World’s 500 richest people surpassed $15 trillion in wealth in 2024

The world’s 500 richest people got vastly richer in 2024, with Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jensen Huang leading the group of billionaires to a new milestone: A combined $US10 trillion ($15.6 trillion) net worth.

An indomitable rally in US technology stocks played a key role in turbocharging the trio’s wealth, as well as the fortunes of Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, Michael Dell and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The eight tech titans alone gained more than $US600 billion this year, 43 per cent of the $US1.5 trillion increase among the 500 richest people tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

But it was Musk — the so-called “first buddy” of President-elect Donald Trump after unprecedented support for his reelection campaign — who dominated the world’s wealthiest in 2024.

Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk’s wealth have plummeted.Credit: AP

His close relationship with the incoming president helped increase the value of his companies, including Tesla, SpaceX and xAI. That boosted his fortune to an unprecedented $US442.1 billion, up $US213 billion from the beginning of the year. The $US237 billion gap between him and Bezos on December 17 was the largest ever recorded between the first- and second-ranked names on Bloomberg’s wealth index.

Across the board, the world’s wealthiest benefited from a stock market that defied expectations in 2024. The S&P 500 Index gained 24 per cent, powered by the small group of stocks dubbed the “Magnificent Seven,” including Musk’s Tesla, Zuckerberg’s Meta Platforms and Huang’s Nvidia, which accounted for more than half of the stock benchmark’s performance.

Trump’s election win added to the gains: The S&P 500 hit 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 $US505 billion in the five weeks following the election, 34 per cent of the yearly total.

Trump’s victory also sparked a historic rally for digital assets, pushing Bitcoin above $US100,000 for the first time.

That especially boosted crypto billionaires: Binance Holdings’ Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ, saw his wealth surge 60 per cent to $US55 billion. The net worth of Coinbase Global co-founder Brian Armstrong rose more than 50 per cent to $US11.1 billion.

The total value of the fortunes tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index was $US9.8 trillion at the end of 2024, down slightly from a December 11 peak of $US10.1 trillion following a post-Christmas selloff. 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.

Changpeng Zhao, billionaire and chief executive officer of Binance, saw his wealth surge.Credit: Washingto Post

Here are some of this year’s biggest winners and losers:

Winners

Donald Trump: The president-elect’s fortune soared to record highs this year, boosted by the performance of his majority stake in Trump Media & Technology Group. Despite reporting a $US19.2 million loss last quarter, DJT, as the social-media company is known, gained 95 per cent this year, to a current market value of over $US7 billion.

Jensen Huang: Nvidia CEO Huang has been one of the biggest individual winners of the AI boom so far, adding $US76 billion to his net worth this year. Nvidia’s stock nearly tripled in 2024, and it became the world’s most valuable company for the first time in June.

The election victory has already paid off handsomely for Donald Trump.Credit: AP

Mark Zuckerberg: Despite a blockbuster $US841 million antitrust fine from the EU and early-year hesitation from investors about the company’s multibillion-dollar AI push, the Meta CEO added $US81 billion to his net worth this year as Meta stock gained nearly 70 per cent.

Chinese billionaires: Chinese billionaires, including Tencent Holdings CEO Pony Ma, Xiaomi chairman Lei Jun and Cambricon Technologies co-founder Chen Tianshi, added 14 per cent to their fortunes in 2024. Their gains reversed three straight years of losses spurred by an ongoing property crisis and government clampdowns on powerful tech firms.

Billionaires under age 60: 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.

Losers

French luxury billionaires: The fortunes of Bernard Arnault, Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Francois Pinault, whose wealth comes from holdings in the luxury goods sector, took big losses in 2024. After years of pandemic-fuelled gains, when luxury shopping supplanted spending on dining and entertainment, slowing sales — especially in the key Chinese market — cost the three billionaires a total of $US71 billion.

It hasn’t been a good year for LVMH billionaire Bernard Arnault.Credit: Bloomberg

Colin Huang: Huang had the biggest wealth decline among Chinese billionaires. The e-commerce mogul behind Temu briefly became China’s richest person in August, but ended the year down $US18 billion after a lacklustre earnings report sent his company’s shares plummeting 29 per cent in a single day.

Ricardo Salinas: The chairman of Grupo Elektra, a Mexican retail and banking conglomerate, lost more than half of his net worth in a single day after his company’s stock tanked following Salinas’ claims that he was scammed by a former financial adviser. Salinas announced he would be taking the company private last week.

Carlos Slim: Slim, who has major stakes in Latin American businesses across the telecom, banking, construction and energy sectors, saw his net worth decline by $US26 billion in 2024. His wealth was hurt by exchange rates — the peso fell about 20 per cent after years of relative strength — and flagging markets after leftist candidate Claudia Sheinbaum’s June victory in Mexico’s presidential election.

Pham Nhat Vuong: The Vietnamese mogul, who has holdings in property development, retail and health care, saw shares in his electric vehicle company Vinfast Auto fall about 70 per cent early in the year after losses widened and the market soured on its aggressive expansion plans. The stock has since recovered some ground, but the decline cost Vuong nearly half of his fortune.

Bloomberg