Elon Musk first hit the billionaire club in 2012. Since then, his fortune has grown at a stunning 110 percent per year to more than $244 billion, thanks to the astronomical growth of his two primary businesses, Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX. Now, the entrepreneur is on track to become the world’s first-ever trillionaire by 2027, according to a new report from the Informa Connect Academy, which makes net worth predictions based on average annual growth rates.
About a third of Musk’s net worth is tied to his equities in Tesla, which currently claims a market cap of $681 billion. The electric carmaker is also expected to attain a trillion-dollar valuation as soon as next year, given an annual growth rate of 173 percent, according to Informa Connect. However, the average annual growth rate may not be a reliable indicator of Tesla’s future market value, given its history of high volatility. Tesla’s market cap grew tenfold between 2020 and 2022. Since then, its stock price is down about a third from the peak and has remained largely flat.
An additional six trillionaires are expected to be minted by the end of the decade to join Musk. The second person to become a trillionaire will likely be Gautam Adani, currently Asia’s richest person and chairman of the Indian industrial conglomerate Adani Group, according to the report. With a net worth of $81 billion and an annual growth rate of 122 percent, his fortune could soar to $1 trillion by 2028.
The next four years will also likely crown trillionaires in Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang, whose wealth ($92.2 billion) is currently doubling every year, and Prajogo Pangestu, the founder of the petrochemical conglomerate Barito Pacific who boasts a fortune of $74.4 billion and average growth rate of 135 percent. In addition, LVMH (LVMHF)’s Bernard Arnault, Meta (META)’s Mark Zuckerberg and Nike (NKE)’s Phil Knight are also on track to surpass the trillion-dollar threshold by the end of the decade.
By 2040, nine multi-billionaires—including the likes of Amazon (AMZN)’s Jeff Bezos and Google (GOOGL)’s Larry Page—will become trillionaires, according to the report. And 30 trillionaires are expected by the middle of the century. This elite list of ultra-wealthy figures includes only three women: Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, granddaughter of the founder of L’Oréal; Julia Koch, whose fortune comes from her stake in Koch Industries; and Alice Walton, an heiress to Walmart (WMT).
Despite Informa Connect’s prediction that Musk will be the first to crack trillionaire status, the entrepreneur’s net worth has been subject to fluctuations over the years. In January, for example, a drop in Tesla shares following a disappointing earnings report shaved a staggering $18 billion off his fortune. Previous reports have forecasted Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos as likely candidates to become the first-ever trillionaire, while investor Mark Cuban in 2017 predicted the world’s inaugural trillionaire will be “somebody who masters A.I. and all its derivatives and applies it in ways we never thought of.”