One man has nearly the same net wealth as all 65 million South Africans put together

South African-born Elon Musk has a net worth of over $1 trillion after the successful SpaceX listing, which is nearly equal to all 65 million South Africans.

SpaceX’s initial public offering (IPO) and Nasdaq listing broke records as the largest stock market debut in history.

SpaceX bypassed traditional IPO conventions by issuing a fixed, take-it-or-leave-it pre-market price of $135 per share to raise $75 billion.

The offering was oversubscribed, and when public trading commenced on the Nasdaq on 12 June 2026, investor demand sent the stock surging.

The stock opened at $150 per share, peaked at $176 during intraday trading, and closed its first day at $160.95.

The first day of public trading concluded with SpaceX achieving a market capitalisation of $2.1 trillion.

Because SpaceX has given shares to many employees over the years, it has turned more than 4,400 current and former SpaceX employees into millionaires.

Prior to Friday’s listing, Musk was already the world’s richest person, with a net worth hovering around $800 billion.

The historic initial public offering and Nasdaq listing of SpaceX increased his wealth to between $1.1 trillion and $1.2 trillion.

The bulk of his $1.1+ trillion fortune is based on his majority stake in the $2.1 trillion SpaceX and his holdings in the electric vehicle giant Tesla.

Musk describes himself as cash-poor, since most of his wealth is locked up in volatile corporate stock subject to a 366-day lockup period.

Elon Musk versus all South Africans

The South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB’s) Household Balance Sheet showed that South Africans had a net wealth of R22.454 trillion at the end of 2025.

The SARB’s March 2026 Quarterly Bulletin showed that this net wealth increased significantly over the past year.

“On an annual basis, households’ net wealth increased notably in 2025 as the increase in total assets far exceeded that in total liabilities,” the SARB said.

The higher asset value was largely due to increased equity holdings, as share prices rose sharply in 2025.

The domestic share market performed exceptionally well in 2025, with the FTSE/JSE All-Share Index (ALSI) recording its best performance since 2005, surging by 37.7%.

In US dollar terms, the ALSI rose by 55.3% in 2025, significantly outperforming its emerging- and developed-market peers.

This helped the market value of total assets of South African households to outpace that of total liabilities.

The net wealth of South African households is calculated by adding the financial and non-financial assets and subtracting all liabilities.

Financial assets include pensions, shares, and bank deposits, non-financial assets include residential properties and land, and liabilities are debts and loans.

South Africans had R19.15 trillion in financial assets, R6.46 trillion in non-financial assets, and R3.15 trillion in liabilities.  

Therefore, South African households’ net wealth at the end of 2025 was R22.454 trillion, equating to approximately $1.36 trillion.

It meant that South Africa’s total household net wealth of all 65 million citizens was only slightly higher than Elon Musk’s projected net wealth after the SpaceX IPO.