Elon Musk becomes world’s first trillionaire as SpaceX ends trading day with valuation of $2.1tn – as it happened

One economist says Musk’s world-first level of extreme wealth highlights massive economic disparities and could have profound effects on society

SpaceX’s shares will be supported by a number of “forced buyers”, such as tracker funds.

Richard Hunter, head of markets at interactive investor, explains:

The Nasdaq index has tweaked its rules, which has allowed SpaceX to join the index on a fast-track basis. It remains to be seen whether the company will have a disproportionate effect on the index in terms of weighting, but in any event its inclusion guarantees some additional and significant buying pressure.