Elon Musk has just become the world’s first trillionaire following SpaceX’s initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange. With an estimated US$1.11tn to his name, Musk is now five times richer than when he acquired Twitter three years ago and ~40 times richer than he was in 2020, when he had ‘just’ US$28bn to his name.1 His wealth is about the same as all US military spending for the current financial year,2 or just shy of the entire UK budget for 2025 - 2026.3 Assuming a capacity cost of US$100/t, he could purchase the world’s entire 4.1Bnt/yr of global cement capacity for around US$410bn,4 and still have twice as much money as the world’s second-richest man Jeff Bezos (~US$260bn). Perhaps we should be grateful that cement is not a ‘sexy’ industry.
There was ‘scepticism’ in some corners over the IPO, with SpaceX backer Goldman Sachs talking up a ‘leaked’ revenue forecast the week before... from US$18.7bn in 2025 to US$474bn in 2030... of course...5 When one considers that SpaceX lost US$4.9bn in 2025, this valuation starts to feel a bit over the top. Remember, valuations can go down as well as up.
Whatever your views on the man himself, Musk’s new-found wealth represents a watershed moment in the global economy. He now commands around ~1% of all wealth, currently estimated at US$126tn by the IMF.6 In a world where 831 million people live in extreme poverty, defined as living on less than US$3/day, and 3.4bn live in relative poverty within their home countries, this seems slightly unfair.7
This massive hoovering up of assets is something that is increasingly being presented as just the way of things, but there is another way, according to the World Inequality Lab (WIL). In its Global Justice Report, the WIL envisages an increase in living standards for most people and hugely reduced inequality over the remaining three quarters of the 21st Century.8
Among the Global Justice Report’s suggestions are:
1. Large wealth taxes on billionaires (and trillionaires);
2. Significantly reduced working hours for workers;
3. Far less industry, resource extraction (and cement);
4. Huge investment in education and health services.
The result...? WIL claims that these changes would double the earnings of 89% of people by 2100, while keeping global warming to 1.8°C above the pre-industrial average. The proportion of wealth held by billionaires (and Elon Musk) would fall from 6% to 0.05%. The difference would be invested by a Global Justice Fund into renewable power generation to completely decarbonise power generation by 2050 and increase health and education spending to 38% of global GDP, from 13% at present. The 50% least wealthy would see their combined wealth rise from 2% to 30% of the total.
On the climate change side, a reduction in labour hours is estimated to save a cumulative 1622Bnt of CO2 emissions over 75 years. Changes to agricultural practices and food - away from meat-heavy diets - would save another 610Bnt and a shift to ‘immaterial consumption’ (i.e.: not making new ‘stuff’) would avoid 479Bnt over the same timeframe. Renewable power would avoid 890Bnt, low-carbon fuels (e.g. for aviation) would save 1035Bnt, electrification of transport and infrastructure would save 654Bnt and energy efficiency / reducing industrial waste would save 1009Bnt.
“A habitable, equal 21st Century is materially possible,” the report concludes. “What stands in the way is not technical impossibility but political choice and the hard but crucial work of building a coalition behind it.” The trick, argues the WIL, will be to combine actions to tackle inequality while reducing emissions, to break the perception that climate policies only affect the poor. In summary... tax the rich, save the planet. How hard can it be?
1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gyp523ly8o;
2. https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/fy2026_ndaa_executive_summary.pdf;
3. https://obr.uk/forecasts-in-depth/brief-guides-and-explainers/public-finances;
4. Pro Global Media Ltd, ‘Global Cement Directory 2026,’ Epsom, UK, 2026;
6. https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/NGDPD@WEO/OEMDC/ADVEC/WEOWORLD;
8. https://globaljusticeproject.wid.world/global-justice-report.
