Elon Musk's return as the world's richest person marks a significant shift, with a staggering increase in his net worth, primarily attributed to the successes of Tesla and SpaceX. His wealth surged by $95.4 billion, pushing his net worth to an estimated $232 billion. This propelled him ahead of Bernard Arnault, the French luxury magnate, by over $50 billion, mainly due to a decline in LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE shares amidst a global decrease in luxury product demand.
Meanwhile, Amazon's Jeff Bezos witnessed an addition of over $70 billion to his fortune this year, placing him in a close competition with Arnault for the second position. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, also saw a significant increase in wealth, adding more than $80 billion to his net worth.
Arnault stands as the second richest globally, holding a net worth of $179 billion, followed by Bezos at $178 billion, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates at $141 billion, ex-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at $131 billion, and Zuckerberg at $130 billion.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index further highlights that the collective net worth of the top 500 richest individuals rebounded entirely from the $1.4 trillion loss in the previous year, showing a total increase of $1.5 trillion in 2023. A significant portion of this surge, around 48 percent or $658 billion, was attributed to the wealth of tech billionaires, largely owing to the increasing interest and excitement surrounding artificial intelligence.
(With Agency Inputs)
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