Musk loses trillionaire status as SpaceX shares come plummeting back down to Earth

Musk loses trillionaire status as SpaceX shares come plummeting back down to Earth Elon Musk has lost his trillionaire status after shares in his rocket company SpaceX 'came down to earth with a bump' - although he remains the world’s richest person by a considerable margin Elon Musk has lost his trillionaire status after shares in his rocket company SpaceX "came down to earth with a bump". Bloomberg's Billionaires Index valued Musk's net worth at $957bn (£727bn) on Tuesday, down from $1.1tn less than two weeks ago, when SpaceX's public debut helped make him the world's first trillionaire. Meanwhile, Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires list put his fortune at $964bn (£732bn) on Tuesday. While he has slipped back into the billionaire club for now, Musk remains by a considerable margin the world’s richest person. The slump in shares of SpaceX - in which Musk holds around a 40 per cent stake - and electric vehicle maker Tesla, which he founded and in which he owns around a 12 per cent stake, came amid a broader sell-off in technology stocks. Massive data-centre spending and rising geopolitical and economic risks - including the war with Iran - have fuelled doubts over the long-term profitability of artificial intelligence (AI) Musk became the world’s first trillionaire on June 12 after SpaceX shares soared following the biggest initial public offering of stock in Wall Street history. The success came despite the company losing $2.6bn overall from operations last year. While SpaceX priced its initial public offering at $135 per share, its stock jumped more than 19 percent once trading began on June 12. The shares opened at around $150, climbed to a peak of $168 and closed the day at just under $161. This closing price gave the company a market value of $2.1tn, making it the sixth-largest public company in the US. SpaceX shares jumped as high as $225 on June 16 before slipping back to $156 on Tuesday. On Wednesday, shares were down 1.35 per cent in early trading at $154. "For a stock like SpaceX, a lot of decision making might have been emotional and based on the anticipation of huge leaps forward in space exploration and utilisation, but investing should be something treated with clear eyes and patience, even when such huge numbers are involved," Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, told the BBC. Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, said: "SpaceX has come down to earth with a bump, burning off most of its post-launch steam. The sell-off may have been partly triggered by the confirmation that it was planning a bond sale, expected to be around $20 billion. "Issuing debt at such a heady valuation raises questions about cash flow for this hugely capital-intensive venture."