In 2024, the combined net worth of the world’s 500 richest people exceeded the $10,000 billion mark for the first time. Technology billionaires clearly stand out from the statistics with a combined net worth of $903 billion. About that news Bloomberg.
The reason for the rapid growth of the wealth of technology moguls is mainly the long-term increase in the value of US technology stocks.
In particular, electric car manufacturers have been able to enjoy the boom in techno stocks Tesla’s managing director Elon Muskmanufacturing artificial intelligence chips Nvidia’s managing director Jensen Huang and social media company Methane managing director Mark Zuckerberg.
In addition, they increased their wealth considerably Oraclen chief technology officer Larry Ellison, Amazon’s managing director Jeff Bezos, Dell’s managing director Michael Dell and Google the founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin.
In total, the net worth of the eight increased by 600 billion dollars. The net worth of the world’s 500 richest people increased by a total of 1,500 billion dollars, of which the top eight ended up with 43 percent.
Trump’s trusted man at the top
Elon Musk, estimated to be the richest person in the world, increased his wealth the most.
Musk and the future president of the United States Donald Trump’s the good times raised the prices of Musk’s companies, such as Tesla SpaceX:n yes xAIso much that Musk’s personal net worth increased by 213 billion since the beginning of the year.
Currently, Bloomberg estimates Musk’s wealth at $442.1 billion.
Due to Musk’s astronomical leap in wealth, he has also overtaken the second richest person in the world, Jeff Bezos. In mid-December, the wealth gap between the world’s richest and second-richest people was the largest in the history of the Bloomberg index, $237 billion.
A stock rally inflates fortunes
Although Musk was at the very top of the wealth list, other super-rich people have also been able to enjoy the dizzying rise of the US stock market. The US S&P 500 stock index has risen by more than 24 percent in the past year.
Donald Trump’s election victory sent stocks soaring. November saw the best post-election day in history from the point of view of stocks. The net assets of the 500 listed billionaires are estimated to have increased by a total of 505 billion dollars in the five weeks following the election.
The exchange rate reaction that followed Trump’s election in the cryptocurrency market rained down on crypto billionaires. Cryptocurrency exchange Binancen former CEO Changpeng Zhaon net worth jumped 60 percent to $55 billion after the election.
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbasen of the founder Brian Armstrongin wealth increased by 50 percent to 11.1 billion.