Elon Musk on track to become worlds first trillionaire today as SpaceX lists on US stock market – business live

Musk's status as the world's first trillionaire is a symbol of the vast wealth being accumulated amid the tech and AI boom. OpenAI and Anthropic's IPOs later this year are additionally set to result in huge financial gains for other tech moguls and wealthy investors.

It's a consolidation of extreme wealth that highlights massive economic disparities and could have profound effects on society, as described by French economist Gabriel Zucman. “There is a fundamental tension in democratic societies between extreme wealth … and the very possibility of a well-functioning democracy,†said Zucman. “After World War II, it looked like extreme wealth belonged to the past†but now, he said, “the AI boom is minting billionaires by the day†and the first trillionaires are coming into view.

In today's episode of The Guardian's new podcast, Stateside with Kai and Carter, US tech editor Blake Montgomery tells Kai Wright about SpaceX's plan to create a self-sustaining city of one million people on Mars. If that happens, Musk could earn additional shares and compensation.

Elon Musk's SpaceX has made the largest-ever stock market debut today, with a valuation of over $2tn, making Musk the world's first trillionaire. What's behind the company's astronomical valuation? A promise to make humanity multiplanetary.

The jump in SpaceX's share price today, as its floats on the US stock market, means Elon Musk has become the world's first trillionaire.

His 38% stake in SpaceX is now worth around $800bn, after they jumped 20% in early trading, with the whole company's valuation now over $2tn.

Musk also owns just over 10% of Tesla, a stake worth $165bn, plus options to acquire another nearly 8% stake, worth $114bn according to Forbes's calculations.

Forbes had calculated Musk's wealth at around $980bn before SpaceX's shares started trading, so it would only have taken a small rise in the share price today to hit the one-trillion dollar figure.

Musk also owns stakes in his brain interface startup Neuralink and his tunneling firm Boring Company, plus has wealth from previous Tesla share sales.

Reminder: Oxfam has warned that the jump in Musk's wealth to over a trillion dollars marks ‘a dark day for democracy'.

SpaceX's shares are pushing higher, as investors who missed out in this week's initial public offering try to buy a stake in the company.

They're now up to $162.58, or 20% higher than the $135 IPO price.

That pushes SpaceX's stock market valuation over the $2tn mark.

BOOM! SpaceX's shares have begun trading 11% above their IPO price, as the biggest stock market float ever gets under way.

After an auction process that lasted more than two hours, SpaceX's shares are finally trading on the Nasdaq at $150.

That's a jump on the $135 which investors paid for each share in the company's IPO, which raised a record $75bn.

It gives SpaceX a valuation of almost $2tn, above the $1.77tn set in the IPO.

SpaceX is now only expected to jump by around 12% when the company's shares finally start trading.

Early quotes from the Nasdaq are now pointing to an indicative opening price of $151, Reuters reports, still above the IPO price of $135.

The price-discovery auction, where Nasdaq collects and matches buy and sell orders, ready for a smooth start to trading, is still continuing …

Back at the Nasdaq, SpaceX's indicated opening price has continued to tick down a little.

A few minutes ago it was indicated to open at $160, 18.5% above the $135 IPO price.

The drama of today's stock market float didn't prevent SpaceX continuing with its day job.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, to take 29 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit.

Speaking before the company rang the Nasdaq opening bell, SpaceX chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell said:

I want everyone to know that we opened in a rather exciting way. We launched. Falcon 9 launched Starlink satellites to orbit. What company would do such a thing on the day that they open in the public market? SpaceX would.

Oxfam has also released polling showing that six in ten Britons (60%) think it is unacceptable for any individual to hold more than £1tn in personal wealth.

A timely finding, as SpaceX's IPO appears to be poised to catapult Elon Musk into that position.

The charity adds:

At the same time, three quarters of the public (76%) support a 2% wealth tax on assets over £10 million, which Oxfam says could raise an estimated £24 billion every year to help rebuild public services, reduce poverty and tackle inequality in the UK and around the world.

