Under Tesla’s 2025 CEO Compensation Plan, Elon Musk looked to be on the path toward becoming the world’s first trillionaire in a matter of years. But with the IPO of Space Exploration Technologies, better known as SpaceX, in June 2026, Musk became a trillionaire overnight.
Speculation in the market abounds about Musk merging SpaceX and Tesla, which would form one of the largest companies by market value. A deal of that size would mean swapping shares of both companies, and Musk’s shareholdings would be unified.
Here’s a closer look at Musk’s shares in Tesla and SpaceX and just how much of his massive wealth these holdings account for
How many Tesla shares does Musk own?
Elon Musk owned 699.58 million shares of Tesla as of September 30, 2026, according to the EV maker’s 2026 proxy statement. Those shares, including 286.4 million restricted shares granted as part of the 2018 CEO Performance Award, were valued at $251 billion as of early November 2026.
How many SpaceX shares does Musk own?
Elon Musk owned 6.4 billion SpaceX shares, equating to about 48.4% of the company, according to an August 2026 filing with the SEC. Those shares — including 1.3 billion shares of restricted Class B common stock — were valued at $859 billion, as of early November 2026.
What is the combined value of Tesla and SpaceX shares?
SpaceX is Musk’s biggest holding, and the combined value of Musk’s stakes in Tesla and SpaceX was $1.1 trillion in early November 2026. That’s based on shares cited as beneficial ownership as reported by Tesla and SpaceX in their SEC filings.
Bloomberg, in its Billionaires Index list, doesn’t count Musk’s restricted stock in Tesla and SpaceX as part of its net worth calculation. Without those, Bloomberg puts Musk’s net worth at $845 billion, as of early November. Still, Musk is so wealthy that the next-richest person on Bloomberg’s list — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, with a net worth of $369 billion — is worth just 43.6% of their estimate of Musk’s wealth.
The combined worth of Musk’s stakes in SpaceX and Tesla staying above $1 trillion depends on the two companies’ shares remaining at current levels, or on Tesla moving higher as SpaceX declines, or vice versa.
How much of Musk’s wealth is in stock? How does he spend money?
Virtually all of Musk’s estimated net worth is in the form of stock he holds in Tesla, SpaceX, and other companies, which makes his wealth fairly illiquid unless he chooses to sell shares, which would dilute his ownership in his companies.
Like many other ultra-wealthy individuals whose net worths are largely tied up in their ownership stakes in companies, Musk uses his stock as collateral to take out loans he can draw on when he needs liquid cash for purchases or projects.
Larry Ellison, co-founder and CTO of software giant Oracle, is also well-known to fund his lifestyle with loans collateralized by his company stock.
More on Tesla and SpaceX:
- How much TSLA stock does Tesla CEO Elon Musk actually own?
- How much SPCX stock does SpaceX CEO Elon Musk actually own?
- Tesla-SpaceX merger math just shifted in Tesla’s favor
What are Elon Musk’s other major holdings?
Tesla and SpaceX are Musk’s biggest companies, and he has other ventures that are notable but much smaller, including The Boring Company, which engineers and builds underground tunnels, and Neuralink, a neurotechnology startup. He also has a major stake in X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
His AI startup, xAI, merged with SpaceX in early 2026.
