Elon Musk just lost his trillionaire status again after three days—but he says ‘it’s not like it’s sitting in a bank account’ anyway

In the span of just three days, SpaceX founder Elon Musk ascended to trillionaire status before crashing out of the club in a billion-dollar downturn.

And while he remains the richest person in the world by a $600-billion longshot, the entrepreneur says his wealth is always at the whim of his companies’ success.

“Trillionaire represents some percentage ownership in companies that I built, and it’s not sitting in a bank account,” Musk said in an interview with entrepreneur Peter Diamandis earlier this year, about three months before he first became a trillionaire following SpaceX’s IPO in June.

Musk’s net worth started to fall from its recent high of $1.05 trillion on Tuesday, dropping down to $987 billion on Thursday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index .

His aerospace company’s shares were down 3.5% and trading under $162 yesterday, just as his EV car business Tesla was also down over 2%.

Forbes estimates that Musk lost $21 billion Wednesday morning when SpaceX shares fell following a report that the company plans to raise $40 billion to buy Nvidia chips.

The strategy could have impacted shares due to potential concerns about the company’s spending needs and debt load, even as it invests heavily in AI infrastructure.

It’s a steep $63 billion loss after he regained his trillionaire status this Monday; SpaceX shares rose nearly 8% at the start of the week, as Morgan Stanley analysts even called the stock “cheap” at the day’s prices.

And as Musk owns around 4.76 billion shares of SpaceX—including another 1.3 billion shares of unvested restricted stock—his net worth shot up from $976.9 billion to $1.04 trillion afterward.

Very few people—if any others at all—will ever reach a 13-figure net worth in their lifetimes.

But the jaw-dropping number isn’t actually what it seems, Musk has said.

And in 10 years, he’s predicted his fortune may mean nothing at all.

“I own a percentage of the companies.

The companies are doing lots of useful things, the value of the company grows,” the tech entrepreneur continued.