Elon Musk loses $45 billion as SpaceX shares tumble after Starship launch setback

Elon Musk’s net worth dropped below $800 billion after SpaceX shares fell to another all-time low on Friday, wiping out $45.3 billion of his fortune in a single session. SpaceX shares fell 4.4% to around $125 shortly after trading opened on Friday, following an aborted Starship launch, according to a Forbes report.

This potentially extends a five-day losing streak that has cut the stock value by more than 14.5% since last Thursday, the report said. Musk’s fortune now stands at approximately $797.8 billion on Saturday, down from a peak of $1.45 trillion when SpaceX shares hit an all-time high on June 16, marking a decline of nearly $700 billion in just over a month.

What caused the sell-off

The sell-off followed Elon Musk’s announcement that Starship’s 13th launch, scheduled for Thursday evening, was aborted after some of the rocket’s engines failed to start. “Hopefully in a few days,” Musk said on X when asked about the next launch attempt, later adding in a subsequent post that “the most probable launch timing is early next week.”

The failed launch attempt was SpaceX’s first test flight since its record-setting IPO last month, making the setback particularly consequential for investor sentiment at a moment when expectations around the rocket’s capabilities were already baked into the stock’s valuation. UBS analyst Gavin Parsons had written in a Wednesday note that the recent slide in SpaceX shares presented a buying opportunity ahead of the Starship launch, which he said could boost shares and “demonstrate multiple new milestones.” Parsons described the flight as intended to “validate” capabilities including booster engine relight ability and updated Starlink deployment.

A pattern of setbacks

The latest setback comes after a failed Starship attempt in May, according to Forbes. At the time, the rocket’s Super Heavy booster failed to make a controlled landing in the Gulf of Mexico after several engines failed to reignite, a pattern that has raised questions about the reliability of the technology at the centre of SpaceX’s growth strategy.

Musk’s net worth is now smaller than it was before SpaceX’s IPO, having fallen below the $813 billion his fortune was valued at as of June 3, before the listing made him the world’s first trillionaire. Despite the steep decline, Musk remains the world’s richest person by a wide margin, ahead of Google co-founders Larry Page at $282 billion and Sergey Brin at $260.1 billion. Musk holds 4.8 billion SpaceX shares and an additional 350 million stock options, meaning every percentage point decline in the stock directly translates into billions of dollars of paper losses at a scale few individuals in history have ever experienced.

What this means for the broader picture

The latest decline extends a sharp reversal in Musk’s wealth over the past month. Last month, it was reported that Elon Musk’s net worth slipped below the $1 trillion mark after a single adjustment erased $118 billion from his fortune. The decline reduced his estimated wealth to $957 billion. Despite the 11% drop, Musk remained the world’s richest person by a considerable margin and was still up $338 billion year-to-date, representing a 54.5% increase in his wealth.