Elon Musk’s Fortune Falls Below $800B After Starship Delay

Elon Musk’s net worth dropped below $800 billion after SpaceX shares extended their recent decline following the cancellation of the latest Starship launch attempt. Investors reacted negatively after the highly anticipated mission was called off, sending the company’s stock lower despite earlier optimism from Wall Street about the test flight.

SpaceX shares fell 4.4% to about $125 shortly after markets opened on Friday, continuing a five-session losing streak. By Thursday, the stock had already declined 14.5% over the previous five trading days, marking another record low for the company.

The decline reduced Musk’s personal fortune by an estimated $45.3 billion, leaving his net worth at $792.8 billion. Despite the setback, he remains the world’s richest individual, ahead of Google co-founders Larry Page, whose wealth stands at $282 billion, and Sergey Brin at $260.1 billion. Musk owns approximately 4.8 billion SpaceX shares along with another 350 million stock options.

The latest market selloff followed Musk’s announcement that SpaceX had aborted Starship’s 13th launch attempt on Thursday evening after several rocket engines failed to ignite. He said another launch would take place “hopefully in a few days” and later posted on X that the “most probable launch timing is early next week.”

Before the launch, UBS analyst Gavin Parsons had described the recent weakness in SpaceX shares as a buying opportunity. In a Wednesday research note, Parsons said a successful Starship mission could highlight multiple technological milestones and provide a positive catalyst for the stock. He added that the mission was expected to validate critical launch pad capabilities, including booster engine relight performance and updated Starlink deployment systems, making it an important test flight following the company’s initial public offering.

The latest decline also pushed Musk’s fortune below the $813 billion level recorded before SpaceX’s record-breaking IPO on June 3. The company’s public debut briefly made Musk the world’s first trillionaire, with his wealth peaking at $1.45 trillion when SpaceX shares reached an all-time high on June 16. Since then, his net worth has fallen by nearly $700 billion.

Investors are also looking ahead to Tesla’s earnings report on July 22. Ahead of the company’s investor call, shareholders have submitted several popular questions asking why Tesla’s robotaxi program appears to have stalled. One of the most upvoted questions asks what is preventing the company from achieving its short-term goals.

Starship’s latest setback follows another unsuccessful test in May, when the Super Heavy booster failed to complete a controlled landing in the Gulf of Mexico after multiple engines did not reignite. Musk has long promoted Starship as the vehicle that will eventually transport cargo and people to the Moon and Mars. Standing roughly 400 feet tall, it is the largest rocket ever built. Although previous test flights have ended in explosions, including one last year that Musk described as a “minor setback,” SpaceX continues to position Starship as the centerpiece of its long-term growth strategy. In its IPO prospectus, the company said the spacecraft is designed to become the world’s first fully and rapidly reusable launch system while reducing the cost of reaching orbit by 99%.