The net worth of the world’s 500 richest people skyrocketed by a combined $1.5 trillion this year — a stunning reversal from the $1.4 trillion lost by those on last year’s list, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Leading the way was social media and tech tycoon Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, whose fortune grew $95.4 billion to $232 billion — thanks largely to his 12.95% stake in Tesla, which experienced its own impressive gain so far this year.
The world’s most valuable carmaker finished the year trading at $248, a staggering 130% increase from last year.
Musk’s wealth grew despite woes at X, which saw blue-chip advertisers flee the platform — causing a projected $2.5 billion drop in ad sales — over claims that antisemitic content proliferates the site formerly known as Twitter.
The tech sector’s tremendous growth this year, fueled by the boom in artificial intelligence, helped lift several other already-minted billionaires.
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s boss, and Musk’s aborted “cage match” foe, saw his net worth climb $84 billion to finish the year sixth on the list at $130 million.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos fattened his wallet with an additional $71.3 billion, rising to No. 3 in the world with a net worth of $178 billion.
Microsoft’s performance this year proved to be good news for its former CEO Steve Ballmer, who still owns about a 4% share in the tech behemoth, contributing to his $44.7 billion in earnings this year.
Ballmer, who left Microsoft in 2015 to start the philanthropic investment company Ballmer Group, is closing out 2023 as the world’s fifth-richest person, with $131 billion.
The co-founders of Google-parent Alphabet, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, earned $43.9 billion and $41 billion, respectively, this year.
Page is primed to end the year as the seventh richest person thanks to his $127 billion fortune, while Brin ranks No. 9, with $120 billion.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates earned a more modest $31.3 billion in 2023, which Bloomberg attributed to his 1.4% ownership of the world’s largest software maker, as well as his controlling role in Cascade Investment — which holds shares in dozens of publicly traded companies, including Canada’s biggest railroad operator, Canadian National Railway.
Bernard Arnault of luxury goods empire LVMH, added a mere $16.9 billion to his fortune to fall behind Musk after topping the list last year.
The gap between Musk and 74-year-old Arnault has widened by $53 billion as tech stocks have outperformed the luxury sector, which is experiencing the worst market conditions since 2008,” according to MyTheresa, a designer goods resale merchant.
However, heir to the French beauty brand LOreal Francoise Bettencourt Meyers bucked the trend, shooting up to No. 12 by tacking on $28.6 billion to her wealth — and becoming the first woman to crack the $100 billion barrier.
The 70-year-old’s wealth is from her stake in the worlds largest cosmetics company — founded by her grandfather in 1909 and now worth more than $240 billion — which she inherited following the 2017 death of her mother, Liliane Bettencourt.
The biggest losers this year were Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, who lost $37.3 billion — including $21 billion on Jan. 27 alone after investment research firm Hindenburg Research published a scathing report alleging Adani Group has engaged in a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades,” thus crippling the conglomerate’s stock.
At the time, the New York-based investigative group also raised concerns about Adani Groups high debt, claiming it wiped more than $11 billion in investor wealth.
Adani was swiftly stripped of his crown as the worlds No. 3 richest man and is set to end 2023 in the No. 15 spot on Bloomberg’s index with a net worth of $83.2 billion.
