A report of Funkyadjunct says that Forbes’ annual list of the world’s richest people was “record-breaking” in several ways in 2024. Supported by stock prices that have been hitting record highs, the number of “billionaires” – people with assets of over $1 billion (about 150 billion yen) – reached a record high of 2,781.
The total value of these people’s assets also increased by $2 trillion from the previous year, reaching a record high of $14.2 trillion (about 2150 trillion yen). This is an additional $1.1 trillion more than the previous record set in 2021.
Two-thirds of the billionaires in the latest ranking increased their assets from the previous year. The top 10 people with the largest increase in assets increased their total assets by $507 billion in just one year.
according to Seotoolskit The person who increased his assets the most was Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose stock price nearly tripled. His assets increased by $116.2 billion from the previous year to $177 billion, his highest ever. Cost reductions from a major restructuring and large investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and the metaverse have had a positive effect. Zuckerberg’s ranking, which was 16th last year, has risen to 4th this time.
Other billionaires whose wealth has increased dramatically thanks to AI include Jensen Huang, CEO of semiconductor giant Nvidia, Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft, who is a major investor in Open AI, and Larry Ellison, co-founder and CTO of global software giant Oracle.
Eight of the 10 wealthiest people who have increased their wealth the most are Americans. Six of them are affiliated with the “Magnificent Seven” of American technology companies (Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta, and Tesla). The other two are
Indonesian Prajogo Pangestu, who is involved in petrochemical and energy-related businesses, and Gautam Adani, chairman of the Indian oligarch Adani Group. Adani, who was hit hard by allegations of financial fraud and stock price manipulation, has completely denied the allegations. The Indian Supreme Court’s ruling in Adani’s favor also led to the recovery of his assets.
Ranking
The top 10 billionaires who saw the biggest increase in assets over the past year in the latest World Rich List are as follows (the ranking was created based on stock prices and exchange rates as of March 8th. Below their names, from left to right, are their assets and the increase from the previous year, and in parentheses their main source of income and nationality):
1. Mark Zuckerberg
$177 billion (approximately JPY 26.8 trillion), +$112.6 billion (Facebook Meta, USA)
2. Jeff Bezos
$194 billion, +$80 billion (Amazon, USA)
3. Jen-Hsun Huang
$77 billion, +$55.9 billion (NVIDIA, USA)
4. Michael Dell
$91 billion, +$40.9 billion (Dell Technologies, USA)
5. Steve Ballmer
$121 billion, +$40.3 billion (Microsoft, USA)
6. Prajogo Pangestu
$43.4 billion, +$38.1 billion (Petrochemicals and Energy, Indonesia)
7. Godam Adani
$84 billion, +$36.8 billion (infrastructure and goods, India)
8. Larry Page
$114 billion, +$34.8 billion (Google, USA)
9. Sergey Brin
$110 billion, +$34 billion (Google, USA)
10. Larry Ellison
$141 billion, +$34 billion (Oracle, US)
