Elon Musk stated that he does not have a large amount of cash, and his wealth is primarily in SpaceX and Tesla stocks. He has repeatedly mentioned that cash and cash equivalents account for less than 0.1% of his net worth, with the remainder tied to the stock prices of the two companies.

This is not a new stance. He mentioned in 2019 that others think he has a lot of cash, but he does not. In February 2026, during discussions about whether he would become a trillionaire, he reiterated that almost all of his net worth comes from his holdings in the two companies. After SpaceX goes public, media estimates suggest that his holdings and options could reach a trillion-dollar level based on the then-current market value, while his Tesla holdings and options could be worth hundreds of billions; even at 0.1%, his cash liquidity could still be around a billion dollars, which is negligible relative to his total net worth.

Liquidity is supplemented through pledging and company transactions. Regulatory filings show that he has pledged hundreds of millions of Tesla shares for loans; the board later limited the pledge scale to about $3.5 billion or 25% of the market value, whichever is lower. The New York Times reported based on internal documents that SpaceX had provided him with approximately $500 million in loans at lower interest rates than typical banks, and at different times, it has provided financial support to Tesla, SolarCity, and xAI. The cash on the company's books is not the same as the cash in his personal accounts: after SpaceX's IPO fundraising, the cash on the books could exceed $100 billion, and Tesla also has hundreds of billions in cash and short-term debt, which serves as operational reserves.

The lock-up period separates "having stocks" from "being able to sell stocks." Reports indicate that the lock-up period after SpaceX's IPO will last until around June 2027, during which he cannot freely reduce his holdings. Some restricted Tesla stocks and performance options must also meet certain criteria to be considered truly liquid. Valuations of private companies like Boring Company and Neuralink are negligible compared to the two giants.

In market mechanisms, buyers include index funds, retail investors, and institutions that must allocate to tech giants, while sellers are founders who almost never reduce their holdings. Funds in the public market price equity, rarely converting into his bank deposits. Beneficiaries are employees' options and co-investing shareholders that expand with market value; those under pressure include narratives that treat billionaire rankings as taxable cash flow and the pledge chain forced to cover margin calls during corrections. The event-driven aspect is that market capitalization accounting and personal liquidity are repeatedly treated as the same thing.

Additionally, the 0.1% figure has not been audited against a personal balance sheet, and Forbes and Bloomberg's real-time rankings fluctuate around the trillion-dollar mark with SpaceX and Tesla.

Source: Public Information