Who Wants To Be A Trillionaire?

Back in September 2017, I wrote a piece called “Who Wants to be a Trillionaire?”

At the time, the idea felt like a thought experiment. The sort of question you throw around over dinner: what would you actually do if you had more money than you could ever spend?

I opened that article with a simple example.

Imagine being handed $1 million and spending $1,000 every day. You’d be finished by around 2020.

A billion?

You’d have needed to start somewhere around 700 BC.

But a trillion?

That was where the numbers stopped feeling real.

Nearly nine years later, we no longer have to imagine it. On 12th June 2026, SpaceX floated on the Nasdaq and, at least on paper, Elon Musk became the world’s first US Dollar trillionaire (as at 5pm on 16th June 2026 the share is up over 30% since IPO).

Microsoft Word’s spell check, which objected every time I typed “trillionaire” back in 2017, has now accepted defeat.

The Name That Wasn’t in the Article

The part I find most interesting is this. When I wrote that original article, the conversation around the world’s richest person was largely a two-horse race. Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos were trading places at the top, both with fortunes of around $90 billion.

I also mentioned Mansa Musa, the 14th-century ruler of the Mali Empire, who is often considered one of history’s wealthiest individuals.

But I didn’t mention Elon Musk.

Not because I overlooked him, simply because he wasn’t really part of the conversation.

In 2017, Musk was worth somewhere around $20 billion (Forbes Article). A remarkable achievement by any standard, but still a long way behind the people dominating the headlines. The irony is that the person missing from an article about who might become the first trillionaire ended up being the person who got there.

That is roughly a fiftyfold increase in less than a decade. And it highlights something I’ve seen repeatedly in finance - the future rarely arrives in a straight line.

And Where Is Bezos Now?

It’s worth remembering that Jeff Bezos hasn’t exactly been standing still either.

The $90 billion fortune that made him the richest person in the world when I wrote the original article has grown to roughly $250 billion today (Forbes - Jeff Bezos Profile).

By any normal measure, that is almost impossible to comprehend.

Going from $90 billion to $250 billion would represent extraordinary success for almost anyone.

And yet, in the world of extreme wealth, it is no longer enough to sit comfortably at the top.

The numbers moved so quickly that almost tripling an already historic fortune wasn’t enough to win the race.

What Does a Trillion Actually Buy?

In the original article, I tried to put a trillion dollars into perspective. It still feels almost impossible. A trillion dollars is roughly:

• $27 million every day for 100 years

• $1,000 every day for almost three million years

It is a number so large that our brains struggle to process it. Bloomberg previously calculated that a trillion one-dollar bills would weigh around a million tonnes.

The Bit That Matters...

Now for the important caveat and the same conversation I have with clients with options, RSUs and shares in companies (just with a few more zeros involved).

This is paper wealth.

Elon Musk cannot simply withdraw a trillion dollars from an account tomorrow. A large proportion of his wealth is tied to ownership stakes in companies. The value exists because the market places a value on those shares. But if someone tried to sell a huge amount at once, the very act of selling could affect the price.

The number is real but it is also constantly moving.

A change in share prices could push the value above or below the trillion-dollar mark. And there is something quite instructive about that. The difference between wealth on paper and wealth you can actually use applies at every level.

Whether you have a trillion dollars in company shares or a pension portfolio built over a lifetime, the same questions matter:

1. What is it worth?

2. How accessible is it?

3. How sustainable is it?

The numbers are different, but the principles are exactly the same.

The Lesson For The Rest of Us

Unless Elon reads this (which he won't - see above), you will likely never have to worry about managing a trillion-dollar fortune. But the principles are surprisingly relevant.

A house can be worth £2 million, but you cannot spend the value of your home while you are still living in it. A pension might be worth £1 million, but that does not automatically tell you how much income it can sustainably provide. A business might be valued at millions or even trillions, but that does not mean the money is sitting in the bank.

The gap between value and usable wealth is something every investor, business owner and retiree has to think about.

Over to You

When I wrote the original article in 2017, the idea of a trillionaire felt like something that was probably decades away.

We got there much sooner than many expected.

So here is the question I’m genuinely interested in:

Who is the person we are not talking about today? Which entrepreneur currently outside the conversation will be the name we are discussing in 2035?

And perhaps the bigger question:

At what point does a single person’s wealth move from being an extraordinary individual achievement to something society needs to have a wider conversation about?

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts.

If your own financial goals are a touch more grounded than launching your money into orbit, and you’d like a hand making the most of what you’ve got, do get in touch. This article is for information purposes only and does not constitute financial advice or a personal recommendation. The value of investments can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invest.

As at 16th June 2026 at 3.25pm, SpaceX was up over 30% from its IPO price.

Kyte Financial Planning Limited is an appointed representative of ValidPath Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (Firm Reference Number 197107). Kyte Financial Planning Limited is entered on the FCA register (www.FCA.org.uk) under no. 1004971.