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There is an extraordinary irony at the center of the story.
The SpaceX IPO initially made Musk dramatically richer.
Then the same public market that created that wealth began taking it away.
The IPO transformed SpaceX’s private valuation into a publicly traded price that investors could reassess every day.
That creates a completely different environment.
When SpaceX was private, its valuation could be established through funding rounds and private transactions.
Once it became public, millions of investors could buy and sell the stock.
Every trading session became a referendum on the company’s future.
That meant Musk’s fortune became far more visible—and far more volatile.
The “Mistake” May Have Been a Trade-Off
Was pricing SpaceX at $135 a share actually wrong?
It depends on what the objective was.
If the only objective was to maximize the amount of cash SpaceX could raise from the IPO, then the answer may be yes.
A higher price could have generated billions more for the company.
But IPO pricing has never been solely about extracting the maximum possible amount of money on the first day.
A successful IPO can help establish investor confidence.
If SpaceX had priced its shares at a much higher level and the stock immediately collapsed, the company would have faced a very different story.
Instead, it produced a spectacular debut.
The question is whether the cost of that success was worth the billions that potentially remained with investors.
That is a question financial analysts will likely debate for years.
Musk’s Fortune Wasn’t “Destroyed”
Perhaps the most important correction to the sensational headline is this:
Musk did not become poor.
Even after the extraordinary decline, he remained one of the world’s richest people by an enormous margin.
Forbes’ August 2026 ranking confirmed that Musk was no longer a trillionaire, but he remained the world’s richest person.
And the situation can change quickly.
In mid-August, SpaceX shares rebounded sharply. One report noted that a 10% increase in SpaceX’s share price added roughly $66 billion to Musk’s estimated wealth in a single trading session.
That swing illustrates exactly why billionaire net-worth figures should not be treated like bank balances.
A fortune measured largely through publicly traded shares can rise or fall by tens of billions without the individual buying or selling anything.
A New Challenge for Musk
The bigger issue facing Musk is not whether he can recover a particular number on a billionaire ranking.
It is whether the enormous valuations attached to his companies can ultimately be justified.
SpaceX has to continue expanding its space and satellite businesses while financing ambitious AI projects.
Tesla has to convince investors that its investments in autonomy, robotics and artificial intelligence can eventually generate enormous returns.
And Musk has to manage both companies while navigating increasingly complicated corporate structures and shareholder expectations.
A Tesla-SpaceX combination has also become a subject of market speculation. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that a merger could have major implications for Musk’s potential $1 trillion Tesla compensation package, although such a transaction would face significant shareholder and legal complications.
That possibility demonstrates how closely intertwined Musk’s companies, wealth and strategic decisions have become.