Elon Musk poised to make history as world’s first trillionaire

When Elon Musk’s SpaceX debuts on Wall Street on Friday, the controversial tech titan will almost certainly step into the history books as the world’s first trillionaire.

Musk already holds the crown of the world’s wealthiest man – worth roughly $696bn before SpaceX announced its record-breaking initial public offering on Thursday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.

But his 42 percent stake in the rocket-cum-AI company will take him into uncharted territory.

SpaceX will begin trading at a valuation of $1.77tn when it debuts on the Nasdaq stock exchange, selling 555.6 million shares at $135 each.

Estimates of the value of Musk’s stake range from $743bn to $866.5bn.

If all goes well, Musk, who also leads Tesla, will officially cement his trillionaire status before markets close on Friday.

$1 trillion is a number so large that it stretches the limits of human comprehension.

If Musk spent $1m every day, it would still take him 2,740 years to spend $1 trillion, according to UK charity Oxfam.