Financial forecasters predict that in the next 25 years, Bill Gates could emerge as the first trillionaire in the world.
The prediction is based on the assumption that the world's greatest fortunes would continue to grow at the current rate, boosted by the rapid wealth creation in emerging markets, such as India and China.
The forecasters stated that by 2039, if this trend of wealth growth continues, then Gates could become one of the planet's super-richest man.
A trillion dollars is a million million or $1,000,000,000,000, the equivalent of $140 for every person on the planet. It is enough money to buy up every last inch of property in central London at today's prices, according to The Times.
Other contenders, who hold the potential to be the world's first trillionaire, include Mexican telecoms mogul Carlos Slim and legendary US investor Warren Buffett.
"Two generations ahead, future extrapolation of current wealth growth rates yields almost a billion millionaires, equivalent to 20 per cent of the total adult population," the bank wrote in its annual Global Wealth Report last year, reported The Times.
"If this scenario unfolds, then billionaires will be commonplace, and there is likely to be a few trillionaires too, eleven according to our best estimate," the report noted.
Gates, 58, once again shot back to the top slot as the richest man in the world in 2014, according to Forbes' annual list of billionaires. Gates' net worth is now $76 billion and he has been on top for over 15 years.
(Ed: VP)
