The total wealth of the world’s richest people has exceeded $10 trillion thanks to the rise of tech giants

The world’s 500 richest people saw significant increases in their wealth last year, bringing their combined wealth to more than $10 trillion. The group is led by billionaires Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jensen Huang. The unbridled rise in US tech stocks has played a key role in boosting the trio’s fortunes.

Image source: X, Elon Musk

The rise of the IT giants has also contributed to significant increases in the fortunes of Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, Michael Dell, as well as Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Last year, these eight businessmen earned a total of more than $600 billion, which is 43% of the $1.5 trillion increase in the total wealth of the 500 richest people on the planet.

Elon Musk, who actively supported US President-elect Donald Trump, earned more than anyone else in 2024, strengthening himself at the top of the ranking of the richest people according to Bloomberg. Musk’s close relationship with the new American president has helped boost the value of his companies Tesla, SpaceX and xAI. Due to this, the billionaire’s fortune grew to an unprecedented $442.1 billion, which is $213 billion more than at the beginning of the year. Jeff Bezos is in second place in the ranking, but his fortune is $237 billion less than Musk’s. This gap is the largest ever recorded in the Bloomberg index between first and second place rankings.

Overall, the world’s richest people benefited from a stock market that beat analysts’ expectations for 2024. The S&P 500 index continues to grow steadily, and after Trump’s victory in the US presidential election, it showed its best result in history. The billionaires represented in the index earned a total of $505 billion in the five weeks after the election, which is 34% of their annual earnings.

Trump’s victory also pushed digital assets to historic growth, with the price of Bitcoin exceeding $100,000 per coin for the first time. Due to this, the fortunes of cryptocurrency billionaires have increased significantly, among which the founder and former head of the Binance crypto exchange, Changpeng Zhao, is among the leaders. His fortune grew by 60% to $55 billion. The total wealth of billionaires in the Bloomberg index reached $9.8 trillion by December 30, slightly lower than the $10.1 trillion recorded on December 11.