In 2024, the wealth of the global top 500 billionaires, including Musk, continued to expand, reaching a milestone of $100 trillion in net assets.
According to Bloomberg, the strong rebound of U.S. technology stocks has been instrumental in driving the wealth growth of the three magnates Musk, Zuckerberg, and Huang, as well as contributing to the wealth growth of Ellison, Bezos, Dell, and the co-founders of Google, Page and Brin.
Just these eight tech giants saw their total wealth increase by over $600 billion this year, accounting for 43% of the total wealth growth of the top 500 richest individuals tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index ($15 trillion).
Musk easily claimed the top spot as the richest person with his enterprises Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI, significantly surpassing the second-ranked Bezos. Musk’s current wealth has reached an unprecedented $442.1 billion, increasing by $213 billion from the beginning of 2024. As of December 17th, the wealth gap between him and Bezos was $237 billion, marking the largest gap ever between the top two in Bloomberg’s wealth index.
As of December 31st, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Zuckerberg of Meta ranks third on the global rich list, followed by Ellison of Oracle in fourth place, and Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of luxury goods group LVMH, in fifth place.
According to a report released by Informa Connect Academy, Musk is expected to become the world’s first trillionaire in 2027.
Musk’s wealth has grown rapidly. In a report by CNBC in October, Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index showed that Musk’s net worth was around $28.5 billion at the beginning of 2020. By the end of that year, it was about $167 billion; as of September this year, his net assets were about $265 billion, once again making him the world’s richest person.
Overall, the world’s wealthiest individuals benefited from the performance of the stock market in 2024. Trump’s victory in the U.S. election further fueled the rally: the S&P 500 index hit a new high on November 6th, marking its best post-election performance in history. Billionaires represented by this index saw a total wealth increase of $505 billion within five weeks after the election, accounting for 34% of the total annual growth.