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The first trillion-dollar man - 22nd June 2026

Elon Musk's company SpaceX has made him a trillionaire. He's the first person with over $1 trillion.

Musk put SpaceX on the stock market. Shares in SpaceX increased from $135 to $161 each.

40 percent of SpaceX shares are owned by Musk. He's now got four times as much money as Larry Page, who started Google. Page is the second richest person on the planet.

Musk's first company was called Zip2. He and his brother set up Zip2 in 1995. When it was sold in 1999, Musk made $22 million. He spent $12 million of this setting up X.com.

X.com was one of the first online banks. This bank and another company joined together. They called the new company PayPal. This was sold to eBay in 2002 and made Musk $176 million.

Musk set up SpaceX with $100 million from that sale. He led SpaceX as both its CEO and chief engineer. He directed development of its rockets and satellites.

Musk's actions have angered some people. The Tesla CEO bought Twitter and changed its rules. Then, he supported Trump in the US elections and was made his special advisor. As a result, Tesla saw car sales fall sharply.

Musk can't access most of his trillion dollars because it's locked in his companies. He has around 0.1 percent, or $1 billion, in cash.