Opinion by AlainaKroll

Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, now has the opportunity to become the world’s first trillionaire.

On Nov. 6, more than 75% of Tesla shareholders approved a pay package for CEO Elon Musk to receive $1 trillion in stock over the next decade. However, Musk has to meet certain requirements to achieve this bonus.

Tesla’s board said that he must remain Tesla CEO for seven and a half years and grow Tesla’s market cap (total value on the stock market) to $8.5 trillion—almost seven times its value today of $1.23 trillion. He must also sell 12 million vehicles a year, and deploy one million humanoid robots and one million self-driving cars, called “robotaxis,” over the next decade.

If he meets these requirements, Musk would receive as much as $423.7 million in additional Tesla shares over the next ten years. Those shares could be worth about $1 trillion, the equivalent of earning about $275 million a day.

As of Nov. 23, Musk has an estimated net worth of $473 billion. However, receiving this sum of money would make him the richest man in modern history, surpassing oil industry dominator John D. Rockefeller’s $630 billion inflation-adjusted fortune. 

This prompts the question: why does one person need this much money?

Nine-time Grammy winner Billie Eilish brought up the topic at a Wall Street Journal Magazine event on Oct. 29.

Eilish, with an estimated net worth of $50 million, recognized that although she is wealthy, she was not the richest person in the room by a long shot. Eilish said, “I love you all, but there’s a few people in here that have a lot more money than me,” likely calling out Mark Zuckerberg, one of the billionaires who was in attendance.

Eilish continued by saying that we are in a time right now where the world is “really dark” and that people need help more than ever. She ended her speech with: “If you’re a billionaire, why are you a billionaire? No hate, but give your money away, shorties.”

She then went on to donate $11.5 million from her recent tour to organizations supporting food equity, combating the climate crisis and reducing pollution.

Eilish makes a great point, as it takes $20 billion to end homelessness in the U.S. and $40 billion per year until 2030 to solve world hunger. Elon Musk alone could fund both solutions twice and still have tens of billions of dollars left over. 

Musk frequently receives backlash about his lack of philanthropy. His “charity,” the Musk Foundation, has failed to meet the minimum annual donation of 5% of its yearly earnings that private foundations in the U.S. are required to make each year. In fact, they have not met the requirement for the past three years in a row. It fell short by $193 million in 2022, giving away only 2.25% of its $7 billion in assets.

The hoarding of wealth is the exact opposite of what the world needs right now, as the gap between the rich and the poor is increasing every day. The 2024 Global Wealth Report showed that the top 1.6% hold 48.1% of the world’s total wealth.

Not only is the uneven distribution of wealth unfair to those in poorer communities and those that labor for minimal pay, but it is unethical based on Catholic Social Teaching. 

The Catholic Church says that we should give extra help and donate to those who are struggling, but that unfortunately doesn’t cross Musk’s mind much, whose foundation only donated 0.00095% of his net worth over the past three years. This is ironic because he claims to be a “big believer of the principles of Christianity.”

Pope Leo XIV also offered his concerns about Musk’s opportunity to become a trillionaire. He has been very outspoken about caring for the poor since he was appointed in May, and is actively trying to draw the world’s attention to reducing poverty around the globe. 

In response to the news of Musk likely becoming the world’s first trillionaire, Pope Leo said, “If that is the only thing that has value anymore, then we’re in big trouble.”

Pope Leo makes a valid point. A trillion dollars belonging to one person while almost 10% of the world’s population lives in extreme poverty is nothing to be celebrated. It should be a wake up call to those who have the power to do something about it.