A person is considered a trillionaire if their net worth is at least one trillion dollars or an equivalent amount in another currency, such as the euro or the British pound. No one has ever declared themselves a trillionaire, but some of the richest people in the world might be there in a few years.
A person with a net worth of at least $1 trillion is referred to as a “trillionaire” in the United States.
KEY LESSONS
The term “net worth” describes a person’s overall assets, which include their personal property, investments, and business interests, less their liabilities.
Although no one has yet declared themselves a trillionaire, given how quickly the world’s wealthiest people have increased their money, it is possible that it will happen within the next few years.
In 2020, the gross domestic product (GDP) of all but 16 nations will be larger than $1 trillion.
Determining net worth
Wealthy people frequently come from a variety of sources, including company ventures, investments, real estate holdings, cash, and personal property. Start by adding together all of those assets to calculate your net worth. Liabilities, such as mortgages and personal debts, are then subtracted. A person is considered a trillionaire if their net worth is at least $1 trillion (or 1 trillion euros).
Finding a precise net worth estimate is often a challenging task for individuals in the upper echelons of wealth. Some assets are more solid than others, but the value of commercial interests in particular can change drastically day to day.
In reality, based on stock prices, Forbes, which compiles the definitive list of the world’s richest people, maintains a “Real-Time Billionaires List” that is updated every minute. As of April 15, 2022, Elon Musk ($264 billion), Jeff Bezos ($177 billion), and Bernard Arnault & family ($167 billion) are in the top three positions, with a $97 billion gap separating them. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, who are ranked four and five, are behind them by around $35 billion.
Who’s on First? is an example of net worth.
Let’s examine Arnault, a French fashion mogul. The majority of the $167 billion in wealth he and his family own isn’t just sitting in a bank account. His holding company, LVMH, which owns well-known brands including Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, and Hennessy, is linked to the value of the investment. He might return to the top spot, which he had in May 2021, if the value of his LVMH shares quickly increases in comparison to those of Musk and Bezos. The three males do, in fact, frequently switch places with one another.
During the COVID-19 epidemic, the value of Arnault’s brands increased, and his net worth did too. Forbes pegged it at $76 billion in March 2020. As of February 2022, that number had increased by almost 212 times in just under two years.
Musk, who currently ranks first on the Forbes list, has a net worth of almost $264 billion. He owned around 23% of Tesla, a maker of electric cars, as of February 2022, and roughly 50% of SpaceX, a maker of rockets. Second place goes to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who is worth $177 billion and holds 14% of the stock in the online retailer (AMZN on Nasdaq).
Musk lost an estimated $8.9 billion in one day back in December 2020 when a J.P. Morgan analyst said that Tesla shares were considerably overvalued, serving as an illustration of how erratic those personal wealth estimates can be.
The first billionaire in history?
Even billionaires like Arnault and Bezos—each with $167 billion and $177 billion—might appear to be a long way from becoming trillionaires. But given the rate at which some of the wealthiest people in the world have been able to do so, it might only be a matter of time before someone achieves that status.
For instance, Arnault was able to grow his wealth from $29 billion in 2013 to $185 billion in 2021, or roughly a six-fold increase. If he were to duplicate that feat, he would become a trillionaire by the end of the decade.
Bezos has also seen a quick increase in fortune; in addition to his investment in Amazon, he also owns The Washington Post and the aerospace company Blue Origin. Bezos’ net worth has increased by about 2 1/2 times, from an estimated $67 billion in 2017 to $177 billion now, according to a Forbes assessment.
Musk may have the best chance of winning since his companies, Tesla in the field of electric cars and SpaceX in the field of commercial rockets, have changed the game. The mysterious entrepreneur had a net worth estimated at $13.9 billion just five years prior, in 2017. On April 15, 2022, he will have a net worth of almost $264 billion. He could become a trillionaire soon if those businesses continue along their current price trajectories.
What Does $1 Trillion Equal?
To put it lightly, a fortune of $1 trillion is a huge sum of money—so much so that it’s difficult to imagine how much wealth that actually represents.
Here is some background: The median net worth of American households was $121,700, according to the Federal Reserve’s most recent Survey of Consumer Finances, which was conducted in 2019. A trillionaire would therefore be 8.2 million times as wealthy as the average American family.
Another way to put the quantity of treasure in perspective is as follows: After months of difficult discussions, the U.S. Senate finally came to an agreement on a $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan that was passed in November 2021. That was mostly due to the fact that many Republicans objected to the idea of adding that much more money to the federal budget, despite the fact that the law technically only adds $550 billion in new spending.
$1 trillion in net assets is more than the combined gross domestic products (GDP) of Switzerland, Sweden, and Austria. In actuality, $1 trillion exceeds the present GDP of all nations except for 16.
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