World’s 500 Richest People Surpassed $10 Trillion In Wealth This Year

The world’s 500 richest people got vastly richer in 2024, with Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jensen Huang leading the group of billionaires to a new milestone: A combined $10 trillion net worth.

• Jensen Huang: Nvidia CEO Huang has been one of the biggest individual winners of the AI boom so far, adding $76 billion to his net worth this year. Nvidia’s stock nearly tripled in 2024, and it became the world’s most valuable company for the first time in June.

• Mark Zuckerberg: Despite a blockbuster $841 million antitrust fine from the EU and early-year hesitation from investors about the company’s multibillion-dollar AI push, the Meta CEO added $81 billion to his net worth this year as Meta stock gained nearly 70%.

• Chinese billionaires: Chinese billionaires, including Tencent Holdings Ltd. CEO Pony Ma, Xiaomi Corp. Chairman Lei Jun and Cambricon Technologies Corp. co-founder Chen Tianshi, added 14% to their fortunes in 2024. Their gains reversed three straight years of losses spurred by an ongoing property crisis and government clampdowns on powerful tech firms.

• Billionaires under age 60: The younger billionaires on the list grew their wealth more than twice as much as their older counterparts this year. Billionaires under 60 make up 27% of the index.

Losers

• French luxury billionaires: The fortunes of Bernard Arnault, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers and Francois Pinault, whose wealth comes from holdings in the luxury goods sector, took big losses in 2024. After years of pandemic-fueled gains, when luxury shopping supplanted spending on dining and entertainment, slowing sales — especially in the key Chinese market — cost the three billionaires a total of $71 billion.

• Colin Huang: Huang had the biggest wealth decline among Chinese billionaires. The e-commerce mogul behind Temu briefly became China’s richest person in August, but ended the year down $18 billion after a lackluster earnings report sent his company’s shares plummeting 29% in a single day.

• Ricardo Salinas: The chairman of Grupo Elektra SAB, a Mexican retail and banking conglomerate, lost more than half of his net worth in a single day after his company’s stock tanked following Salinas’ claims that he was scammed by a former financial adviser. Salinas announced he would be taking the company private last week.

• Carlos Slim: Slim, who has major stakes in Latin American businesses across the telecom, banking, construction and energy sectors, saw his net worth decline by $26 billion in 2024. His wealth was hurt by exchange rates — the peso fell about 20% after years of relative strength — and flagging markets after leftist candidate Claudia Sheinbaum’s June victory in Mexico’s presidential election.

• Pham Nhat Vuong: The Vietnamese mogul, who has holdings in property development, retail and health care, saw shares in his electric vehicle company Vinfast Auto Ltd. fall about 70% early in the year after losses widened and the market soured on its aggressive expansion plans. The stock has since recovered some ground, but the decline cost Vuong nearly half of his fortune.