Yes. Tesla stopped being Elon Musk’s largest identifiable corporate asset in March 2025, when a steep decline in Tesla’s share price pushed the estimated value of his Tesla holding below the value of his SpaceX stake. The clearest reported crossover date was March 18, 2025, when Forbes estimated Musk’s SpaceX stake at about $147 billion—approximately $20 billion more than his Tesla shares, according to The Guardian’s report.
That conclusion remains true based on the latest available evidence through August 10, 2026. However, the comparison is not a statement about Musk’s cash, an audited personal balance sheet, or the total value of Tesla versus SpaceX. It is an estimate of the value of Musk’s stake in each company, using reported ownership figures and changing market or private-transaction valuations.
The short answer: SpaceX replaced Tesla in 2025
For years, Tesla was the main company behind Musk’s publicly visible wealth. That changed when Tesla shares sold off sharply in early 2025. Musk did not need to sell Tesla stock for SpaceX to become the larger holding: the market value of Tesla shares fell while SpaceX’s privately estimated valuation continued to rise.
The original headline was therefore substantially correct, but it needs careful wording. The most accurate version is:
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SpaceX is now Musk’s largest identifiable corporate stake by reported or publicly observable value; Tesla remains one of his largest assets, but it is no longer the largest.
The distinction matters because Musk also owns or has exposure to private companies such as Neuralink and The Boring Company. Those businesses do not have continuously quoted public share prices, so there is no complete, independently audited ranking of every private asset in his portfolio.
When did SpaceX overtake Tesla?
March 18, 2025 is the clearest reported date for the crossover. At that point, Forbes estimated Musk’s SpaceX holding at approximately $147 billion, around $20 billion above the estimated value of his Tesla shares. The comparison followed a major Tesla sell-off rather than a documented transaction in which Musk suddenly transferred or sold his Tesla position.
| Date | What happened | Why it mattered |
|---|---|---|
| Before March 2025 | Tesla was generally treated as Musk’s largest visible wealth-bearing company. | Tesla’s public share price made the value of his stake easy to observe. |
| March 18, 2025 | Forbes estimated Musk’s SpaceX stake at $147 billion. | SpaceX’s estimated stake value exceeded Musk’s Tesla stake by about $20 billion. |
| December 2025 | A reported SpaceX secondary share sale implied an approximately $800 billion company valuation. | Private-market transactions raised the estimated value of Musk’s SpaceX position. |
| February 2, 2026 | SpaceX acquired xAI. | The company associated with Musk’s largest stake became materially broader than the launch and Starlink business alone. |
| June 12, 2026 | SpaceX began trading publicly as SPCX. | A market price replaced much of the earlier private-valuation guesswork. |
The December 2025 valuation was not equivalent to a public stock-market capitalization. It came from a private secondary transaction, where pricing can reflect negotiated terms, limited liquidity, preferred-stock rights, and the identity of the buyers and sellers. Later secondary-market reporting also referred to a transaction at an approximately $1.25 trillion valuation. Those figures show how quickly SpaceX’s estimated value expanded, but they should not be presented as though every share could have been sold instantly at that price.
How the comparison is calculated
The basic calculation is straightforward:
Value of Musk’s stake = number of shares attributed to Musk × current share price
In practice, the hard parts are determining which shares count, whether awards are vested, whether a private-company price is reliable, and whether the two prices and ownership disclosures are from the same date.
Musk’s Tesla holding
Tesla’s April 2026 beneficial-ownership filing reported that Musk was associated with 699,580,882 Tesla shares, or approximately 19.9% under that filing’s calculation. The reported total included 286,428,773 issued restricted shares subject to service-based vesting, so the figure should not automatically be interpreted as 699.6 million freely saleable shares.
Using the available Tesla price snapshot of $328.58, dated August 8, 2026, produces this illustrative calculation:
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That is a pre-tax, mark-to-market estimate. It excludes the value of taxes, potential selling costs, pledges, and awards that were not included in the filing’s beneficial-ownership calculation.
