Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jensen Huang are the leading names in the 2024 Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which tracks the world’s wealthiest individuals.
According to the latest report, the collective net worth of the 500 richest people globally rose significantly to $10 trillion this year.
The tech sector played a significant role in this wealth surge, with technology billionaires alone gaining $903 billion.
Notably, Musk, Zuckerberg, and Huang, alongside Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, Michael Dell, and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, added over $600 billion to their fortunes.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI, saw his wealth rise by an unprecedented $213 billion, bringing his total net worth to $442.1 billion. Bloomberg credited Musk’s close ties with the incoming U.S. president and strong stock market performances for this massive increase.
The report also noted a stock market rally following Donald Trump’s election win in November. The S&P 500 hit a record high, boosting billionaire wealth by $505 billion in just five weeks.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, added $81 billion to his net worth, despite facing an $841 million EU antitrust fine. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also experienced a massive boost, with his wealth growing by $76 billion as Nvidia’s stock nearly tripled, driven by the global AI boom.
“This year has shown how pivotal technology and AI are in shaping wealth trends,” Bloomberg reported.
Trump’s victory also fueled a historic rally in digital assets. Bitcoin crossed the $100,000 mark for the first time, significantly increasing the wealth of crypto billionaires like Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, whose net worth jumped by 60% to $55 billion.
While 2024 was a record-breaking year for many, some billionaires faced steep losses. Bernard Arnault, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, and Francois Pinault saw their wealth drop by $71 billion collectively due to slowing luxury sales in China.
Other notable losers include Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas, whose wealth halved after a stock crash, and Vietnamese mogul Pham Nhat Vuong, who lost nearly half his fortune due to struggles with his electric vehicle company.
The younger billionaires on the list, representing 27% of the index, saw their fortunes grow twice as fast as their older counterparts.
Bloomberg highlighted the resilience of the world’s wealthiest: “Despite global economic uncertainty, the S&P 500 gained 24% this year, powered by tech giants like Tesla, Meta, and Nvidia, which accounted for more than half of the market’s growth.”
With the total wealth of the 500 billionaires reaching $9.8 trillion at year-end, 2024 will be remembered as a landmark year for wealth creation, especially for the tech sector.
