The Bloomberg Billionaires Index was recently released, which threw up two startling facts about the world’s richest individuals. First, the aggregate wealth of the world’s top two billionaires stands at an astonishing $700 billion. Second, the difference between the richest person and the second-richest stands at nearly $200 billion, bringing out the huge disparity at the pinnacle of global wealth.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has become the first person to reach $400 billion in net worth, the latest milestone for the world’s richest individual with the total net worth of $442 billion. On second potion is Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon, with a net worth of US$248 billion as of December 14, 2024.
Musk’s fortune has staged a dramatic turnaround since late 2022, when at one point he saw his net worth drop by more than $200 billion. But it’s been especially turbocharged of late after Donald Trump’s election win last month, with Musk being his most prominent political donor and advocate. Meanwhile, Bezos has added $72.1 billion to his net worth since the start of 2024.
As of December 12, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg ranks third on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with a net worth of $224 billion. Notably, his wealth saw a one-day surge of $4.58 billion. Since the beginning of 2024, Zuckerberg has amassed an impressive $95.4 billion, reflecting his remarkable financial growth this year.
The rest of the list includes a wide cross-section of different businesses. Larry Ellison, who cofounded the Oracle database firm, holds $195 billion. Bernard Arnault, head of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, comes in with $181 billion. Then, of course, are tech legends Larry Page and Sergey Brin, founders of Google, who follow with $171 billion and $161 billion, respectively. Bill Gates, who helped found Microsoft, comes second with $165 billion, while former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer makes it to third place, with a net worth of $156 billion. Then comes Warren Buffett, the most acclaimed investor and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, with a net worth of $143 billion.
