Musk Loses $45 Billion as SpaceX Shares Plunge on Launch Abort
An aborted Starship launch sent SpaceX shares to an all-time low, slashing Elon Musk’s net worth by $45.3 billion and wiping out the billionaire's post-IPO wealth gains.
SpaceX shares dropped to an all-time low on Friday after the company aborted the 13th launch of its Starship rocket. Elon Musk, who holds 4.8 billion shares and 350 million options in the company, saw his net worth fall by $45.3 billion to $792.8 billion. He retains his position as the world’s richest person, significantly ahead of Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who are worth $282 billion and $260.1 billion respectively.
The selloff completely erased the wealth gains Musk realized from SpaceX’s initial public offering. His fortune is now valued lower than the $813 billion it was worth on June 3, just before the record-setting trading debut that temporarily made him the world’s first trillionaire. SpaceX stock has since plummeted from a June 16 peak that pushed Musk’s wealth to $1.45 trillion, representing a staggering decline of nearly $700 billion.
Thursday’s aborted launch was the first test flight since the company went public, making it a critical proof of concept for investors banking on the firm's growth trajectory. UBS analyst Gavin Parsons had noted in a Wednesday note that the flight was intended to validate capabilities essential to SpaceX's launch ramp, specifically booster engine relight ability and updated Starlink deployment. Parsons had argued that a successful flight demonstrating new milestones would serve as a strong positive catalyst for the stock.
Instead, Musk announced that some of the rocket’s engines failed to start, delaying the attempt to "hopefully in a few days." The failure follows a similar issue in May, when several engines failed to reignite, causing the Super Heavy booster to miss a controlled landing in the Gulf of Mexico. While Musk has previously dismissed past test flight explosions as a "minor setback" in the broader goal of making life multiplanetary, the sustained market selloff highlights the financial risks tied to these engineering challenges.
SpaceX anchored its IPO prospectus heavily on Starship, pitching the 400-foot rocket as a fully reusable spacecraft designed to slash the cost of reaching orbit by 99%. The aborted test adds to a period of intense scrutiny across Musk’s broader business empire. Tesla, his publicly traded electric vehicle maker, will report earnings on July 22. Ahead of the investor call, shareholders have submitted highly upvoted questions asking why the company’s robotaxi plans have “stalled” and inquiring exactly “what is keeping Tesla back from accomplishing these short-term goals that they’ve set for themselves?”
