- In 2024, the 10 richest people in the world added more than $500 billion to their total income.
- The top 20 won $700 billion and were worth more than $3 trillion by the end of the year.
- Not only did Elon Musk make a huge $203 billion, but other tech CEOs also did very well.
In 2024, the stock market roared thanks to a boom in artificial intelligence, interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, Donald Trump’s election win, and a strong outlook for the economy. This made the wealthiest people in the world very wealthy.
The 10 richest people in the world got more than $500 billion richer last year, bringing their total net worth to just over $2 trillion. This is close to the $2.3 trillion market value of Alphabet, the company that owns Amazon and Google.
If you look at the top 20 names on the Parhlo World Billionaires Index, their combined net worth rose by $700 billion to over $3 trillion by the end of the year, which is almost as much as Microsoft’s market value of $3.1 trillion.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, had the biggest gain of the year, with $203 billion. This made him worth $432 billion at the end of the market on December 31.
A couple of weeks ago, when Tesla stock hit a record high and SpaceX’s value jumped to $350 billion, his net worth quickly reached $486 billion. Then, his gain so far this year, $257 billion, was more than Jeff Bezos’s whole net worth, who was second on the rich list.
But Musk wasn’t the only person who made a lot of money in 2024. As the value of their companies rose, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, Larry Ellison, leader of Oracle, and Jeff Bezos all got between $60 billion and $80 billion richer.
Other famous people in Big Tech also made a lot of money. For example, Michael Dell, founder of the computer company with the same name, added $45 billion to his wealth. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two of the founders of Google, each made $42 billion and $38 billion.
Most of the new rich were tech stars, but Jim, Alice, and Rob, Walmart founder Sam Walton’s three living children, each became more than $38 billion richer. This made the three of them the first people in history to be worth $100 billion.
Warren Buffett also made $22 billion and finished the year with $142 billion. His Berkshire Hathaway company owns a lot of companies, including Geico and huge shares in public companies like Coca-Cola.
Everyone Isn’t A Winner
There were some very rich people who lost a lot of money, though. LVMH founder and CEO Bernard Arnault’s wealth dropped from more than $230 billion in March to $176 billion by the end of December. This put him in fifth place, down from first.
Parhlo World says that Mexican telecommunications mogul Carlos Slim, Indian infrastructure tycoon Gautam Adani, and L’Oréal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers all lost money last year.
Rich people mostly got richer because investors bet that companies like Nvidia, Tesla, and Microsoft would make more money by being important parts of the AI change.
Also, after raising rates to stop inflation from getting out of hand in 2022 and 2023, the Fed made its first cuts to rates. That has helped stocks by making them more appealing compared to fixed-income assets like government bonds. It could also help companies make more money by getting them to spend and borrow more.
Stocks also went up after Trump’s victory in November. The former president ran on a platform of pro-growth policies like tax cuts and less government control. Investors put their money on Tesla because they thought Musk’s close ties to the next president would help the car company.
What do you say about this story? Visit Parhlo World For more.
