much, permanently, and not even notice the effect on their bottom line.

And yet they choose not to. Billionaires and trillionaires should not exist, at some point you should have to give back to society and help pay for things. It's so exhausting.

SpaceX and Tesla create value in the world by building better tech and supporting the livelihoods of over 80,000 employees combined. How many people's livelihoods do YOU support?

Wealthy people aren't the problem. The problem is people with the mindset of "I can't make a difference in the world because I don't have [xyz]".

 

[Xelions]

Yeah, they could give $8,333 dollars to everyone...

You were almost on the money. Wealth re-distribution in a fashion has a place. For eg. workers getting higher wages. The sentiment has merit.

 

[kiwigraeme]

With regards to the story who gives AF

to the subsequent comments - glad to see such insightful nuance debate . I learnt a lot

 

[amghwk]

Let's face it. To get rich like that, you have to be an already rich person inherited from your daddy and/or mommy.

And if not already rich, you have to lie, cheat and steal from others to get to the top.

Honesty doesn't pay nowadays.