Elon Musk’s support for Donald Trump during the US presidential campaign paid off for the billionaire whose companies include Tesla Inc, SpaceX and xAI.
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The huge increase in the value of technology stocks in 2024 has further boosted the world’s 500 richest people, according to the latest Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
For the first time, the combined wealth of the super-rich exceeded $10 trillion (€9.7 trillion) in 2024.
Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jensen Huang are the three billionaires with the biggest gains in 2024.
Elon Musk’s support for Donald Trump before the US elections proved to be a profitable choice for the billionaire.
The rise in value of his companies, including Tesla Inc, SpaceX and xAI, has left him a personal fortune of 442.1 billion dollars (426.7 billion euros), an increase of 213 billion dollars (205.6 billion euros) in 2024.
Tech companies have made millions for CEOs and shareholders
The Bloomberg Index revealed that the gap of $237 billion (228.7 billion euros) between him and Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, recorded on December 17, was the largest ever recorded between the first and second rank of the index.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is the second-highest-earning person in 2024.
Although his company suffered some costly setbacks due to a hefty EU antitrust fine and investor caution over Meta’s massive spending on AI, Mark Zuckerberg still managed to earn an additional $81 billion (€78.2 billion) in 2024with its shares up nearly 70% over the year.
Le PDG de Nvidia, Jensen Huang, for his part, added $76 billion (73.4 billion euros) to his personal fortune thanks to gains generated by the AI boom. Nvidia’s stock value nearly tripled during the year, becoming the most valuable company in the world during the year.
According to Bloomberg, citing World Bank data, the wealth of these billionaires is equivalent to the combined gross domestic products of Germany, Japan and Australia last year.
French billionaires are losing ground
The fortunes of Bernard Arnault (LVMH), Françoise Bettencourt Meyers (L’Oréal) and François-Henri Pinault (Kering) fell in 2024, with the luxury goods sector seeing a sharp drop in profits last year.
The luxury goods market was particularly affected by the slowdown of the main Chinese market and the three billionaires lost 71 billion dollars (69 billion euros).
Another 2024 loser is the founder of e-commerce platform Temu, Colin Huang, who was briefly China’s richest person last August. However, he lost $18 billion (€17.4 billion) after a worrying report on the company’s profits sent Temu’s shares down 29% in a single day.
