Elon Musk the trillionaire... does the global economy need him to succeed?

**Justin Webb** (0:00)
Hello, it's Anthony, and you're about to hear Americast.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:03)
We're delighted to have you with us.

**Justin Webb** (0:05)
And if you enjoy what you hear, please do consider subscribing to the podcast. That way, you'll never miss an episode. Now, on with today.
We're gonna go behind the scenes today, looking at why Elon Musk has become a trillionaire, and why the US needs him to succeed as financial institutions and investors all around the world take a huge gamble on his unique vision becoming reality.

**Elon Musk** (0:27)
We want to be able to take anyone who wants to go to the moon, anyone who wants to go to Mars, or anywhere in the solar system, and maybe beyond the solar system at some point, we want to be able to take you there. Not just a few astronauts, I mean you, literally you.

**Justin Webb** (0:44)
So as financial institutions, investors across the world put their money behind Elon Musk and his sci-fi strategy, which includes putting artificial intelligence data centers into space as well, as well as sending people, of course, how risky is all of it? And it's not just Elon Musk with big AI companies also planning to float on the stock exchange later this year with promises of what AI will do.
What does it mean, not just for the US economy, but the global economy as well? Welcome to Americast.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:17)
Americast.

**Elon Musk** (1:18)
Americast from BBC News.

**Justin Webb** (1:20)
You hear that sound? Oh, I think when I hear that sound it reminds me of money.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:25)
We didn't start this war, but under President Trump we are finishing it. This is a big cover-up and this administration is engaged in it.

**Justin Webb** (1:33)
This guy has Trump arrangement syndrome.

**Elon Musk** (1:35)
I have four words for you.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:38)
Turn the volume up.

**Justin Webb** (1:44)
Hello, it's Justin in the worldwide headquarters of Americast in London, England. And it is just me, at least just me in the worldwide headquarters. But I'm delighted to say I'm joined on the line by Ryan Mack, who is an investigative technology reporter and an author as well. At the New York Times, he's been investigating not just Elon Musk, but the tech companies, the tech billionaires for years. So he's exactly the right guest to talk to about Elon Musk, but also about the wider world that is beginning to take shape around us, and indeed the wider world that is beginning to take shape potentially outside this world as well. So Ryan, so good to talk to you. Thanks for joining us.

**Ryan Mac** (2:22)
Thanks for having me.

**Justin Webb** (2:24)
Let's start with this word trillionaire, because I'm not sure I even know what a trillion of anything is. And sometimes it's different in English, English and American English. What is a trillionaire? And has he actually got a trillion dollars in the bank?

**Ryan Mac** (2:37)
A trillionaire is someone with 13 figures in their net worth.
You know, we've never had anyone hit that level of wealth before. You asked, does he have that about money in his bank account? Technically, no. Most of that is in shares of SpaceX, which is not, you know, easily liquid. But on paper, he has reached the mark of trillionaire.

**Justin Webb** (3:00)
And the point you make about the shares is important, isn't it? Because we should explain what has just happened and why he is now, at least on paper, so wealthy. So it was a private company, wasn't it? SpaceX. What has changed?

**Ryan Mac** (3:13)
Yeah, so SpaceX has been a private company since its founding in 2002 And recently, at the beginning of this year, the company decided we want to sell our shares to the public, allow people to own this company and have an IPO, an initial public offering. These are singular events in a company's history to raise, in this case, tens of billions of dollars.
And that's what happened here. They sold their shares in the public market. The company went public and the company raised about $75 billion in cash.

**Justin Webb** (3:47)
And I don't want to get too nerdy about this, but he's done it in a way, hasn't he, where he keeps, Elon Musk keeps, quite a lot of control.

**Ryan Mac** (3:55)
Yes. Even after going public and selling shares to the world, he retains about 82% voting control over the company, you know, a super majority, where he essentially is the sole decision maker of any major corporate decision. So he, even though people around the world have shares in this thing, he's the one that makes and calls the shots.