Forbes Daily Briefing

Forbes

The Forbes Daily Briefing shares the best of Forbes reporting on wealth, business, entrepreneurship, leadership and more. Tune in every day, seven days a week, to hear a new story. The Daily Briefing is edited, produced and hosted by Kieran Meadows.

  1. SpaceX IPO Lines Up $230 Billion Windfall For Peter Thiel And Other Musk Backers

    6 hr ago

    SpaceX IPO Lines Up $230 Billion Windfall For Peter Thiel And Other Musk Backers

    In 2008, just days before one of SpaceX’s early rocket launches failed to reach orbit, Peter Thiel’s fund wrote the first institutional check into the nascent, six-year-old startup.  Now, as Elon Musk’s rocket and AI company goes public today at a nearly $2 trillion valuation, the fund’s stake is worth a staggering $67 billion — making that first check, and the additional $600 million Founders Fund invested over the following decade, into one of the most lucrative in venture capital history.  The company started trading just before noon E.T., with an opening price of $150, which is the figure Forbes used for all of the stakes in this story. It soon popped up about 20% in the first few minutes of trading. As the largest single shareholder, the IPO has now minted Musk as the world’s first trillionaire. Thousands of his employees are now millionaires and the fortunes of many of his billionaire colleagues and investors have soared.  That doesn’t mean everyone can cash out immediately. Most companies going public put restrictions on insiders and investors from selling shares for at least six months to avoid painful share price slides from major shareholders dumping stock — a problem for previous tech IPOs like Facebook, where shares slumped 31% below the opening price in the 12 months after its listing, according to data from bank Truist. By Iain Martin, Forbes Staff Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    7 min
  2. James Dolan’s Knicks Just Won The NBA Title. Here’s How He Made His Fortune.

    1 day ago

    James Dolan’s Knicks Just Won The NBA Title. Here’s How He Made His Fortune.

    For most of James Dolan’s tenure in charge of the New York Knicks since he became Madison Square Garden’s chairman in 1999, he has been an easy punching bag for Knicks fans—and much of the damage was self-inflicted. But now, after one magical spring, that turbulent past might be water under the bridge. The Knicks are NBA champions for the first time in 53 years, a moment many fans never thought would be possible with Dolan in charge. “Hey, New York, I’m sorry it took so long, but here we are, and hopefully it won’t take that long again!” Dolan shouted on stage after Saturday night’s 94-90 victory over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5 clinched the title. The 71-year-old Cablevision heir also has plenty of reason to celebrate off the court. Forbes recently valued the Knicks at $9.75 billion—No. 3 in the NBA—and Dolan’s NHL team, the Rangers, at $4 billion, the second-best mark in hockey. While that combined total of $13.75 billion easily outpaces the $9.26 billion market cap of the publicly traded MSG, the stock is up 103% over the past year. Meanwhile, Dolan’s other company, Sphere Entertainment, which owns the Sphere just off the Las Vegas Strip and the MSG regional sports TV and radio networks, has seen its share price soar 291%. By Hank Tucker, Forbes Staff Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    7 min
  3. Larry Ellison, A Saudi Prince And The Other Unexpected Winners From The SpaceX IPO

    2 days ago

    Larry Ellison, A Saudi Prince And The Other Unexpected Winners From The SpaceX IPO

    SpaceX priced its IPO at $135 per share Thursday, implying a $1.8 trillion market cap for the company. That boosted Musk’s net worth by $188 billion to an estimated $982 billion, according to Forbes’ calculations. Then on Friday, the rocketmaker’s stock started trading at $150 per share and closed the day at $160.95 per share, implying a valuation of $2.2 trillion for the company. That easily made Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire, worth an estimated $1.1 trillion. He was briefly worth a record $1.2 trillion, when SpaceX’s stock peaked at $176.52 per share Friday.  Musk, who serves as chairman, CEO and chief technical officer of SpaceX, owns 4.8 billion shares of the rocketmaker, worth $767 billion at Friday’s close. He has another 350 million stock options with an exercise price of $8.40 per share, worth $53 billion, giving him a 38% stake in the company, worth $821 billion. Before SpaceX priced its IPO Thursday, Forbes had been valuing Musk’s estimated 40% stake (before dilution from the public offering) at around $500 billion, based on the $1.25 trillion valuation of SpaceX’s merger with Musk’s artificial intelligence and social media company xAI in February. (xAI previously merged with X–formerly Twitter–in March 2025.)  Musk also owns just over 10% of $1.5 trillion (market cap) Tesla, worth $168 billion, plus options to acquire another nearly 8% stake, worth $116 billion billion. Rounding out his net worth are smaller stakes in his brain interface startup Neuralink and his tunneling firm Boring Company, plus several billion dollars of wealth from previous Tesla share sales. By Matt Durot, Forbes Staff Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    8 min

