Emily Brown
One trillion dollars. It's a figure most of us can't even begin to comprehend, but before long Elon Musk could be reaching that milestone.
With companies as big as Tesla, SpaceX and X in his portfolio, it's not surprising that Musk is keeping company with the richest people in the world.
In fact, according to Forbes, the 52-year-old is currently the richest man on the planet with a net worth of $214.1 billion - an entire $14 billion ahead of his closest competitor, Jeff Bezos.
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Bernard Arnault and family, Larry Ellison and Mark Zuckerberg round out the top five richest people in the world, but before long Musk could be leagues ahead of them all.
Earlier this year, Oxfam International expressed belief that the world 'could have its first-ever trillionaire in just a decade'.
The claims comes from the fact that the world's five richest people have more than doubled their fortunes since 2020, and while net worths are constantly fluctuating, there is still a largely an upward trend.
But while Oxfam believes we'll have our first trillionaire by 2034, finance and procurement platform Approve thinks they could appear as soon as this year.
The platform made its claim after analyzing data from the 30 wealthiest people in the world.
As for who the first trillionaire will be, it's safe to say Musk is a reasonable choice.
CEO Magazine suggested in 2022 the Tesla founder would beat his rivals to the milestone, writing at the time: "Of the 21 individuals who stand a chance of reaching this phenomenal milestone in their lifetime, Elon Musk is predicted to be the first."
The magazine noted that Musk had an annual growth rate of 129 percent, and his position as the richest man on Earth today indicates he's still on a good track to reaching trillionaire status.
If you were wondering what that might look like in a bank account, it's $1,000,000,000,000. I'm not sure that would even fit on the screen of your banking app - let alone how you'd go about spending that much cash.
Though Musk does still have some money to earn before becoming a trillionaire, there's still six months of the year to go, and his businesses earn him more than a bit of small change every day.
Who knows, come Christmastime, Musk could have made history and be preparing to ring in the new year as not only the richest man on Earth, but the richest man in history.