Elon Musk Just Lost His Trillionaire Status, as SpaceX and Tesla Stocks Plummet. Should Investors Buy the Dip?

Elon Musk is no longer a trillionaire. The world’s richest man had become the world’s first trillionaire after the record-setting IPO of Space Exploration Technologies (NASDAQ:SPCX) on June 12.

But a sell-off in SpaceX stock, combined with an even deeper drop in recent days in his other company, Tesla(NASDAQ:TSLA), pushed Musk back into the land of mere billionaires less than two weeks later. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk’s total net worth as of June 24 was $946 billion.

But don’t feel too bad for Musk -- he still has $650 billion more than Alphabet co-founder Larry Page, who is No. 2 on the list. And Musk has made $326 billion this year alone, which is more than the net worth of anyone else in the world.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Odds are that Musk will regain his trillionaire status at some point. But in the meantime, the dip in SpaceX and Tesla warrants investigation. Are either of these stocks a buy now at reduced prices, or can investors expect even more volatility?

SpaceX is the biggest IPO in history

SpaceX had a historic IPO this month. It sought to raise a record-setting $75 billion in its initial public offering and then topped that as underwriters exercised their “greenshoe” overallotment options, bringing the final figure to $85.7 billion. The company says it identified a total addressable market (TAM) of $28.5 trillion, with $26.5 trillion of that coming from AI.

SpaceX has three primary businesses. It’s perhaps best known for its rocket-launching business, which has so far completed more than 660 missions and deploys reusable rockets on most of them. Then there’s the Starlink satellite business, which is SpaceX’s only profitable venture to date. Starlink employs a network of more than 9,600 satellites in low-Earth orbit to provide mobile connectivity and internet access to rural and underserved communities.

AI, which includes the Musk-owned xAI that was absorbed by SpaceX earlier this year, is the most ambitious of the three businesses. It houses Grok, the company’s large language model and chatbot, and X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. The company lays out an ambitious plan to construct a vast AI computing infrastructure, starting on Earth but eventually extending into space.

But it will be costly. Goldman Sachs, which was the lead underwriter for the SpaceX IPO, projects that the company will post a negative free cash flow of $105 billion in 2029 before becoming free cash flow positive by 2031.

The company also rattled investors this week when it announced a bond sale to raise money, despite having $100.8 billion in cash on hand. Published reports indicate that the company is looking to raise $20 billion through the sale. The stock fell more than 16% on the news.

SpaceX has a $2 trillion valuation, but it will take time for the company to turn a profit. Investors can expect a wild ride in the meantime.

Tesla wants to be more than an automaker

Musk became a household name for his leadership of Tesla, which he grew into the world's largest automaker by market cap. Tesla helped popularize electric vehicles, and its stock grew rapidly from 2019 through 2023, with a five-year growth rate of 1,020%.

But 2024 and 2025 were not as kind. Competition grew stronger and margins tightened. Tesla sales fell in both 2024 and 2025, and while numbers rebounded in the first quarter of 2026, Tesla isn’t seeing the profit margins that it enjoyed just a few years ago.

However, Musk is turning Tesla’s attention to other ventures. It earned $2.4 billion in the first quarter from its energy generation and storage components, and it has a software business that sells full self-driving (FSD) and connectivity subscriptions to Tesla owners.

Tesla is also working to make unsupervised FSD a reality -- and while the technology hasn’t been finalized or approved for nationwide use, Musk hopes to have it approved by the end of this year.

Finally, Tesla has an ambitious robotics program, with its first-generation line being developed at its Fremont, California, factory to produce up to 1 million Optimus robots per year. A second-generation line in Texas is also in development to produce 10 million robots annually. Musk has described the Optimus robots as assistants capable of completing everyday household tasks and operating in factories.

However, Tesla stock has underperformed the S&P 500 and is down 17% so far this year. A solid second-quarter report showing improved EV sales and margins would go a long way toward restoring investor confidence in the stock, but in the meantime, investors should view Tesla with some caution.

Patrick Sanders has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Goldman Sachs Group, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.