Tesla’s 2025 proxy reported a different figure: 714,754,706 shares, or 19.7%, as of August 29, 2025. That methodology included options exercisable within 60 days, including 303,960,630 shares underlying the 2018 CEO Performance Award. Tesla’s later filing also excluded 423,743,904 performance-based restricted shares over which Musk disclaimed beneficial ownership under a voting agreement.
Those figures cannot simply be added together. They come from different filings, dates, and ownership methodologies. A reliable comparison should use one clearly identified filing rather than combining the most favorable numbers from multiple disclosures.
Musk’s SpaceX holding
SpaceX’s IPO prospectus provides more detailed ownership information because the company now has publicly traded shares. After the IPO, SpaceX had approximately:
- 7,380,196,910 Class A shares outstanding;
- 5,695,668,265 Class B shares outstanding;
- 13,075,865,175 common shares in total.
The prospectus reported Musk holding:
- 849,494,440 Class A shares;
- 5,219,053,075 Class B shares;
- 6,068,547,515 common shares combined.
His common shares represented approximately 46.4% of SpaceX’s common stock. At the IPO price of $135 per share, the common-share portion of Musk’s SpaceX stake had an implied value of approximately:
6,068,547,515 × $135 = approximately $819 billion
The IPO price and post-offering share count also implied an equity value for SpaceX of approximately $1.765 trillion before subsequent trading movements. SpaceX’s offering consisted of 555,555,555 Class A shares, and trading began on June 12, 2026 under the ticker SPCX. The company’s pricing announcement is available through SpaceX investor relations; the detailed ownership figures are in its SEC-filed IPO prospectus.
What Musk’s SpaceX stake was worth after the IPO
Public trading made the comparison much more visible, but it also made the dollar gap more volatile. SpaceX initially traded well above its IPO price. Forbes reported an intraday market value of approximately $2.77 trillion on June 16, 2026. Later reporting described a substantial decline, including trading below the $135 IPO price.
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The latest date-stamped example in the available reporting is an Associated Press report using a SpaceX closing price of $114.92 on August 6, 2026. Applying that price to Musk’s 6.0685 billion common shares gives:
6,068,547,515 × $114.92 = approximately $697 billion
Compared with the approximately $229.9 billion Tesla estimate using the available August 8 Tesla price snapshot, the two holdings would differ by roughly $467 billion. That is a useful illustration of the scale of the lead, not a synchronized real-time portfolio statement: the quoted prices are from different dates and should be refreshed together before publication or investment decisions.
The comparison is even larger if all of Musk’s restricted SpaceX award is treated as though it were already earned. His SEC Form 3 identified 1,302,072,285 restricted Class B shares separately from his ordinary common holdings. At $114.92, the expanded calculation would be:
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(6,068,547,515 + 1,302,072,285) × $114.92 = approximately $847 billion
That $847 billion figure is not the appropriate base case. The restricted shares are performance-based and should not automatically be counted as vested, immediately owned wealth. The Form 3 describes vesting conditions connected to market-capitalization milestones, a Mars colony, and computing capacity based outside Earth. They are best shown as a separate potential or fully earned scenario.
| Holding | Shares used | Price used | Illustrative value | How to interpret it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tesla | 699,580,882 | $328.58, August 8, 2026 snapshot | About $230 billion | Reported beneficial holding multiplied by a public share price; not cash and not fully liquid. |
| SpaceX common shares | 6,068,547,515 | $114.92, August 6, 2026 close | About $697 billion | Base-case mark-to-market estimate before taxes. |
| SpaceX common shares plus restricted award | 7,370,619,800 | $114.92, August 6, 2026 close | About $847 billion | Expanded paper-value scenario; restricted shares are not automatically vested or immediately realizable. |
Because price feeds may report different timestamps or closing conventions, the safest wording is that SpaceX remains far ahead on the latest available evidence, while the exact dollar difference changes every trading day.
