Musk's Wealth Falls Below $1 Trillion as SpaceX Short Interest Rises to 13%
Miles Bennett
Elon Musk's net worth dropped to $970.2 billion, falling below the trillion-dollar mark; SpaceX short interest surged from 8% to 13% in a single session, making the tug-of-war between bears and a potential squeeze the stock's key near-term variable.
How did the trillion-dollar fortune disappear?
Two core holdings fell at once: Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX (SPCX) slid sharply in a global tech sell-off.
SpaceX listed earlier this month at $135, then rallied to a $225.64 high — the surge that made Musk the first person ever worth over one trillion dollars.
This week the stock has dropped roughly 30% from that peak, erasing all post-IPO gains. This means → the listing-day premium has fully evaporated; the price is back near its starting point.
Below a trillion — is Musk still the richest person alive?
Yes. As of Wednesday's close, Musk's net worth stood at $970.2 billion. The runner-up, Google co-founder Larry Page, sits at roughly $284 billion — a gap of more than $680 billion.
In plain terms = even after this drawdown, the second-richest person would need to more than double to catch him.
Musk's wealth is almost entirely in stock and equity stakes. A rebound in Tesla and SpaceX could push him back above a trillion at any time.
Short interest jumped from 8% to 13% in one day — what does that signal?
Data firm Ortex Technologies reported that SpaceX's short interest — shares borrowed and sold short as a percentage of the free float — rose from 8% to 13% in a single trading session.
Ortex co-founder Peter Hillerberg called the pace "remarkable," given that SpaceX has been public for only a few weeks. This means → a sizable pool of capital is actively betting the stock will keep falling.
Outstanding short positions total roughly 83 million shares against average daily volume of about 270 million shares. In plain terms = the short position is nearly a third of a typical day's trading — a significant presence.
What makes shorting SpaceX risky?
The free float is limited. Hillerberg noted that any rebound — for any reason — could trigger a short squeeze (forced buying by bears to close positions, which itself drives the price higher).
On the supply side, Ortex's borrowing-demand indicator sits at roughly 1%, well below the 14% peak seen right after listing; shares already lent out account for about 39% of available inventory, up from roughly 30% last week. This means → there is still ample stock available to borrow — the bears have not run out of ammunition yet.
Musk has a well-documented history of publicly clashing with short sellers (the Tesla era being the textbook case), making SpaceX's risk-reward calculus unusually complex — it is not just a financial model, but a bet that also prices in the uncertainty of a founder's counter-offensive.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.