The combined net worth of the 500 richest people surpassed $10 trillion last year
Last year witnessed an unprecedented surge in the wealth of the world’s richest individuals. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the combined net worth of the world’s 500 top earners reached $10 trillion for the first time on record in 2024.
The total value of the fortunes tracked by the index stood at $9.8 trillion on Monday, December 30, down slightly from a December 11 peak of $10.1 trillion. This figure is similar in size to the combined GDPs of Germany, Japan, and Australia, according to data from the World Bank.
According to the index, the most significant gains came from tech titans, including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jensen Huang. The ten top earners list also includes Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell, and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The eight jointly gained more than $600 billion this year, 43% of the $1.5 trillion increase among the 500 richest people tracked by the index.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk was the biggest gainer in 2024. He saw his fortune more than double from the beginning of the year, reaching $442.1 billion. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Meta Platforms, also saw substantial gains. His net worth rose to $219 billion, positioning him among the top three wealthiest individuals globally. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, whose stock nearly tripled in 2024, saw his wealth rise $76 billion, which placed him among the top gainers of the year.
Most of the world’s top earners benefited from the US stock market rally, Bloomberg noted. The S&P 500 Index gained 24% through the end of the year, and the ‘Magnificent 7’, which includes Apple, Meta, Amazon, Alphabet, Tesla, Microsoft, and Nvidia, accounted for more than half of the benchmark’s performance. Trump’s election victory also had a positive effect on those on Bloomberg’s index, boosting both stocks and digital assets. Combined, the 500 listed billionaires gained $505 billion in the five weeks following the election, or a third of their total for the year.
The ten top earners list has only two representatives from industries other than tech: The founder of the LVMH luxury brand, Bernard Arnault, and Berkshire Hathaway investment guru Warren Buffett.