The World’s First Trillionaires
Of the thirty individuals analyzed, only twenty-one will realistically have a chance of becoming a trillionaire during their lifetime, based on their current net worths and rate of wealth growth over the last six years.
The race to be the first trillionaire is still all to play for, as the standings can change very quickly. For example, Zhong Shanshan, the chairman of bottled water company Nongfu Spring, saw his net worth skyrocket from just $2 billion in 2020 to $71 billion in 2022, after two of his companies went public in Hong Kong in 2020. In 2017, e-commerce and global procurement giant Jeff Bezos was the first to reach $100 billion since Bill Gates back in 1999. It was Bezos, not Musk, who a few years ago was expected to become the world’s first trillionaire, and who now isn’t expected to join the club until 2030, some six years after Musk. The volatility of the trillionaire race makes it one to keep an eye on.