Why SpaceX overtook Tesla
1. Tesla’s stock fell
The March 2025 crossover was driven primarily by the decline in Tesla’s share price. Since Musk’s Tesla holding is large, a change in Tesla’s market value directly changes the estimated value of his personal stake. No sale by Musk was required for Tesla to lose the top position.
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Tesla remains a very large company and a very large personal holding. Losing the top spot in Musk’s portfolio does not mean Tesla became financially unimportant or that its automotive business ceased to matter.
2. SpaceX’s valuation rose
SpaceX’s estimated value rose through private secondary transactions before its IPO. A reported December 2025 transaction placed the company’s valuation near $800 billion. Later private-market activity and the IPO produced still higher reference points. The public listing then allowed investors to reprice the shares continuously rather than relying solely on tender offers or negotiated secondary sales.
3. SpaceX became a broader company
Today’s SpaceX is not exactly the same asset described in the March 2025 headline. SpaceX acquired xAI effective February 2, 2026. Before that, xAI had acquired X Holdings in March 2025. SpaceX’s IPO materials therefore include xAI and X within the modern corporate structure, and the company retrospectively recast its historical financial statements to include those businesses because the transactions were under common control.
That means the current value labeled SpaceX includes a broader combination of launch services, Starlink, xAI, X, artificial-intelligence infrastructure, and long-term space projects. A reader comparing the 2025 and 2026 figures is not comparing precisely the same collection of businesses.
Does Musk own 82.4% of SpaceX?
No. Approximately 82.4% refers to Musk’s voting power after the IPO, not his economic ownership of 82.4% of the company.
SpaceX has a dual-class share structure. Its Class B shares carry 10 votes per share, allowing Musk’s large Class B position to give him much more control over corporate decisions than his approximately 46.4% economic ownership of common shares would otherwise provide.
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This is a key distinction:
- Economic ownership measures the portion of the company’s ordinary equity value attributable to the shares.
- Voting power measures the ability to influence shareholder decisions.
- Control does not mean Musk can immediately withdraw 82.4% of SpaceX’s value as cash.
The detailed post-IPO share counts and voting figures are reported in SpaceX’s SEC filing.
Why Musk’s SpaceX stake is not the same as cash
A quoted share price creates a paper or mark-to-market value. It does not mean Musk could sell every share at that price and receive the full calculated amount.
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- Taxes: A sale could create a substantial tax bill.
- Liquidity: Selling billions of dollars’ worth of shares could push the market price lower.
- Lockups: SpaceX’s IPO filing disclosed a 366-day lockup for Musk, with other shareholders subject to staggered release provisions.
- Restricted awards: Performance-based shares may never fully vest if their conditions are not met.
- Pledges and collateral: Shares used to secure loans are not equivalent to unrestricted cash.
- Insider and market rules: Large shareholders and company insiders face additional trading restrictions.
For that reason, “Musk has $697 billion in cash” would be wrong. “His common SpaceX stake had an estimated pre-tax market value of about $697 billion at the August 6 closing price” is a defensible description of the calculation.
SpaceX’s value does not prove that it is profitable
The size of Musk’s SpaceX stake should not be confused with SpaceX’s current earnings or with a conclusion that the company is fairly valued. SpaceX’s IPO filing reported a net loss of approximately $4.937 billion in 2025 and a net loss of approximately $4.276 billion in the first quarter of 2026.
Contemporaneous reporting on SpaceX’s first public-company earnings also cited approximately $7.8 billion in second-quarter 2026 revenue and a $541 million net loss. The valuation reflects investor expectations for Starlink, launch services, AI infrastructure, X, and future space projects—not just current net income.
A larger personal holding can result from a high market valuation even while the company is reporting losses. Ownership value and fundamental value are separate questions that investors must analyze separately.
Tesla is still a major part of Musk’s wealth and identity
Tesla remains one of Musk’s largest identifiable corporate holdings and still has substantial operations across electric vehicles, energy storage, software, and services. In the second quarter of 2026, Tesla reported:
- 451,758 vehicles produced;
- 480,126 vehicles delivered;
- 13.5 GWh of energy-storage deployments.
