- 3 min read
- Published: 11th June 2026
Soon-to-be trillionaire Elon Musk's wealth grew by over $1 million per minute in the last year
The expected news today that Elon Musk’s is a trillionaire is a clear sign of a rigged global political and economic system that is designed to benefit the ultra-wealthy few, while everyone else pays the price, said Oxfam Ireland.
A new Oxfam analysis reveals the world’s first trillionaire, is to be richer than the poorest 46% of the world population, or 3.8 billion people.
Hitting $1 trillion means Musk’s wealth grew by over $550 billion over the past year, equivalent to an average rate of over $1 million per minute.
Oxfam estimates billionaires are over 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than ordinary people. Oxfam say such extreme concentrated wealth is symptomatic of decades of pro-billionaire politics that have allowed the ultra-rich to write economic rules in their favour.
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 beone 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.
This funding is badly needed as for the first time in a generation; extreme poverty is once again on the rise.
Oxfam Ireland CEO Jim Clarken described Musk as a government backed trillionaire, saying;
No one should think this is another example of the rich getting richer while the poor get poorer. And it comes at a time when one in four people don't regularly have enough to eat, and nearly half the world's population lives in poverty.
A series of political decisions have led us to this day. This should be a wake-up call for countries all over the world because economic inequality leads to political inequality. We increasingly see extreme politics, fractured societies with people pitted against one another.
In Ireland we are not immune and we are calling for wealth tax as one part in protecting ourselves from destabilising inequality.
A tax on the super-rich would raise much needed revenue to fund a range of challenges including climate change. But a fair wealth tax is not just about revenue: it’s about justice. Irish people need to see that the ultra-wealthy cannot use that wealth to avoid discharging their duty to the state and to the rest of us.”
ENDS
Download Oxfam’s media brief, “SpaceX: Of Musk, For Musk, and By Musk,” here.
Download Oxfam’s media brief, “Trillionaire in the Making: How Tesla turbocharged Musk's fortune and US inequality,” here.
Read Oxfam’s blog on the rise of the tech oligarchy here.
Elon Musk’s wealth data is from the Forbes Real Time Billionaires List.
Data on net personal wealth is from the World Inequality Database, while Elon
Musk’s net worth is from the Forbes real-time billionaires’ list. In 2024, the bottom
46% of humanity, equivalent to 3.8 billion people, had a combined net wealth of
US$890 billion (adjusted to January 2026 prices). All calculations were based on a current net worth of $1 trillion. On May 31, 2025, Musk had a net worth of $422.7 billion.
Oxfam’s calculations show based on World Bank data shows that in 2024, the cost of ending extreme poverty for a year is $96.2 billion. Just 10% of Elon Musk wealth is enough to end extreme poverty in the world. The poverty lines and national poverty gaps are from the World Bank and are in PPP. For each country, we converted the two poverty lines into U.S. dollars at the market exchange rate using the market exchange rates and purchasing power conversion factors from World Inequality Database. The amount needed to end poverty for one year is the product of the poverty gap, poverty line, population and 365 days. We then aggregated values for all the countries.
Contact
*Clare Cronin |Head of Communications and Campaign, Oxfam Ireland
353 87 1952551
*Kate Brayden
353 87 1877509
