Musk's SpaceX Makes Wall Street Debut: Elon Becomes The World's First Trillionaire

[00:00:00]Story moving Wall Street. Elon Musk SpaceX has made a historic debut on Wall Street. The $75 billion IPO is the biggest in history. This values the company at nearly $1.8 trillion. Elon Musk will become the world's first trillionaire tonight. More than 4,400 employees at SpaceX will become millionaires. Elon Musk was at the company's headquarters in Texas and addressed employees just before the opening. Well, the company's president and chief operating officer, Gwen Shotwell, was at the NASDAQ for the debut.

[00:00:37]>> You know, while the the other aerospace companies, they build good rockets and everything, they they were simply not pursuing the technology that's necessary to make life multilanetary.

[00:00:47]uh to to to make to make Star Trek to make uh the the exciting science fiction futures that we've read about real. And that's what SpaceX is all about is to take the fiction out of science fiction and create an exciting, inspiring future for everyone. We want to be able to take anyone who wants to go to the moon, anyone who wants to go to Mars or anywhere in the solar system and maybe beyond the solar system at some point.

[00:01:19]We want to be able to take you there. Uh not not just not just a few astronauts.

[00:01:24]I mean you literally you uh if you watch whoever you are watching this, SpaceX wants to be able to take you to the moon, take you to to Mars, uh and and ultimately beyond. And um and and I I'm confident at this point that with the incredible team that we have here at SpaceX that we will do that for you.

[00:01:57]>> Today we make history again.

[00:02:00]We have a history of making history.

[00:02:04]So, I want everyone to know that we did open this morning in a rather exciting way. We launched Falcon 9 launched Starlink satellites to orbit.

[00:02:16]So, what company would do such a thing on the day that they open in the public market?

[00:02:23]SpaceX would. Right.

[00:02:27]>> So, Elon Musk will become the world's first trillionaire. $1 trillion. Let's talk about this money and a lot of money. Uh with the IPO of SpaceX, as I said, Elon Musk could achieve something no one else has before. He said to become the world's first trillionaire with an estimated net worth of around $1.1 trillion. Now, what is a trillion?

[00:02:48]It's a million million. And how much is a trillion dollars? A trillion is 1,000 times larger than a billion. A billion has nine zeros. A trillion has 12. The gap may look small on paper, but it's enormous in reality. Let's understand what this number means in context of the world. What Elon Musk's wealth, the newly acquired number means for the world. So according to an analysis done by CNN, the individual GDP of about 170 countries is less than a trillion dollars. To put that in perspective, Taiwan's economy is worth about $977 billion while Ireland's GDP is close to $800 billion. Now look at it through the lens of real estate. CNN analyzes that all residential and commercial property in Houston combined is valued at around $879 billion. Still well short of the trillion dollar mark. The Wall Street Journal offers an even more striking visual. If you start stacking pennies, 1 million pennies would reach into the clouds. 1 billion pennies would stretch nearly 1,000 miles. and 1 trillion pennies. Well, that stack would reach the moon and back twice. NBC has its own way of visualizing the numbers. A stack of $1 million bundles adding up to $1 trillion would stand nearly as tall as the Statue of Liberty or almost match the height of SpaceX's Starship rocket.

[00:04:16]Now, CNN offers another mindbending comparison. Even if you spent $1 million every hour, every day without fail, it would still take more than hundred years to burn through $1 trillion. And consider this, the combined fortunes of Google founders, Oracle founder, and Amazon founder together add up to about $1.09 trillion. Meanwhile, the 50 most valuable sports teams on the planet are worth just a third of a trillion dollars or just about $350 billion. Now, the SpaceX IPO has also triggered renewed scrutiny from global inequality researchers. While we're talking about this big number and how many zeros it has, how rich uh Mr. Elon Musk, who's already the world's richest man, will become, there's also a conversation around inequality. A new analysis by Oxfam analysis estimates Musk's fortune would exceed the combined wealth of the poorest 46% of the global population.

[00:05:17]That is around 3.8 8 billion