Those figures, reported in Tesla’s investor-relations release, illustrate why SpaceX becoming Musk’s largest asset is not the same as Tesla becoming irrelevant. Tesla’s operating results, market capitalization, Musk’s compensation awards, and the value of his personal shares are four related but different subjects.
There is also a small corporate link between the companies: SpaceX’s IPO materials said Tesla beneficially owned 18,990,195 SpaceX Class A shares, representing less than 1% after the IPO.
What about Neuralink, The Boring Company, and Musk’s total net worth?
The claim is not a complete audit of every asset Musk owns. Neuralink and The Boring Company are private businesses without the same continuously observable market price as Tesla or publicly traded SpaceX. Their valuations may be significant, but the available evidence does not provide a similarly transparent, current comparison that would displace SpaceX from the top position among Musk’s identifiable corporate stakes.
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Nor is this article calculating Musk’s overall net worth. Net-worth trackers such as Forbes and Bloomberg can produce different totals because they may use different assumptions about options, restricted shares, private-company discounts, debt, taxes, and valuation dates. Those estimates should be attributed and date-stamped rather than treated as audited facts.
Could Tesla become Musk’s largest asset again?
Yes. The ranking is not permanent. Tesla could regain the lead if its stock rose substantially, if SpaceX’s price fell, if SpaceX’s valuation were discounted more heavily, or if SpaceX’s restricted awards were excluded while Tesla’s eligible awards were counted under a different ownership methodology.
That is a scenario, not a forecast. The durable conclusion is simply that the relative values have changed. Any future article or portfolio estimate should recalculate both holdings using:
- the same valuation date and, ideally, the same market close;
- the latest beneficial-ownership filings;
- common shares separated from options and restricted awards;
- economic ownership separated from voting power;
- pre-tax paper value separated from realizable cash value.
The important distinction behind the headline
Tesla’s loss of the top position is best understood as a change in the estimated value of Musk’s corporate holdings, not as a change in his cash balance or proof that SpaceX is a more profitable business.
The original March 2025 comparison involved a private SpaceX valuation and a falling Tesla stock price. The 2026 comparison is more observable because SpaceX is public, but it is also more complicated because SpaceX now includes xAI and X, has dual-class shares, has substantial restricted awards, and has experienced sharp trading swings since its IPO.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did SpaceX become more valuable to Elon Musk than Tesla?
The clearest reported crossover date was March 18, 2025. Forbes estimated Musk’s SpaceX stake at about $147 billion, approximately $20 billion more than his Tesla shares, after Tesla’s stock had fallen sharply.
How much is Musk’s SpaceX stake worth?
Using the reported 6,068,547,515 common SpaceX shares attributed to Musk and the $114.92 closing price reported for August 6, 2026, the stake had an estimated pre-tax market value of about $697 billion. Including 1.302 billion restricted performance-based shares would produce an approximately $847 billion paper-value scenario, but those awards should not automatically be treated as vested wealth.
Does Elon Musk own 82.4% of SpaceX?
No. Approximately 82.4% is his reported voting power, largely because SpaceX Class B shares carry 10 votes each. His economic ownership of common shares was approximately 46.4% after the IPO.
Is Musk’s SpaceX stake equivalent to cash?
No. The estimate is paper or mark-to-market value. Taxes, lockups, liquidity, market impact, pledging arrangements, insider-trading rules, and unvested awards can all reduce the amount Musk could actually realize.
Can Tesla become Musk’s largest asset again?
Yes. The ranking changes with both share prices and with the treatment of options and restricted awards. A major Tesla rise, a SpaceX decline, or more conservative treatment of SpaceX awards could change the comparison.
The Bottom Line
Bottom line: SpaceX—not Tesla—is Elon Musk’s largest identifiable corporate asset, and the change first became clearly true on March 18, 2025. SpaceX’s 2026 IPO made the lead easier to measure, but the exact dollar figure remains volatile. The most careful comparison uses Musk’s vested or ordinary shares, date-matched prices, and separate treatment for restricted awards, voting control, taxes, and liquidity.
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