Elon Musk is on track to become the world's first trillionaire in dollars by 2027, according to a recent report by Informa Connect Academy, CNBC business TV reported, quoted by BNR.
Of the world's billionaires, Musk is the closest to this 13-figure sum, and his wealth continues to grow.
In early 2020, Musk "was" about $28.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. By the end of that year, he already owned about $167 billion, and as of September, his net worth was estimated at approximately $265 billion, according to the Bloomberg index.
The biggest driver of Musk's wealth is the stock of his electric car company Tesla, which has soared during the coronavirus pandemic. They were hovering around $30 per share in January 2020, and by January 2021 they had jumped to almost $300 per share.
"If you look at the list of the richest Americans, whether we're talking about Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos, the reason people become super rich is because they start a company and grow that company. And the reason this company continues to grow and grow is because it produces something of value that people want," said James Petokukis, an economic policy analyst for the American Enterprise Institute.
Wealthier people tend to have larger portions of their assets invested in the stock market, while middle-income households tend to hold more of their wealth in real estate.
The richest 1 percent of Americans own nearly 50 percent of all U.S. stocks, while the poorest 50 percent of Americans hold just about 1 percent of all stocks by mid-2024, according to data from the U.S. Federal Reserve .
About 58% of families owned stocks directly in 2022 or indirectly through passive investments such as retirement accounts.
"Wealth inequality is largely determined by the prices of different types of assets," said John Sabelhaus, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, adding: "One of the things that will increase wealth inequality, measured through concentration of wealth, is the stock market".