Trillion is the amount of a million million. This number is expressed by the unit followed by twelve zeros: 1,000,000,000,000. This means that one trillion equals 10 to the twelfth power. The prefix Tera represents the trillion in the International System of Units.
For example: “National banks accumulate a debt of more than a trillion euros”, “I would like to have a trillion dollars, but I am satisfied with half a million”, “The government affirms that the economy can only be reactivated with an investment of capital of a trillion pesos ”, “ I cannot imagine what a trillion dollars is ”.
It is important to note that the concept of a billion that we use in the Spanish language is different from the billion in the English language. Billion, therefore, refers to one billion (the unit followed by nine zeros: 1,000,000,000), which tends to cause confusion in translations. What in our language is a trillion, well, for the English language is a trillion. It cannot be ignored that there is a great difference between a billion (1,000,000,000) and a million million (1,000,000,000,000).
According to DigoPaul, this concept of trillion, as equivalent to one billion, it should be noted that it has its origin in the 16th century and that it was not only adopted in England but also in other countries such as Greece, Brazil or also in Turkey.
So far the two people who have come closest to owning that billion are:
• John D. Rockefeller (1839 – 1937). He is an American tycoon focused primarily on the oil sector who founded the Standard Oil company, which became the largest in the world. And it is that, according to some analyzes carried out, at the moment the fortune that he managed to amass would be equivalent to about 0.19 trillion or what is the same 190,000 million dollars.
• William Bill Henry Gates III (1955). One of the founders of the well-known computer and technology company Microsoft Corporation is this, better known simply as Bill Gates, who, according to studies carried out within the financial field, has been able to add a capital of 0.09 trillion, that is, about 90,000 million dollars. In this way, he has become one of the richest men on the entire planet.
A billionaire, therefore, can be a person who has a wealth of a billion dollars, euros, etc. or a million million. No person has managed to accumulate wealth of a million million of some hard currency; instead if many subjects have a billion. To this last group he refers to the English term billionaire, which is usually translated as billionaire or billionaire.
In addition to all the above, it is worth highlighting a solidarity action that is carried out and that uses the term that we are now analyzing on its behalf. It is about “One Billion Standing for Justice”, which is an international demonstration that takes place in Mexico with the clear purpose of rejecting violence against women.