In This Article:
Elon Musk’s sprawling empire — spanning everything from electric vehicles and social media to space rockets and miniature brain implants — may soon make him the world’s first trillionaire.
Musk’s business success has made him one of the most influential — and controversial — people in the world. The Tesla boss is already the richest person on the planet, with a fortune estimated at nearly $250 billion.
Now, Musk could become the world’s first trillionaire, a milestone that Informa Connect Academy says he’s on track to hit by 2027.
Informa notes that Musk’s net worth has been growing rapidly at an average rate of 110% per year, making him the “clear favorite” to hit the $1 trillion first.
Musk does face competition though.
The meteoric rise of Nvidia, the company whose computer chips are powering the artificial intelligence boom, could make Jensen Huang a trillionaire in 2028, according to Informa. Huang, Nvidia’s CEO and co-founder, has a net worth of $104 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Indian billionaire Gautam Adani is also on track to become a trillionaire by 2028.
Whether Musk gets to the trillion-dollar mark first — or at all for that matter — will depend in large part on the future of his biggest success: Tesla.
The EV maker founded by Musk has become the world’s most valuable auto company, with a price tag of about $710billion. That makes it worth more than Coca-Cola, Bank of America and Boeing combined.
Tesla is easily Musk’s biggest asset. He owns nearly 13% of the company, a stake worth about $93 billion at current prices.
Musk owns another 303 million stock options linked to his epic and controversial compensation package, which was struck down by a judge but then revived and approved by shareholders.
If Tesla continues to thrive, it could push Musk’s fortune beyond $1 trillion.
“We believe Musk has positioned himself to achieve new heights over the coming years as Tesla capitalizes on full self-driving, Robotaxis and the future of EVs,” Dan Ives, senior equity analyst at Wedbush Securities, told CNN in an email.
Of course, that is no guarantee.
Tesla faces fierce competition, especially from cheaper rivals in China. The company has struggled at times, with softer sales crashing the stock by two-thirds in 2022. The automaker also issued multiple recalls for its vehicles, including a software recall of nearly all of its cars on US roads because of a glitchy Autopilot feature.
Musk had once revealed that Tesla was just days away from filing for bankruptcy in 2008 before it secured a last-minute loan to keep it afloat.