In 2024, the world's 500 richest people became significantly richer. Elon Musk (Tesla, SpaseX, X), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), and Jensen Huang (Nvidia) led the group of billionaires, reaching a new milestone - their combined wealth amounted to $10 trillion, Bloomberg writes.
According to the publication, the growth of shares of American technology companies played a key role in increasing the wealth of these three, as well as Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, Michael Dell and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
Only eight tech giants earned more than $600 billion this year, accounting for 43% of the $1.5 trillion among the 500 richest people tracked in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
As for Elon Musk, his close relationship with US President-elect Donald Trump has helped boost the value of his companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI, to $442.1 billion, up $213 billion from the beginning of 2024.
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As of December 17, the $237 billion gap between him and Bezos was the largest ever between the first and second billionaires in the Bloomberg index.
The world's richest people have benefited from a stock market that has exceeded expectations in 2024. The S&P 500 index was up 24% by Monday, driven by a small group of stocks called the Magnificent Seven. They include Musk's Tesla, Zuckerberg's Meta Platforms, and Huang's Nvidia, which account for most of the stock index's growth.
Trump's election victory boosted growth: On November 6, the S&P 500 index hit an all-time high, posting its best post-election day performance in history. Billionaires represented in the index earned a total of $505 billion in the five weeks after the election, which is 34% of the annual amount.
Trump's victory also sparked a historic rise in digital assets, pushing bitcoin over the $100,000 mark for the first time. This especially stimulated cryptocurrency billionaires: Changpeng Zhao of Binance Holdings' fortune increased by 60% to $55 billion. Coinbase co-founder Brian Armstrong's fortune increased by more than 50% to $11.1 billion.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as of the close of trading on Monday, stood at $9.8 trillion, slightly down from its peak of $10.1 trillion on December 11. According to the World Bank, their wealth is similar in size to last year's combined gross domestic product of Germany, Japan, and Australia.
Those who got even wealthier:
Donald Trump's fortune has risen to a record high, helped by the performance of his majority stake in Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. This year, its market value has increased by 95% to more than $7 billion.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang added $76 billion to his fortune this year. In 2024, Nvidia shares almost tripled, and in June it became the most expensive company in the world for the first time.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, added $81 billion to his fortune this year, when Meta shares rose by almost 70%.
And those whose wealth has declined:
The fortunes of French billionaires Bernard Arnault, Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, and François Pinot, whose wealth comes from holdings in the luxury goods sector, suffered major losses in 2024. The slowdown in sales cost them a total of $71 billion.
E-commerce tycoon Colin Huang, the man behind Temu, briefly became China's richest man in August, but ended the year with a net worth of $18 billion after a disappointing earnings report sent his company's shares plunging 29% in one day.
