Elon Musk ended 2024 as the world’s richest person after his net worth surged to an unprecedented $432 billion, up $203 billion over the past year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
His close relationship with the incoming US president Donald Trump helped increase the value of his companies, including electric vehicle maker Tesla, rocket business SpaceX and artificial intelligence start-up xAI.
Bloomberg lists Mr Musk’s cash holding as $0. His private assets include SpaceX, The Boring Company, X (formerly Twitter), xAI and Neuralink. His one publicly listed asset is Tesla (of which he owns about 13 per cent), while he has $23.2 billion in miscellaneous liabilities, according to Bloomberg.
Tesla, along with mega-cap US technology companies Meta and Nvidia, accounted for more than half of the S&P 500’s performance last year.
The world’s 500 richest people, meanwhile, became vastly richer in 2024, with their combined net worth hitting $10 trillion, according to Bloomberg.
Their wealth is similar in size to last year’s combined gross domestic products of Germany, Japan and Australia, according to data compiled by the World Bank.
A rally in US technology stocks played a key role in turbocharging the wealth of Mr Musk, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and Nvidia chief Jensen Huang, as well as the fortunes of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Dell founder Michael Dell and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
The eight tech leaders alone gained more than $600 billion last year, 43 per cent of the $1.5 trillion increase among the 500 richest people tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Mr Bezos ended 2024 as the second-wealthiest person, with a net worth of $239 billion. The $237 billion gap between Mr Musk and Mr Bezos on December 17 was the largest recorded between the first and second-ranked names on Bloomberg’s wealth index.
Mr Zuckerberg was in third place on the rich list with a net worth of $207 billion. The Meta chief executive added $81 billion to his net worth this year as Meta's stock gained nearly 70 per cent.
Oracle’s Mr Ellison was fourth on the list with a fortune of $192 billion, followed by Bernard Arnault, chairman of French luxury group LVMH, with a net worth of $176 billion. Mr Arnault had been ranked the second-wealthiest person in 2023.
Google’s co-founder Mr Page came sixth with $168 billion, while Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, with a net worth of $159 billion, was ranked seventh.
Mr Gates, the world’s richest person from 1995 to 2017, has pledged to give away the majority of his fortune to The Gates Foundation, which he set up with his former wife, Melinda, in 2000.
“Although I don’t care where I rank on the list of the world’s richest people, I do know that as I succeed in giving, I will drop down and eventually off the list altogether,” Mr Gates said in his blog in December 2023.
At eighth position on the list is Mr Brin, with a net worth of $158 billion. Steve Ballmer, former chief executive of Microsoft and owner of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team, and Berkshire Hathaway’s Mr Buffett round out the top 10 wealthiest people in the world, each with a net worth of $147 billion and $142 billion, respectively.
Mr Trump’s election win added to the gains, with the S&P 500 hitting a then all-time high on November 6 in its best post-Election Day performance in history. The billionaires represented on the index gained a combined $505 billion in the five weeks following the election.
His victory also sparked a historic rally for digital assets, pushing Bitcoin above $100,000 for the first time. That boosted crypto billionaires’ wealth.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao saw his wealth surge 60 per cent to $55 billion, while the net worth of Coinbase Global co-founder Brian Armstrong rose more than 50 per cent to $11.1 billion.
The younger billionaires on the list grew their wealth more than twice as much as their older counterparts this year. Billionaires under 60 make up 27 per cent of the index.
The biggest wealth movers in 2024 include Mr Trump, whose fortune soared to record highs this year, boosted by the performance of his majority stake in Trump Media & Technology Group, and Nvidia’s Mr Huang, who added $76 billion to his net worth this year. Chinese billionaires, including Tencent Holdings chief executive Pony Ma and Xiaomi chairman Lei Jun, added 14 per cent to their fortunes in 2024.
The biggest wealth losers in 2024 include French luxury billionaires such as Mr Arnault, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, who controls one third of L’Oreal, the world’s largest cosmetics company, and Francois Pinault, founder of Kering. Slowing sales, especially in the key Chinese market, cost the three billionaires a total of $71 billion.
Top 10 richest people in the world in 2024
- Elon Musk – $432 billion
- Jeff Bezos – $239 billion
- Mark Zuckerberg – $207 billion
- Larry Ellison – $192 billion
- Bernard Arnault – $176 billion
- Larry Page – $168 billion
- Bill Gates – $159 billion
- Sergey Brin – $158 billion
- Steve Ballmer – $147 billion
- Warren Buffett – $142 billion
