Elon Musk is undoubtedly the richest person in the world and the first to potentially become a trillionaire. Weeks after his net worth surged to $845 billion, according to Forbes, a UK business owner ‘ousted’ him from the position. But her newfound net worth came with a catch, and all it could buy her was a fancy matcha latte and croissant, at best.
Nottingham resident Sophie Downing received the treat of her life when she visited a coffee shop to redeem her Christmas gift card earlier this year. Using it to purchase a matcha latte, she discovered that it would buy her more than one drink, more like a million – everyday. The card had a balance of £63 quadrillion waiting for her to redeem in confectionery and caffeine.
But while Elon Musk could buy entire companies and send global markets careening, she could run financial circles around musk…as long as they were both inside this coffee shop
Richest person in the world: Downing or Musk?
To add some more context, Sophie Downing’s gift card, to be precise, is more than 22,000 times the size of the UK economy and 2700 times more than the GDP of the US. Elon Musk, on the other hand, holds about 2.6 per cent of the US GDP, valued at nearly $30 trillion and overall, 0.7 per cent of the world.
Recalling the moment, Downing said, “The guy at the till was really confused. His face was just like ‘what?’,” reported Lad Bible. He told her, “I’ve never seen it before but it’s fine for you to keep it.”
However, this massive fortune comes with an anti-climactic end. 29-year-old Sophie Downing cannot pay her bills, buy a swanky car, or a mansion with her £63 quadrillion. But she does have an unlimited supply of coffee, lattes, and croissants.
Downing, though, has accepted her fate and refused to use the gift card again. “Maybe they have scanned the wrong thing. It looks as though they have scanned the barcode, which has turned into the balance,” she said, as per a Lad Bible report. The coffee shop has still not acknowledged its mistake, and Sophie is still eligible for a lifetime supply of brews, and more!