Musk Companies Lose $1.5 Trillion in Market Value

The combined market capitalization of Elon Musk's SpaceX and Tesla Inc. has declined by approximately $1.5 trillion since mid-June 2026. SpaceX, which went public in June, saw its valuation drop nearly 50% as shares slid from an IPO price of 160 to 133. Tesla Inc. shares fell 25.4% over a one-month period and 30% year-to-date following weak earnings reports and declining electric vehicle sales in 2025.

Financial pressure on SpaceX is intensified by high cash burn rates, with the company spending nearly a fifth of its $86 billion IPO proceeds in a single quarter. Second-quarter 2026 capital expenditures totaled $18.4 billion, $15.8 billion of which was dedicated to AI and compute infrastructure. Morgan Stanley projects SpaceX will not achieve positive free cash flow until 2035. These losses coincide with the expiration of a shareholder lock-up period that allowed insiders to sell up to 20% of locked-up stock.

Musk has attempted to sustain valuations with ambitious projections, claiming SpaceX revenues could reach $1 trillion by 2030. Meanwhile, Tesla Inc.'s pivot toward robotaxis has faced skepticism as its operational scale remains small compared to Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo. Tesla Inc.'s AI software head, Ashok Elluswamy, reported "zero notable incidents" over 380,000 miles driven, yet the company continues to struggle with technical hurdles in its Optimus robot and Terafab projects. Speculation has grown regarding a potential merger of Tesla Inc. and the Boring Company into a single entity, SpaceXAI, following SpaceX's acquisition of xAI in February 2026.