There’s a cottage industry trying to predict when the world will have someone worth a trillion dollars. Part of the problem is that the net worth of the wealthiest people in the world is constantly changing, but some financial calculators try to predict when it will happen. 

A company called Approved took a deep dive into the richest people in the world now and analyzed the data of 30 of them.  They determined that it would happen; someone would join the four-comma club sooner than you probably think. 

How soon? Possibly in two years, but five years from now at the latest. 

The most likely person to hit that milestone is the person you think is the most obvious, Elon Musk. His net worth currently sits at roughly $174 billion, putting him in the number two spot in the world behind LVMH Chairman Bernard Arnault. 

Here’s what CEO Magazine, The Guardian, and Economic Times said recently. 

“Of the 21 individuals who stand a chance of reaching this phenomenal milestone in their lifetime, Elon Musk is predicted to be the first.”

However, Tesla will have to rebound for Musk to become a trillionaire.  The predictions of Musk reaching that elite status came primarily before he purchased Twitter which cost him $44 billion and brought him more than a few headaches. 

If Musk isn’t the first, could it be Jeff Bezos? He seems more intent on traveling the world with his girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez, than printing money.  He’s the fourth-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $114 billion. 

One name to keep an eye on, according to Investopia, is Craig Venter. He’s a researcher working on a cure for cancer that could elevate him above everyone. 

theweek.com took a good look into what it would take to be worth a trillion dollars. To put it in perspective, $1 trillion is 1,000 billion dollars.  Let that soak in for a minute. 

A billion is one thousand million dollars, so being worth one billion is mind-boggling in itself. 

Chew on this factoid for a second, too; Australia’s gross domestic product is $1.5 trillion. Australia’s population is 25.74 million people. 

Brazil’s GDP is about $1.6 trillion. 

Here’s one more thing that shows the difference between a billion and a trillion.  USA Today had a story that put it into context based on time.  If you went back 1 billion seconds, you would be in the year 1987. If you were to time travel back 1 trillion seconds, however, it would land you somewhere around 30,000 BC.

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