The South African SpaceX owner (with Tesla and Starlink) has seen his shares soar on the New York Stock Exchange. In just a few days, he became the first citizen on Earth to call himself a trillionaire: by 2026, his net worth will have reached $1.200 trillion (approximately €1.037 billion). Elon Musk salutes the wealthiest woman from above, namely Alice Walton of the Waltons saga, who, with 11.000 supermarkets around the world, is worth €115,76 billion. In other words... Elon could buy 1.200 Boeing 747s, and Alice could add 746 Picassos to her painting collection, such as "The Women of Algiers," which sold at auction for $179,4 million!
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It's time for holiday homework...
Notebook on the left of the computer and calculator on the right. Let's proceed.
The exercise begins with writing down $134 billion. You write 134 followed by nine zeros: 134.000.000.000. In euros, at the current exchange rate, that becomes 115,76 billion euros. This is the net worth of Alice Walton, the only daughter, heiress, benefactor, and art lover of the family that amazed the world with the Walmart supermarket chain and beyond.
Alice Walton is the richest woman on Earth. Her full name is Alice Louise Walton. She also stopped by Cernobbio, Como: and certainly not to attend the Ambrosetti Forum in early September, where she would be greeted with applause and bows simply because she's the richest woman on the planet, and certainly not because of the countless charitable foundations established in the United States.
If you ask the people of Como about Alice Walton, you'll hear in response phrases – interesting nonetheless – about the other Alice Walton, the British ceramic artist, who strolled around Cernobbio in the spare time left over from exhibiting her works of art at Villa d'Este.
"Our" Alice Walton is happy to be in Bentonville, Arkansas, in her "Italian Rooms," built to reflect her artistic passions, which she passionately pursued in Italy. As mentioned, she is the only woman among the five children she had with Helen Robson Kemper, who was married to Samuel Moore "Sam" Walton. Adhering to perfect discretion, a lover of the beautiful and the good, she once had breakfast anonymously at Pasticceria Poletti in Cernobbio. And what's more, she was wearing a scarf, which—if recognized—would have led onlookers to the "other" Alice Walton.
The sons are Samuel Robson “Rob” Walton (born 1944), John Thomas Walton (1946-2005), Jim Carr Walton (1948), Kaylee L.Walton (1949).
The magnificent 5 Waltons, and their respective heirs, are the masters of the supermarket galaxy that in 2026 briefly reached a market capitalization of 864 billion euros with nearly 11.000 stores in 19 countries, almost half of which are outside the USA.
The living founder of the Waltons is Rob. We met him in the early 2000s in Val d'Orcia, Tuscany, between the provinces of Siena and Grosseto. In that magical area, every year Rudie Campagne (formerly of Philips, formerly of Vittoria tubulars and clinchers) gathers a handful of friends who share a love of cycling. Among them are Mark Sinyard, the "Mr. Specialized," who later sold half of the brand to frame builder Merida; Carlo Pesenti, then managing director of the eponymous cement works and of Italimmobiliare; Giovanni Gorno Tempini, president of the Fondo Strategico Italiano; a new vice president of Philips, a CEO of ING Direct, and so on.
Over time, the Exclusive Club has shed members and co-opted others. Every summer the ritual is renewed, but this year "Rob" Walton declined the invitation because he was busy with other matters, including the new path he'd begun with his latest wife.
At the time, he amazed us with the simplicity he reduced to any topic. He must have been born with the simplification algorithm in mind. So we're not surprised that he knows how to manage the Walmart galaxy... Perhaps he'll return to Italy for a cycling trip in 2027, and Valerio De Molli, partner and director of The European House-Ambrosetti, and Luca Spada, founder and former owner of Eolo, which for a few years also sponsored a second-tier professional cycling team, will surely be sitting at Rudie and Rob's table.
