As his SpaceX embarks on the biggest initial public offering in history, controversial entrepreneur Elon Musk stands on the cusp of seeing his wealth hit a symbolic -- and unprecedented -- trillion dollars.
With the IPO attracting enormous demand for shares in his space technology company the South Africa-born Musk, 54, hopes the operation can catapult him to trillionaire status with riches topping a thousand billions of dollars.
That will take him into an uncharted zone of the mega-wealth stratosphere, leaving Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as well as Amazon creator Jeff Bezos, trailing in his wake, according to data from Forbes and Bloomberg.
But what could a discerning, unfathomably rich investor actually do with a cool trillion at his disposal?
That's around the wealth produced over a year by entire countries, such as Switzerland or Poland ($1,040 billion GDP in 2025, according to the International Monetary Fund).
Or, if you prefer, see it in terms of totalling three times the current value of France's gold reserves.
Yet Musk's wealth is considerably different to that afforded by precious metal, a tangible asset with safe haven status owing to its reputation for stability.
Musk's wealth is mostly derived from his stock portfolio, the value of which fluctuates and can be decidedly volatile. Its value can only be realised through actual sales.
"If Elon Musk wanted to sell off a huge chunk of his shares to buy real estate or whatever, the stock price would drop hugely," warned Alexandre Baradez, head of market analysis for investment company IG France.
That would mechanically see his total wealth follow the same trend.
"There's the law of supply and demand," Baradez said.
"But there's also, and maybe even more importantly, the psychological effect: a massive sale of Elon Musk's shares, given the strong influence he has on his companies' strategies, would send a very strong signal to the market."
Other investors would likely follow suit, which would further decrease the stock's value, and ultimately, the fortune of a man who would revert from being a trillionaire to merely a multi-billionaire.