By Harinder Mahil
Elon Musk became the first person in history to surpass a net worth of $1 trillion with the surge in valuation of SpaceX, combined with his holdings in Tesla and X.
With a current net worth of about $1.11 trillion, according to Bloomberg, Musk tops the list of rich billionaires, including Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and owner of French luxury goods group LVMH, Bernard Arnault.
The day he became a trillionaire, a friend sent me an appropriate definition of evil which is: “The definition of evil is being a trillionaire in a world where millions of children are starving.”
One trillion dollars are one million dollars. I cannot even figure out how many zeros are added to one to write one trillion dollars.
According to available information, Elon Musk has 14 children. Assuming he has only one trillion dollars and that was to be divided among his 14 children, each would all receive $71.4 billion.
Canada’s 2025-26 budget outlined total revenues of $507.5 billion and expenditures of $585.9 billion. A trillion dollars is almost two years of the Canadian government’s budget.
It would be impossible to spend one trillion dollars in one’s lifetime. If one were to spend $1 million every hour each day, it would take more than a century to spend $1 trillion.
In 2020, Musk was only the 35th richest person in the world, with assets of around $28 billion. But his wealth took off that year as the value of two companies – Tesla and SpaceX began to grow. Musk holds large stakes in both companies.
How does one get so rich in one lifetime? According to available information, Tesla paid very little in income tax while Musk’s fortunes grew.
According to the International Monetary Fund, there are only 20 countries around the world that have economies that are larger than $1.1 trillion. This means the vast majority of the countries have an economy worth less than Musk.
According to Oxfam, such extreme concentrated wealth is symptomatic of decades of pro-billionaire politics that have allowed the ultra-rich to write economic rules in their favour.
“Elon Musk’s rise to trillionaire status marks a new pinnacle of oligarchy and a dark day for democracy” said Nabi Ahmed, senior director of economic justice at Oxfam America.
“A trillion dollars in the hands of one man is incompatible not only with an affordable economy, but also with a healthy democracy. Economic inequality begets political inequality, and ordinary people bear the brunt while billionaires continue to write the rules for their own benefit,” said Ahmed.
Oxfam’s analysis shows that a 10% tax on Musk’s $1 trillion could end global extreme poverty for a year, lifting over 800 million people above the extreme poverty line.
Billionaires such as Elon Musk often use their wealth to buy a politician, to influence a government, or to acquire a social media platform. Such actions are inimical to progress and fairness. Such power gives billionaires control over our future, undermining political freedom and eroding rights of people around the world.
I fully support Oxfam’s demands that governments around the world must act on public demands to address inequality emergency, including addressing extreme corporate power, taxing the wealth of the ultra-rich, investing in public services, and protecting workers rights and increasing wages.
Harinder Mahil is a community activist and is a Board member of Dr. Hari Sharma Foundation.
