Elon Musk lost roughly $87 billion in a single trading session on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026, according to Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires Index, which showed his fortune sliding from $783.3 billion to $696.1 billion, an 11.1% drop. Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index pegged the hit at roughly $89.6 billion, taking him to $687 billion, with the gap reflecting different methodologies for valuing his private and newly public stakes. The trigger: SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX | SPCX Price Prediction) shares fell 13.61% after its first quarterly report as a public company.
A Revenue Beat Overwhelmed by a Sixfold Capex Jump
SpaceX posted $7.81 billion in revenue, up 92% year over year and beating consensus of roughly $6.9 billion by nearly $1 billion. Adjusted EBITDA reached $3.54 billion, up 191% year over year. Capital expenditures leapt sixfold quarter over quarter to $18.4 billion, up from $10.1 billion in Q1, with roughly $15.8 billion earmarked for AI infrastructure. The company booked a $541 million net loss on an EPS of -$0.09, beating the consensus loss of -$0.2893. The market fixated on capex intensity and Starlink ARPU, which slid from $85 to $66 as subscribers doubled to 12.0 million.
Musk’s Reassurance Attempt
Musk pulled the timeline for SpaceX’s $1 trillion in annual revenue goal forward to 2030 from 2031, floating “a non-zero chance” it lands as soon as 2029. CFO Bret Johnsen defended the AI outlays: “On the AI compute side, we’re able to deploy capital in such a way that we’re getting less than a one-year payback.” The market rejected the argument. The stock closed at $108.27.
Why This Hits Musk’s Fortune So Directly
Per the June 2026 S-1, Musk owns approximately 4.76 billion shares plus 352.5 million options, roughly 42% of SpaceX’s equity and more than 80% of voting power through Class B super-voting shares, of which he controls 93.6%. Bloomberg’s index shows SpaceX now accounts for nearly two-thirds of Musk’s total net worth, having overtaken Tesla as his largest single asset. Each $1 move in SpaceX’s share price shifts Musk’s net worth by roughly $4.76 billion, per Yahoo Finance’s calculation using his disclosed share count. Wednesday’s decline of about $17 per share from Tuesday’s close above $125 drove the loss.
From Trillionaire to Not, in Under Two Months
Musk briefly became the world’s first trillionaire when SpaceX began trading June 12, 2026, with his fortune peaking around $1.33 trillion on June 16. Since then his net worth has fallen more than 30%, tracking the stock’s slide. SPCX now trades roughly 20% below its $135 IPO price, about 33% below its first-day closing price, and roughly 46% below its June closing peak above $200. Forbes had already flagged Musk as “no longer a trillionaire” before this week’s drop.
The Lockup Hits Today
Today, Aug. 6, marks the expiration of a portion of SpaceX’s post-IPO insider lockups, freeing roughly 911.5 million shares for potential sale. This layers fresh supply-side risk onto an earnings-driven drawdown that has not stabilized. Evercore’s Mark Mahaney flagged that free cash flow will likely weigh on the stock near term.
Steve Westly, of The Westly Group and a former Tesla board member, framed the open question on CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe: “SpaceX wants to tell the story they’re the market leader… But people still have these questions: how quickly can they grow? How big are the costs going to be before this thing gets to profitability?” Musk’s personal balance sheet will answer in real time.
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