The world’s stingiest trillionaire
6/24/202626 min
Ten ways Elon Musk could use his money to make the world a better place... and why he probably won’t.
This episode was produced by Ariana Aspuru, edited by Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Gabriel Dunatov, engineered by Patrick Boyd and David Tatasciore, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram.
A poster critical of Elon Musk's wealth from the "Everyone Hates Elon" activist group in England. Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images.
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First 90 secondsSean Rameswaram· Host0:00
[upbeat music] By now, you've surely heard that the second most divisive man on Earth, Elon Musk, recently became the world's first trillionaire. We should note that it's not like he's swimming in a trillion Sacagaweas. The trillion dollars is tied to the worth of his companies and his stock in said companies, which of course fluctuates every day. But the point is that this man has more money than God now. When SpaceX IPO'd, his net worth shot up to $1.4 trillion. That made him about 13 times more wealthy than Bill Gates. If you're middle class, that made him about seven million times more wealthy than you are. He's worth more than Switzerland. I got some of those fun facts from a Vox piece titled Ten Things Elon Musk Can, But Probably Won't Do With $1 Trillion by our colleague Sarah Hirshander.
Sarah Hirshander· Guest0:49
I am Sarah Hirshander, and I am a fellow for Vox's Future Perfect section.
Sean Rameswaram· Host0:54
And we'll be adapting that piece into audio for you on today's Explained from Vox.
Speaker 30:58
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