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

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We're going to 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. 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. 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 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 AmericaCast. AmericaCast from BBC News. You hear that sound? Oh, I think when I hear that sound it reminds me of money.

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. This guy has trumped arrangement syndrome. I have four words for you.

Turn the volume up! No! Hello, it's Justin in the Worldwide Headquarters of America, 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. 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. Thanks for having me. 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? A trillionaire is someone with 13 figures in their net worth. 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 easily liquid. But on paper, he has reached the mark of trillionaire.

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? 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 in 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. And I don't wanna 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. Yes, even after going public and selling shares to the world,

he retains about 82% voting control over the company, 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. He has kind of said, take it or leave it. You get me or you don't get anyone else.

Yeah, so that's interesting. So not only are you buying into his vision, but you're buying into his future visions about which you know nothing. Indeed, he might not know anything at all given what an unusual person he is.

And we'll get to that in a second. But you are buying into really into the unknown, aren't you? You are. And that's actually what SpaceX has sort of built upon it.

At least what it's selling to the public are these very fantastical concepts. And if they're achievable or if they get achieved, you know, the company would probably be worth that much. But right now these are just concepts.

And some of the ideas that have been proposed as business plans include, you know, building data centers in orbit, you know, these AI data centers. Other ideas have been building a human colony on the moon. And then of course the kind of North Star mission of the company is to get people

to Mars. And all three of those ideas are just concepts on paper at this point. Yeah. But concepts on paper that have really taken off in people's minds because the initial

days of this offer and subscriptions to this offer have been a fantastic success, haven't they? Yeah. The stock in the first couple of days of trading have shot up so much so that the

the company surpassed tech giants like Amazon in terms of valuation.