Bloomberg's list of the top 500 billionaires, published yesterday, shows that the world's richest people got richer last year.
While 77 percent of the billionaires who made the list saw their wealth increase further, others suffered some losses.
ELON MUSK AT THE TOP
Elon Musk is at the top with an estimated net worth of $235 billion.
The South African-born billionaire first knocked Amazon owner Jeff Bezos off the podium in mid-2021 and has held the top spot ever since. According to Bloomberg, Musk has seen his wealth increase by about $ 98 billion this year.
While social media platform X (formerly Twitter) has been in turmoil, at odds with advertisers and battered by various allegations, Musk's flagship Tesla has shown steady growth, further solidifying its position.
Bezos is now in third place with $178 billion, narrowly beating Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton), whose fortune reached nearly $179 billion this year.
ZUCKERBERG
Musk's arch-rival and Meta owner Mark Zuckerberg enjoyed the second-largest growth in wealth this year, with his net worth increasing by nearly $83 billion. The two have long had a public rivalry.
They even planned to organize a fight match, but the idea was shelved. The growth, fueled by a surge in shares of the social media empire after the crash in 2022, put Zuckerberg in sixth place with $128 billion.
In fact, only one billionaire among the top 15 has seen his wealth decline. Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, chairman of the Adani Group, saw his net worth fall by a whopping $36.3 billion to $84.3 billion, knocking him out of the top 10.
The loss, the largest this year, stemmed from a major scandal around the Andani empire that erupted in early 2023. Andani was accused of "committing the biggest fraud in company history" and "brazen stock manipulation". But the company flatly denied all allegations.