71% also believe the current economic system works mainly in the interests of the very wealthy rather than ordinary people – a finding the charity says reflects growing public frustration with extreme inequality and falling living standards.

The SpaceX valuation appears to be slipping back towards earth, rather like one of it's impressive self-landing rockets.

Reuters are now reporting that SpaceX shares are indicated to open at $168, down from the $174 reported about 20 minutes after the market opened.

That's still a hefty pop on the IPO price of $135, though, as the wrangling of the auction process continues.

Anti-poverty charity Oxfam warned earlier this week that Elon Musk's imminent ‘government-backed trillionaire' status marks ‘a dark day for democracy'

It pointed out that Musk would be richer than the poorest 46% of the world population, or 3.8 billion people, combined.

Nabil Ahmed, senior director of economic justice at Oxfam America, said:

A trillion dollars in the hands of one man is incompatible not only with an affordable economy, but also with a healthy democracy. Economic inequality begets political inequality, and ordinary people bear the brunt while billionaires continue to write the rules for their own benefit.

SpaceX appears firmly on track for a $2tn valuation when its shares begin trading.

The ongoing auction process is now suggesting shares could start trading at $175, a big jump on the $135 which investors paid in this week's initial public offering.

That would give SpaceX a stock market valuation of $2.287tn, I calculate, up from the $1.77tn valuation set in the IPO.

There's plenty of razzmatazz outside the Nasdaq MarketSite today to mark SpaceX's IPO, including large images of the company's rockets:

SpaceX's shares are indicated to open at $174, Reuters is reporting, based on the auction process taking place on the Nasdaq right now.

That would be 29% above the company's IPO price, of $135.

It would push SpaceX's valuation up from $1.77tn to $2.28tn.

It would also cement Elon Musk's status as a trillionaire, as Forbes had pegged his wealth at $982.6bn based on the IPO price (Musk owns roughly 38% of SpaceX, plus shares and options in Tesla worth around $280bn).

Tradition dictates that executives ringing the stock market opening bell get terribly excited, and clap like a herd of performing seals, and SpaceX's top brass did not disappoint:

The auction period before SpaceX's shares start trading could take a few hours, agrees Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown:

“SpaceX has finally touched down on public markets, and the first few hours of trading once shares emerge from the auction period are likely to be noisy.

A company with this profile, this valuation and this level of investor attention is unlikely to drift quietly into the market. But early share price moves should not be mistaken for a clean verdict on the long-term investment case.

SpaceX is set to surge in its stock market debut today, predicts Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB.

But she points out it may take some time before the shares actually trade:

SpaceX's IPO has been an historic market event for its sheer size and the scale of demand for its shares. Ahead of its debut on the Nasdaq, the shares are higher by 30% in the pre-market, and could start trading at $175 per share, up from the $135 IPO price, based on prediction markets.

There is so much enthusiasm for SpaceX right now, that it is hard to see the shares slipping anytime soon. The numbers are huge: SpaceX sold $75bn of shares at its IPO, which valued the company at $1.75tn. If the stock pops 30% today, then SpaceX will be worth more than $2.4tn. SpaceX's IPO alone is greater than the amount raised in 22 of the last 25 years, and the its IPO generated more money than all IPOs in the US so far this year.

The shares may not trade straight away when the market opens, usually an IPO with this level of enthusiasm trades a few hours after the opening bell, to ensure a smooth transition to the stock market; to do this bankers will typically want to match buyers and sellers for 10% of shares. This should be easy, as we expect SpaceX to be extremely liquid today. The risk is that there are not enough sellers, and if the stock price is volatile, then circuit breakers could kick in, which may halt trading later today.

With trading underway in New York, two of the three major US share indices are a little higher.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 300.0 points, or 0.59%, at the open to 51,148.73.

The broader S&P 500 index has gained 0.22%.

But, the Nasdaq Composite is down 0.1%, suggesting a slight softening in tech stocks.

But what we really want to see is a trade in SpaceX's shares…..