Musk will be richer than 3.8 billion people combined, according to Oxfam

BarcelonaElon Musk, owner of X and founder of companies like SpaceX or Tesla, is one step away from becoming the first trillionaire in history, and would accumulate unprecedented levels of wealth. According to a report published this Thursday by the NGO Oxfam Intermón, the magnate of South African origin is on track to accumulate as much wealth as the entire poorest 46% of the world's population, the equivalent of about 3.8 billion people.

Musk could reach this unprecedented milestone this Friday, June 12, when his aerospace company SpaceX goes public. With this operation, the businessman aims to complete the largest IPO in history, with a valuation of his company in a figure that would be around 1.8 trillion dollars (more than 1.55 trillion euros). It should be remembered that Musk would be the holder of more than 82% of class A shares, which grant political power over the company, and nearly 92% of class B shares, the purely financial instruments.

If the launch is successful and the fortune of what is already the richest man in the world exceeds a trillion dollars (a trillion is a million million, or 10¹²), it will mean that Musk's wealth will have increased by more than 550 billion dollars (more than 476 billion euros) in the last year. Or, in other words, more than a million dollars (865,000 euros) per minute, the Oxfam report notes.

According to the organization's calculations, the South African businessman would take 2,740 years to exhaust his fortune if he spent a million dollars a day. In this regard, the entity advocates for the need to promote a universal 10% tax on large fortunes to address economic inequalities. Just by applying this tax to Musk's fortune, Oxfam claims that the revenue would be sufficient to end extreme global poverty for a year: it would lift more than 800 million people out of extreme poverty.

Social justice

In the same study, the organization estimates that billionaires are 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than the rest of the citizenry. On this issue, Oxfam points out that Musk is "a clear example of these dynamics," and recalls that the magnate has taken advantage of his position of power to forge alliances with the administration of United States President Donald Trump, and to increase his fortune, as well as gain public notoriety.

According to the director of Economic Justice at Oxfam America, Nabil Ahmed, the fact that Musk becomes the first billionaire in history "marks an unprecedented milestone in the advancement of the oligarchy's power" and represents "a dark day for democracy." "That a single person accumulates so much fortune is incompatible with a just economy and a healthy democracy," he laments.