TechFlow, citing the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, reported that in 2024, the combined wealth of the world's top 500 billionaires surpassed $10 trillion for the first time—equivalent to the combined GDP of Germany, Japan, and Australia last year. Technology magnates led the surge in wealth, with Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jensen Huang, and five other tech titans collectively adding over $600 billion to their fortunes, accounting for 43% of the total billionaire wealth growth ($1.5 trillion) this year.
Specifically, Donald Trump’s election victory boosted Elon Musk’s wealth significantly. Rising valuations of Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI pushed Musk’s net worth to $442.1 billion, an increase of $213 billion from the beginning of the year, widening his lead over second-ranked Jeff Bezos to a record $237 billion. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg gained $81 billion in wealth, while Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang benefited from the AI boom, adding $76 billion to his fortune.
In the cryptocurrency sector, Bitcoin surged past $100,000 following Trump’s win, driving Binance CEO CZ’s net worth up by 60% to $55 billion, and Coinbase co-founder Brian Armstrong’s net worth rose over 50% to $11.1 billion.
On the other hand, French luxury tycoons Bernard Arnault, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, and Francois Pinault saw their combined wealth shrink by $71 billion due to weakening Chinese consumer demand. Chinese e-commerce billionaire Colin Huang (Huang Zheng) lost $18 billion amid disappointing financial performance, marking the largest decline among Chinese billionaires.
