Who is On Track to Become the First Trillionaire
Will there ever be a trillionaire?
A billion dollars can settle you for life, as well as a dozen generations of your wider family. What about a trillion dollars?
What does a trillion dollars look like?
Writing that out in number takes twelve zeros: $1,000,000,000,000. It is comparable to the gross domestic product of countries like Turkey or the Netherlands. Even imagining a person wielding the wealth of an annual production of 270 million people can cause a headache. In fact, only a handful of companies have reached a threshold of $1 trillion.
Still, we seem to be heading there. According to Oxfam, the five wealthiest people have doubled their net worth since 2020. If this pace of doubling net worth every five years continues, by 2055, a person worth about $200 billion would own $1.2 trillion.
Who is closest to becoming the first trillionaire? (as of May 2024)
According to Forbes, 14 people have reached a net worth of $100 billion, while two already have $200 billion in various assets. If there exists a person who will be the first trillionaire right now, it will likely be someone among these businesspeople. Let's go through the most likely candidates.
- Bernard Arnault (with family) – $212.6 billion
The wealthiest person in the world as of May 2024, Bernard Arnault is the chairman and CEO of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the largest and most prominent luxury goods company, and the owner of over 75 fashion and cosmetics brands like Sephora and Louis Vuitton.
- Jeff Bezos – $204.2 billion
The second richest person, with wealth valued at $204.2 billion, is Jeff Bezos, the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN). He owns almost 10% of the world's largest e-commerce and cloud-computing company.
- Elon Musk – $193.2 billion
The eccentric CEO of Tesla and co-founder of six companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, and Neuralink, is among the most likely candidates in the 'Who will be the first trillionaire?' competition.
- Mark Zuckerberg – $164.2 billion
By far the youngest person valued above $100 billion at 39, Mark Zuckerberg is the CEO and co-founder of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META), the owner of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads.
At first glance, anyone would love to see themselves as the one who will be the first trillionaire. However, the title would bring much more trouble than worth. Moreover, becoming astronomically rich in a world where the number of poor grows by the day would make the person a perfect target for the world's ire.
Rather than chase the trillion mark, billionaires like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates pledge most of their treasures to philanthropic and humanitarian causes, such as the Giving Pledge. After all, being the good guy beats becoming the global villain any time!
This article was prepared using information from open sources in accordance with the principles of Ethical Policy. The editorial team is not responsible for absolute accuracy, as it relies on data from the sources referenced.