Elon Musk's net worth falls below $800 billion as SpaceX stock slides

Elon Musk's net worth dropped below $800 billion for the first time since his SpaceX IPO as the stock extended its post-launch-abort slide, erasing more than $45 billion in a single day.

"SpaceX shares have been under pressure since the Starship launch was scrubbed, and the lockup expiration adds another layer of uncertainty," said Gavin Parsons, an analyst at UBS.

SpaceX shares fell 4.4% to $124 on Friday, extending a five-day losing streak that has cut the stock's value by 14.5%. The stock has now lost more than 40% from its all-time high of $225.64 on June 16, just days after the company's record-breaking IPO. Musk, who holds 4.8 billion SpaceX shares and 350 million stock options, saw his fortune decline by $45.3 billion to $792.8 billion, according to Forbes.

The selloff threatens to accelerate when SpaceX's lockup period ends Aug. 6, potentially releasing about 1.37 billion shares onto the market — roughly quadrupling the supply of tradable shares, according to Axios. Musk's Tesla is scheduled to report earnings July 22, with shareholders pressing the company on why its robotaxi plans have stalled.

The aborted Starship launch Thursday evening — the first since SpaceX went public — triggered the latest leg of the decline. Musk said on X that "some of the engines didn't start," triggering an automatic abort, and that a second attempt would come "hopefully in a few days." Two Raptor engines will be removed and replaced before the next attempt, which Musk said would come early next week. UBS had flagged the launch as a potential positive event for the stock, with Parsons writing in a note that a successful flight could "demonstrate multiple new milestones" and be positive for shares.

Musk remains the world's richest person despite the decline, with a fortune more than double that of Google co-founders Larry Page at $282 billion and Sergey Brin at $260.1 billion. His peak net worth of $1.45 trillion on June 16 made him the first person to surpass the trillion-dollar mark, a status he held for just over a month. The decline has wiped out nearly $700 billion from his peak fortune.

The Starship program is central to SpaceX's growth strategy. The company's IPO prospectus described the rocket as the "world's first fully and rapidly reusable spacecraft," designed to reduce the cost of reaching orbit by 99%. At about 400 feet tall, Starship is the largest rocket ever built, and SpaceX aims to use it to ferry cargo and humans to the moon and Mars. Previous test flights have resulted in explosions, including a launch last year that Musk called a "minor setback."

Retail investors who bought SpaceX shares near the IPO peak have been left nursing losses, with the stock trading 45% below its June high. The decline has also weighed on Tesla shares, which fell 3% during the same period, according to Forbes.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.