Elon Musk's personal wealth is expected to exceed US$1 trillion after SpaceX's IPO, making him the world's first trillionaire. A new analysis by Oxfam shows that Musk's wealth will exceed that of the poorest 46% of the world's population (about 3.8 billion people) combined. Reaching $1 trillion means Musk's wealth has grown by more than $550 billion in the past year, which is equivalent to an average increase of more than $1 million every minute.
Oxfam noted that this extreme concentration of wealth is typical of decades of pro-billionaire politics in Western countries, which has allowed the super-rich to set economic rules that benefit themselves.
Nabil Ahmed, senior director of economic justice at Oxfam America, said: "Elon Musk's emergence as a trillion-dollar billionaire marks a new peak for oligarchy. But moments of dramatic concentration of wealth are not inevitable. Musk will become a government-backed billionaire whose fortune has been driven by an era of regressive public policy choices - decisions manipulated by a tiny minority to increase their wealth and supported by the vast majority of political leaders."
Oxfam analysis reveals the staggering scale of $1 trillion wealth:
If Musk spent $1 million a day, it would take him 2,740 years to spend $1 trillion.
With a fortune of $1 trillion, Musk could give $100 to every person on the planet and still be one of the top ten richest people in the world, with more than $184 billion left over.
A 10% tax on Musk's $1 trillion fortune would be enough to eliminate extreme poverty worldwide for one year and lift more than 800 million people out of extreme poverty.
Ahmed said: "The concentration of trillions of dollars of wealth in the hands of one person is not conducive to the healthy operation of the economy and the controllability of people's livelihood costs, and is also contrary to a sound democratic system. Economic inequality will breed political inequality, and ordinary people will bear the brunt of the cost, while billionaires continue to formulate self-interested rules."
Oxfam estimates that billionaires are more than 4,000 times more likely to enter politics than the general public. The super-rich often use their influence to consolidate power and assets. The agency pointed out that even before his net worth reached one trillion U.S. dollars, Elon Musk was a classic example of this unhealthy trend. He intervened in the U.S. election with abundant funds, and his actions fully demonstrated the negative impact of rich people's control of resources.
Oxfam pointed out that during Musk’s tenure as head of the Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE), he weakened the government departments on which the poorest and most vulnerable people in the United States and around the world depended. An Oxfam analysis found that a child under the age of five could die every 40 seconds by 2030 due to USAID budget cuts.
"The new Gilded Age will not end on its own. This is a trillion-dollar wake-up call that should wake up governments to the need for action. Curbing the accumulation of extreme wealth has never been more urgent—the economic policies that have created not just trillionaires, but also billionaires and the appalling inequality we see today must be overhauled," Ahmed said.
Oxfam urges governments to heed public demands to tackle the inequality crisis, including by tackling the extreme power of corporations and monopolies, taxing the wealth of the super-rich, investing in public services and significantly stepping up action to protect workers’ rights and raise wages.