What in the World Are we in the age of trillionaires?
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Nov 27, 2025 Nathalie Jimenez, a BBC reporter based in New York, dives into the fascinating world of trillionaires. She breaks down how Elon Musk could soon become the first trillionaire and what it means for wealth dynamics. Nathalie explains the staggering difference between million, billion, and trillion through eye-opening comparisons. The discussion also covers the implications of extreme wealth, touching on the concerns of rising inequality and the responsibilities of the ultra-rich. Who supports the trillionaire concept and who stands against it? Tune in to unravel the debate!
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How Enormous A Trillion Really Is
- A trillion seconds equals about 31,700 years, making a trillion dollars effectively unspendable in a lifetime.
- Burning a million dollars a day still takes ~2,740 years to exhaust a trillion dollars, showing its vast scale.
Billionaire Wealth Matches A Country
- There are about 3,000 billionaires globally, collectively worth over $16 trillion, comparable to China's GDP.
- Billionaires are concentrated mainly in the US and China, with 900 and 500+ respectively.
Where Elon Musk's Wealth Comes From
- Nathalie Jimenez lists Musk's major companies: Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink, X and Neuralink as his wealth sources.
- She notes Musk's majority stakes in those firms drive his net worth fluctuations between $400–$500 billion.