Elon Musk leads tech titans as global wealth hits $10 trillion
The total wealth of the world's 500 richest people surpassed 10 trillion dollars for the first time, with their fortunes growing by 1.5 trillion dollars in 2024. The biggest gains were recorded by tech giants, led by Elon Musk. Among the wealthiest were 16 Russians, according to "Bloomberg."
Bloomberg Agency calculated that the total wealth of the world's 500 richest individuals in 2024 reached a record level of over 10 trillion dollars (approximately 8 trillion pounds sterling). Over the past year, their fortunes increased by 1.5 trillion dollars (approximately 1.2 trillion pounds sterling).
Tech giants at the top of the list
Most of the wealth increases were related to technology leaders, whose companies accounted for 43 percent of the total growth in billionaires' fortunes. Elon Musk, creator of Tesla and SpaceX, took the first place with an estimated fortune of 432 billion dollars (approximately 347 billion pounds sterling). In 2024, his fortune grew by an impressive 203 billion dollars (163 billion pounds sterling).
Following him were Jeff Bezos from Amazon (239 billion dollars, or approximately 192 billion pounds sterling) and Mark Zuckerberg from Meta (207 billion dollars, approximately 167 billion pounds sterling). Among the biggest winners in technology are also Jen-Hsun Huang from Nvidia Corporation and Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google.
Russian billionaires among the richest
The 500 richest included 16 Russians. Among them, Pavel Durov, founder of the Telegram platform, increased his wealth by 1.85 billion dollars (approximately 1.5 billion pounds sterling) to 11 billion dollars (approximately 9 billion pounds sterling).
However, not everyone recorded gains. The greatest losses were suffered by Gennady Timchenko, whose wealth fell by 3.17 billion dollars (approximately 2.5 billion pounds sterling). The fortunes of Suleyman Kerimov (a drop of 725 million dollars, approximately 583 million pounds) and Roman Abramovich (a drop of 623 million dollars, approximately 500 million pounds) also fell.
Despite some losses, most Russian billionaires increased their fortunes. Leonid Fedun gained 994 million dollars (approximately 800 million pounds sterling), increasing his wealth to 10.8 billion dollars (approximately 8.7 billion pounds sterling). German Khan expanded his fortune by 1.7 billion dollars (approximately 1.4 billion pounds sterling), reaching 8 billion pounds sterling.
US elections impacted billionaires' fortunes
Donald Trump's victory became a catalyst for historic growth in the digital asset market, significantly raising the value of Bitcoin, which for the first time exceeded 100,000 dollars.
As a result, the financial position of billionaires in the cryptocurrency industry strengthened. Changpeng Zhao, better known as CZ from Binance Holdings, saw his wealth increase by 60 percent, reaching 55 billion dollars. In the case of Brian Armstrong, co-founder of Coinbase Global Inc., his fortune increased by over 50 percent, amounting to 11.1 billion dollars.
After the elections on 6th November, the S&P 500 index reached a historic high. Billionaires in the index gained a total of 505 billion dollars within five weeks after the elections, accounting for 34 percent of the annual growth of their fortunes, according to Bloomberg.