And now we turn our attention to Elon Musk, the richest man on Earth and beyond (since he wants to reach Mars and beyond), who in the second week of June 2026, at the end of spring and now on the threshold of summer, also listed SpaceX on the New York Stock Exchange, also incorporating Tesla and Starlink. The classic Wall Street campaign bell at the start of the day was echoed by the applause of Musk's employees who were invited to experience that historic moment live.
SpaceX's market capitalization stands at around $2.000 trillion (approximately €1.728 billion). The stock has soared faster than the space shuttles that carry the most curious wealthy individuals into orbit, those who spare no expense and don't overestimate the risks. And Musk's personal wealth has risen from $873 billion to $1.200 trillion, equivalent to approximately €1.037 billion, making the South African with a Canadian passport and US citizenship the first trillionaire in history!
Musk's wealth is nearly four times that of Google's Larry Page and Serge Brin, and five times that of Jeff Bezos. Further down the wealth ladder are Larry Ellison (Oracle), Michael Dell (Dell Technologies), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Jensen Huang (Envy), and the Bernard Arnault family.
Behind the luxury market leaders are Alicia and, one by one, the other three living siblings.
Which means the richest man is at least 9 steps above the richest woman.
We roll our eyes and move on. But it won't be the only time, because, by consulting those well-informed in each product sector, we're overcome with curiosity to know what and how many gifts "our" friends Walton and Musk might indulge in. We obviously like them, and from now on we'll call them by their proper names: Alice and Elon.
Let's start with the house. Given that the most expensive one appears to be the family residence of Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani in Mumbai—we're talking about Palazzo Antilia—valued at $2,2 billion, Alice could afford $62 billion and Elon a whopping $560 billion. And if Buckingham Palace, the home of the British Royals, is truly worth $5,5 billion, then Alice could buy $24 billion and Elon a whopping $219 billion!
In this respect, La Tour Odeon in Monte Carlo, Principality of Monaco, where the most expensive penthouse is offered at 335 million euros and consequently Alice could collect 345 and Elon amaze everyone once again with the "dowry" of 3.109 large apartments.
The two could give up a little and focus on Villa Leopolda, on the French Riviera, which also belonged to the lawyer Gianni Agnelli and is valued at 750 million: Alice could buy 154 and Elon could get 1.389.
Let's move on to cars. Despite its lack of practicality and convenience for the times, the Lamborghini Veneno was sold at high bidding for €7,6 million: Alice could fit 15.231 of them in her garage, while Elon would struggle to fit 137.084 cars, in addition to the Teslas he already uses! Both would need an oil well to refine into gasoline to get them all into circulation.
We joked about the cars because for both of us it would be mission impossible to reach those numbers since there were only 9 Venenos in circulation, namely: 3 Coupés and 6 Roadstars.
And which plane should you buy to get from one end of the planet to another while waiting for a moon landing or a descent to Mars thanks to SpaceX? Only the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit costs more than the Boeing 747-430: $1,2 billion versus a whopping $1 billion. But the former is for military purposes, while the latter is used to transport passengers and/or cargo. Which would mean Alice would have to expand the family hangar to accommodate 134 747s, while Elon would have to shell out a little more for a plot of land large enough to line up 1.200 pieces!
These mind-boggling numbers become incredibly revealing when compared to the GDP—Gross Domestic Product—of each census-taking country. With $1.200 trillion, Elon Musk ranks 22nd globally, tied with Switzerland. That's no small feat, even though in general terms, it's "only" 1 percent of global GDP: he's behind 173 countries and has just 21 ahead of him to climb. One last interesting fact: Musk's wealth is equivalent to the combined income of 3,8 billion people, nearly half the world's population combined.
The game ends here. If we happened to meet Alice Walton at Pasticceria Poletti in Cenobbio, we wouldn't hesitate to run to the register and buy her a coffee: out of politeness and without envy. And while chatting, we might discover that Alice in Bentonville has the most expensive Picasso hanging on her wall (Le Femmes d'Alger, version 0, sold at auction for the record price of $179,4 million): no wonder, she could afford another $745... To each his own. We're happy with what we have.
