A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
On Sept. 29, 1916, newspapers across the country announced a wealth milestone once thought to be unreachable: the world’s first billionaire.
“Standard (Oil) at $2,014 makes its head a billionaire,” blared The New York Times headline, adding that Standard Oil’s soaring share price “makes John D. Rockefeller, founder and largest shareholder, almost certainly a billionaire.”
More than a century after the first U.S. billionaire (in measurable dollar terms), the question of who will be first to reach the trillionaire mark continues to fascinate. At least a half-dozen companies have done it, most recently Berkshire Hathaway, which topped $1 trillion just before Warren Buffett’s 94th birthday. Nvidia is now at $2.6 trillion, having hit the 13-figure club last year.
And what about individuals? According to a new report from Informa Connect Academy, which predicts trillionaire status based on average annual growth rate in wealth, Tesla CEO Elon Musk will likely be the first trillionaire.
Musk is currently the world’s richest person, with $251 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Connect Academy forecasts Musk will become a trillionaire sometime in 2027, assuming that his wealth continues to grow at an annual average rate of 110%.
The second to reach trillionaire status, according to the report, will be India’s Gautam Adani, founder of the Adani Group conglomerate. If Adani maintains his recent annual growth rate of 123%, the report says he will be a trillionaire in 2028.
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, who has seen his wealth skyrocket from $3 billion to more than $90 billion in five years, would become a trillionaire by 2028, according to the report. His wealth would have to continue growing at an average annual rate of 112%. Nvidia’s stock is already up about 115% this year, after more than tripling last year.
Fourth on the list is Indonesia’s Prajogo Pangestu, founder of the Indonesian energy and mining conglomerate Barito Pacific. The report predicts Pangestu could reach trillionaire status by 2028.
Rounding out the top five would be LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault, who is currently the world’s third-richest person, with just under $200 billion. The report has the luxury king becoming a trillionaire sometime in 2030, along with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Some top billionaires who seem like strong candidates to quickly reach the four-comma club don’t make the top 10. Jeff Bezos, currently the world’s second-richest person, with $200 billion, according to Bloomberg, is listed at No. 12, and wouldn’t become a trillionaire until 2036. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the Google founders, are also slated to wait 12 years to become trillionaires — although artificial intelligence may accelerate their rise.
Granted, wealth-watchers have been predicting the first trillionaire for years. And the stocks of Tesla, Nvidia and LVMH may not go up as fast in the next five years as they did in the past five.
Yet more than 100 years after the first billionaire, the first trillionaire could well be crowned in the next decade.
