It could be that no one "got that money." If a stock is trading at $2X and the value of all of the shares is $1 billion, no one gets the money if the stock open

It could be that no one "got that money." If a stock is trading at $2X and the value of all of the shares is $1 billion, no one gets the money if the stock opens the next day at $X. That's the problem with thinking of stock prices as real money. (And, indeed, real cash can also lose value through inflation.)