Justin Trudeau warns that hundreds of trillionaires created by AI boom would signal 'something fundamentally wrong with the world'

Former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told CNBC that while having a handful of trillionaires is acceptable, reaching 100 or 1,000 trillionaires would mean the system doesn't work. His warning comes as the global billionaire count hit a record roughly 3,000 in 2025, with combined wealth topping $2.5 trillion, according to Oxfam.

Elon Musk, with $650 billion to his name, is on track to become the world's first trillionaire and could reach the milestone as soon as this year following SpaceX's reported impending IPO. Tesla shareholders approved a compensation package that could award Musk stock worth close to $1 trillion over the next decade if aggressive targets are met.

CEO pay has widened dramatically: leaders who earned 4–6 times average worker salaries 60 years ago now earn 600 times more, according to Pope Leo XIV's comments last year. Trudeau's own proposals to tax the wealthy for housing, health care, and education—introduced in 2020 and 2024—failed to fully materialize during his tenure as prime minister from 2015 to 2025.