Elon Musk is the world’s richest person (Image: Getty)
The wealth of the world’s 500 richest people has surpassed a staggering $10 trillion (around £8 trillion) for the first time.
The milestone represents a $1.5 trillion (around £1.2 trillion) increase in the last 12 months alone, with some of the biggest names in like Mark Zuckerberg, Jensen Huang and Larry Ellison adding billions to their net worth.
Telsa and X owner , who was already the world’s richest person, saw the biggest bounce, which accounted for over 13% of the total wealth spike among the richest billionaires.
The four titans, as well as Jeff Bezos, Michael Dell and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin saw their fortunes grow by $600 billion (around £478.1billion) in total this year.
This bank balance boost represented 43% of the total increase among the 500 wealthiest, as per ‘s Billionaires Index.
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Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has also seen his wealth skyrocket further. (Image: Getty)
The total value of the fortunes tracked on the index was $9.8 trillion (£7.8 trillion) at Monday’s close, a slight decrease on the peak of $10.1 trillion (over £8 trillion) seen on December 11.
Musk has been mockingly called the “first buddy” of President-elect after putting his support behind the Republican’s campaign for a second term, and being appointed to a government cost-cutting role.
His close association with Trump, who will be inaugurated as Commander-in-Chief later this month, helped increase the already sizable value of his various companies, which also include xAi and .
That is thought to have played a key role in boosting his wealth to a record $442.1 billion (£3.3billion), more than double his estimated $213 billion (£169billion) net worth at the start of 2024.
On December 17 he was estimated to be $237 billion (around £189billion) richer than Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, marking the biggest gap between the first and second richest on Bloomberg’s wealth index, according to the outlet.
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Musk’s net worth is currently estimated to be around $437 billion (£348.2 billion), about 1.6% of the United State’s GDP, as per .
The world’s wealthiest benefited as the stock market defied expectations in 2024, with Trump’s win in the adding further gains, as per .
A historic rally for digital assets also followed Trump’s victory at the ballot box, with Bitcoin making an unprecedented rise above $100,000 (£79,692.50).
It brought a major boost for billionaires like Binance Holdings’ CEO Changpeng Zhaosaw and Coinbase Global Inc. co-founder Brian Armstrong who saw their wealth rise to $55 billion (£43.8billion) and $11.1 billion (£8.8billion) – increases of 60% and 50% respectively.