Soon-to-be trillionaire Elon Musk’s wealth grew by over $1 million per minute in the last year

Oxfam Australia Media Release

Oxfam warns Musk’s imminent ‘government-backed trillionaire’ status marks ‘a dark day for democracy’

As Elon Musk’s personal fortune is expected to surpass $1 trillion with tomorrow’s SpaceX IPO, making him the world’s first trillionaire, a new Oxfam analysis reveals Musk would be richer than the poorest 46% of the world population, or 3.8 billion people, combined. Hitting $1 trillion would mean Musk’s wealth grew by over $550 billion over the past year, equivalent to an average rate of over $1 million per minute. According to Oxfam, such extreme concentrated wealth is symptomatic of decades of pro-billionaire politics that have allowed the ultra-rich to write economic rules in their favor.

“Elon Musk’s rise to trillionaire status marks a new pinnacle of oligarchy and a dark day for democracy. But this moment of dramatically concentrated wealth was not inevitable. Musk will be a government-backed trillionaire whose fortune was fueled by an era of regressive public policy choices – decisions rigged by a tiny few to fuel their fortunes, and overwhelmingly supported by political leaders,” said Nabil Ahmed, senior director of economic justice at Oxfam America.

Oxfam’s analysis reveals the startling scale of a $1 trillion fortune:

• If Musk spent $1 million per day, it would take him 2,740 years to spend $1 trillion.
• With $1 trillion, Musk could give $100 to everyone on Earth, and he would still be one of the ten richest billionaires in the world, with more than $184 billion left over.
• A 10% tax on Musk’s $1 trillion fortune could end global extreme poverty for a year, lifting over 800 million people above the extreme poverty line.

“A trillion dollars in the hands of one man is incompatible not only with an affordable economy, but also with a healthy democracy. Economic inequality begets political inequality, and ordinary people bear the brunt while billionaires continue to write the rules for their own benefit,” said Ahmed.

Oxfam estimates billionaires are over 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than ordinary people. The ultra-wealthy often use their influence to consolidate power and ownership in ways that can undermine democracy, and Elon Musk offered a prime example of this harmful dynamic even prior to becoming a trillionaire. Musk’s ability to pour money into elections allowed him to use his wealth and power in ways that embody the corrosive effects of billionaire control:

• Extract and protect wealth: Not only does much of Musk’s fortune rest on past government support, but he also used his time in the Trump administration to protect and enlarge that wealth. SpaceX derives one-fifth of its revenue from the federal government, though it has likely paid little-to-no federal income tax, thanks to a corporate tax benefit in President Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Public Citizen found that over 70% of the agencies targeted by DOGE presented conflicts of interests for Musk’s businesses, and reporting has revealed that his tenure in the administration coincided with lucrative contracts being steered towards his companies, including SpaceX and its subsidiary Starlink. SpaceX‘s IPO also stands to line the pockets of government officials, politically connected insiders, venture capital firms, and top company executives, including Donald Trump Jr., Jared Isaacman (current NASA Administrator), Peter Thiel, and Marc Andressen (largest donor for the 2026 U.S. midterm elections to date), among others.
• Inflict harm: In his role as the head of DOGE, Musk dismantled parts of the government that helped the poorest and most disadvantaged people in the U.S. and around the world. An Oxfam analysis found that USAID cuts have led to the risk that a child under 5 could die every 40 seconds by 2030.
• Divide and distract: Soon after acquiring X, Elon Musk began paving the way for disinformation campaigns on the platform, almost single-handedly dismantling the company’s Trust and Safety and Human Rights Departments in the first weeks after his take-over. Just weeks before the 2024 U.S. election, the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that “false or misleading claims by billionaire Elon Musk about the U.S. election ha[d] amassed 2 billion views on social media platform X.” Another study by the University of California meanwhile found that in the months following Elon Musk’s acquisition of X the rates of hate speech increased by about 50 percent.

“The new Gilded Age won’t end itself. This is a trillion-dollar alarm bell that should wake governments up to the need to take action. Never has it been more urgent to curb the accumulation of extreme wealth – overhauling the economic policies that have created not just trillionaires, but billionaires and the obscene inequality we see today,” said Ahmed.

 Oxfam is urging governments to heed public demands to address the inequality emergency, including addressing extreme corporate and monopoly power, taxing the wealth of the ultra-rich, investing in public services, and a drastic upscale in actions to protect workers rights and increase wages.

Oxfam is a global organization that fights inequality to end poverty and injustice. We offer lifesaving support in times of crisis and advocate for economic justice, gender equality, and climate action. We demand equal rights and equal treatment so that everyone can thrive, not just survive. The future is equal.