Forbes Daily: Elon Musk Is A Step Closer To Becoming A Trillionaire |
SpaceX filed for its highly-anticipated IPO Wednesday—a big step toward Elon Musk becoming a trillionaire.
The offering is estimated to value SpaceX at $1.75 trillion and raise $75 billion—more than double Saudi Aramco’s $29 billion debut in 2019 as the largest-ever IPO. The company is expected to list in June.
The world’s richest man has a net worth of $824.3 billion as of Wednesday, and with an estimated 43% stake in SpaceX, his net worth would be all but guaranteed to surpass the $1 trillion mark.
This is a published version of the Forbes Daily newsletter, you can sign-up to get Forbes Daily in your inbox here.
Stock futures stumbled and oil prices soared following President Donald Trump’s prime-time speech Wednesday, in which he said that U.S. military goals were “nearing completion,” while adding that Iran would be hit “extremely hard over the next two to three weeks.” Trump also claimed the Strait of Hormuz would “open up naturally,” and the price of crude oil spiked 7% following the president’s remarks.
NASA successfully launched Artemis II on Tuesday, a 10-day crewed flight around the moon that will mark the first time astronauts have traveled beyond low-Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. The mission is the first step in NASA’s plan to return humans to the lunar surface, with a landing targeted for 2028.
Health care continues to buoy the job market, as U.S. private sector employment held steady in March, according to payroll processing firm ADP. Private-sector payrolls increased by 62,000 last month, the report found, beating consensus estimates—with the majority of that coming from education and health services. The report signaled a “cooling labor market amid tariff headwinds and lingering inflation uncertainty,” Gina Bolvin, president of Bolvin Wealth Management Group, said in comments shared with Forbes Daily.
Supreme Court justices appeared broadly skeptical of President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship, as they heard oral arguments in the landmark case over its legality Wednesday. Trump briefly attended the oral arguments, becoming the first sitting president to attend a Supreme Court argument, as the court is expected to issue its decision before its term ends in June.
Another oral weight loss drug will soon hit the market after the FDA greenlit Foundayo, Eli Lilly’s new GLP-1 pill. The medication will cost patients $149 per month out of pocket for its lowest doses, as high prices remain a concern for patients. Eli Lilly’s stock was up nearly 4% following the announcement Wednesday.
Gig work has reshaped the economy—but it can also create an additional headache for workers when tax season comes around, especially with new deductions and rules in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. There’s a new temporary deduction for tips, as well as a temporary “no tax on overtime” deduction, though gig workers likely won’t benefit since they are typically classified as independent contractors. The key is to keep meticulous records, including saving receipts and logging mileage.
Acclaimed Physicist And His Daughter Are Burying Tiny Nuclear Reactors A Mile Underground
The concept behind Elizabeth Muller and her father Richard’s nuclear power startup, Deep Fission, is surprisingly simple: Drill a 30-inch-diameter borehole a mile into the earth, fill it with water, then insert a teeny-tiny nuclear reactor that will boil the water at the bottom and send it up a separate pipe to run a steam turbine. Each hole will generate 15 megawatts, enough to power 12,000 homes. Put 70 of them in a field and you can power a one-gigawatt artificial intelligence data center.
Once up and running, it should also be cheap, because sticking a reactor deep in the ground under 160 times atmospheric pressure eliminates 80% of traditional power plant costs, which go to concrete buildings and thick steel vessels.
Last August the Department of Energy included Deep Fission as one of 10 companies in its Reactor Pilot Program, designed to quickly test a new generation of smaller reactors that are easier to build. “The pull of electric demand from data centers warranted a new approach,” says Rian Bahran, deputy assistant secretary for nuclear at the DOE.
WHY IT MATTERS So far, with Liz as CEO and Richard, who devised the modern carbon dating method used to determine the age of ancient plant and animal remains, as chief technical officer, Deep Fission has raised $122 million, most recently at a $1 billion (post-money) valuation. Assuming they can get an expedited license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, they hope to start selling commercial power in 2027—years ahead of the other DOE-backed reactor startups.
MORE This Startup Wants To Turn America’s Nuclear Waste Into Power
Grade inflation has become a problem, and Harvard University has made waves for its proposed cap on the number of A grades faculty can give students. But now the school plans to postpone the new limit for a year:
20%: The proposed restriction on the number of A grades handed out in every undergraduate class, plus an allowance of up to four additional A’s per class
Over 60%: The share of all undergraduate grades at Harvard that were A’s in 2024-25
20: The number of percentage points the proportion of students receiving A grades has risen since 2015, according to The Harvard Crimson
Many high-achievers give 100% as their baseline, but it’s important not to occupy all of the space in the room. Try mastering the 50% rule—preparing your input for a task or project, or what you can control, and then intentionally stopping to ask questions. It creates a “strategic vacuum” that allows you to see what your teammates or clients come up with.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act has created some confusion when filing state income taxes, prompting one state to give taxpayers an extension. Which state is it?
Thanks for reading! This edition of Forbes Daily was edited by Sarah Whitmire and Chris Dobstaff.