Elon Musk leads the pack as Oxfam predicts the first trillionaire will be by 2034
According to Oxfam, the world could have its first trillionaire within a decade if the gap between the super-rich and the rest becomes ‘supercharged’.
Tesla boss Elon Musk leads the pack among the mega-rich, but the aid agency said a contender could still come out of nowhere to be the first to amass a $1,000 billion fortune.
Oxfam published the report at the World Economic Forum in Davos, an annual gathering of political and business elites, as it wanted to draw attention to the divide between the haves and the have-nots.
Elon Musk could be the first trillionaire as the world’s richest man’s wealth has doubled since 2020
Amitabh Behar, interim chief executive of the charity, said the divide has been ‘supercharged’ since the pandemic and the report shows the world is entering a ‘decade of division’. He said: ‘We have the top five billionaires, they have doubled their wealth. On the other hand, almost five billion people have become poorer.
‘Oxfam predicts we will have a trillionaire within ten years. While we need more than 200 years to combat poverty.’
A trillion dollar fortune, equivalent to around £790 billion at current exchange rates, would be a staggering sum, about the same as the GDP of oil-rich Saudi Arabia.
Oxfam said the combined fortunes of the world’s five richest men – Musk, Bernard Arnault of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and investment guru Warren Buffett – have risen 114% in real terms since 2020.
Billionaire Bernard Arnault runs the luxury goods brand LVMH
However, even Musk would still have a long way to go to meet the trillion-dollar benchmark. The latest figures from the Forbes billionaires index show he is worth $230 billion (£181 billion) – a huge sum, but less than a quarter of that level.
It is widely believed that American oilman John D. Rockefeller became the world’s first billionaire in 1916.
In contrast to the world’s wealthy elite, Oxfam says almost 5 billion people have become poorer since the pandemic, with many developing countries unable to provide the financial support that richer countries could provide during lockdowns.