2 min readJun 16, 2026 06:15 AM IST First published on: Jun 16, 2026 at 06:15 AM ISTSix years ago, a study by a financial services company predicted that the world would have its first trillionaire by 2026. Based on the fact that his net worth had grown 34 per cent in the previous five years, it predicted that the title would go to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Last week proved the study right on one count and wrong on the other. The world did, indeed, get its first trillionaire this year. It was not, however, Bezos but former Trump BFF Elon Musk, who crossed that threshold thanks to the blockbuster IPO of his aerospace and AI company, SpaceX.What does it mean to have the kind of money where the only entities that are richer than oneself are 21 countries and a dozen corporations? A trillion dollars in the abstract is hard to picture. In 2020, when Bezos was still the world’s richest man, a viral TikTok sought to explain the scope of his wealth in grains of rice: If one grain of rice represented $100,000, Bezos — then valued at $200 billion — was worth 2,000,000 grains of rice (about 54 kg). Musk’s current net worth would thus amount to 10 million grains.AdvertisementWhat else could a trillion dollars buy? Maybe 666 Burj Khalifas or 10,000 Gulfstream G700 jets or 200 Buckingham Palaces. Of course, Musk’s wealth has fluctuated in the past; he lost over $100 billion in 2023 when Tesla stocks slumped. But when one’s personal fortune is linked to the business of defying gravity, even the loss of $100 billion seems but a minor glitch.