  4. 3 days ago

    The Nerdy Escorts Cashing In On Silicon Valley’s AI Boom

    In 2024, Meida Marek (her online pseudonym), was a recent college graduate working an entry-level finance job when she started doing the mental math that’s fast becoming a rite of passage in such industries: What happens when AI can do this better than I can? So Marek took inventory. She was intelligent and naturally supportive. She was good at talking to people. She likes futurist rabbit holes: AI, biohacking, cryptocurrency, the sort of topics that can turn dinner into a three-hour debate. So she decided to turn that toolkit into a new career—and became an escort. For Marek, it’s sex work with a particular angle: high-end companionship for Silicon Valley’s most online, most technical clients—often the kind who work in AI or around it. Lately, she’s been getting a lot of clients from Nvidia. There are only a handful of women like Marek. And like their clientele, they are also killing it financially. By Anna Tong, Forbes Staff Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    7 min
  5. The Highest-Paid Players At The 2026 World Cup

    4 days ago

    The Highest-Paid Players At The 2026 World Cup

    There are many firsts at this year’s FIFA World Cup. For the first time in the tournament’s 96-year history, there will be 48 teams. It’s also the first World Cup to be held across three countries (the United States, Canada and Mexico), in a record 16 cities. And it will be the first to feature a billionaire player—actually two—with 41-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo captaining Portugal and 38-year-old Lionel Messi leading Argentina in its title defense. Then again, with ticket prices in the stratosphere, billionaires may be the only ones who can afford to attend. FIFA recently listed a ticket for the July 19 final at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium for $32,970, triple the price from a ticket drop in April—and more than 20 times what the equivalent ticket cost for the 2022 final in Qatar. And even the world’s richest might have to think twice about buying tickets on the secondary market. In April, FIFA’s resale site listed four seats to the final for a little less than $2.3 million each. (Section 124, Row 45, Seats 33-36, if you’re scalping at home.) By Brett Knight, Assistant Managing Editor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    7 min
  6. America's Richest Self-Made Women 2026

    5 days ago

    America's Richest Self-Made Women 2026

    Rocket ships. AI chips. Chinese food. Clothing. Construction. Chatbots. America’s self-made women billionaires have found dozens of ways to prosper. In our first listing focusing just on those with 10-figure fortunes, Forbes found 43 self-made queens of capitalism, up from 38 a year ago as many of their businesses hit new highs. That’s despite the passing of two legendary women, Gap cofounder Doris Fisher (d. May 2026 at age 94) and Bio-Rad Laboratories' Alice Schwartz (d. September 2025, 99). Among the new billionaires are Beyonce Carter-Knowles, who climbs into the ranks on the back of her 2025 Cowboy Carter Tour; Nvidia CFO Colette Kress, who’s benefitting from the AI boom; Caryn Seidman-Becker, who runs Clear Secure, an ID technology outfit used for security checkpoints at airports, among other places; and Luana Lopes Lara, the 30-year-old Brazilian ballerina and MIT graduate who cofounded prediction market firm Kalshi. Edited by  Andrea Murphy and Grace Chung Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    7 min
  7. Why Selling Your SpaceX Shares Too Quickly Could Cost You

    6 days ago

    Why Selling Your SpaceX Shares Too Quickly Could Cost You

    “I am so sick of hearing about SpaceX,” says Phil DeAngelo, managing director of Focused Wealth Management, a registered investment advisor with $2.4 billion of assets under management. Then he laughs. “We’re getting a lot of questions from clients.” For many investors, this isn’t just another IPO. It’s a rare chance to buy into one of the world’s most closely watched private companies. SpaceX has said roughly 30% of its IPO shares will be allocated to retail investors, far above the 5% to 10% allocation that typically goes to individual investors. Investors aren't just talking about SpaceX. They're lining up for it. Reports suggest demand for the offering is approaching four times the number of shares available.  That could translate into a big price bump on the first day of trading, which will tempt some everyday investors into selling quickly – and potentially encountering a little-known Wall Street rule. Many brokerages discourage “IPO flipping,” or selling newly allocated shares shortly after trading begins, by restricting access to future offerings. By Brandon Kochkodin, Senior Writer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    7 min
  8. SpaceX Left California. Its IPO Payday Did Not.

    12 Jun

    SpaceX Left California. Its IPO Payday Did Not.

    Elon Musk loudly quit California after years of attacking its taxes, politics and business climate, moving SpaceX to Texas. Now the biggest fiscal event of his career could hand the state he trashed a giant tax windfall anyway. That is the awkward punchline hanging over SpaceX’s expected IPO next week. Because while the company’s relocation gave it a new Texas headquarters, it did not move the thousands of soon-to-be-wealthy SpaceX employees who still live and work in the Los Angeles area, and will face California’s so-called millionaires' tax. Texas, which doesn’t tax personal income, won’t get that bump.  SpaceX is preparing to sell 555.6 million shares at $135 apiece, raising about $75 billion and valuing the company at roughly $1.77 trillion. For investors, that is a Mars-shot valuation. For California, it is something more terrestrial: taxable income landing in Los Angeles County. By Alan Ohnsman, Senior Editor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    7 min
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About

The Forbes Daily Briefing shares the best of Forbes reporting on wealth, business, entrepreneurship, leadership and more. Tune in every day, seven days a week, to hear a new story. The Daily Briefing is edited, produced and hosted by Kieran Meadows.

Information

  • Channel
    Forbes
  • Creator
    Forbes
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Forbes Media LLC

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