Elon Musk
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Elon Musk in New York on Oct. 27, 2024. Photo by AP |
The richest man in the world, Elon Musk, led the list with a $239 billion in added wealth.
The wealth gain alone exceeds the total net worth of the second person on the list, Mark Zuckerberg.
As the CEO of both electric car maker Tesla and private space company SpaceX and the owner of social media giant X, Musk benefited from the surge of his company shares, especially as the presidential candidate he supports, Donald Trump, won over competitor Kamala Harris.
Tesla shares have surged 83% year-to-date as investors expect a new Trump presidency will boost the company performance.
SpaceX, which successfully retrieved a rocket booster in October, now has a valuation of $350 billion.
Mark Zuckerberg
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Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by AP |
In the second place, Mark Zuckerberg enjoyed a $85-billion net worth gain this year as social media giant Meta Platforms’ shares surged 76%, driven by investors’ confidence in his bet on AI and metaverse.
The founder and CEO of Meta now ranks third in wealth with a $213 billion net worth.
Jensen Huang
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Jensen Huang speaks at an event in Taiwan in June 2024. Photo by VnExpress/Khuong Nha |
Jensen Huang, CEO of chipmaking behemoth Nvidia, saw his wealth expanding by $78 billion.
He now ranks 12th globally with a net worth of $122 billion.
The surge of demand for AI chips in the last two years has pushed up the asset value of Huang as many tech companies spend big bucks on owning the most competitive graphic processing units.
Nvidia shares have risen 190% this year, giving it a valuation of $3.4 trillion.
Larry Ellison
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Jensen Huang seen at an event in California, U.S. Photo by Reuters |
Larry Ellison, founder and largest shareholder of database company Oracle, has reported a $71 billion net worth gain.
Oracle shares have gone up 65% after signing deals with Meta and OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.
“Oracle Cloud Infrastructure trains several of the world’s most important generative AI models because we are faster and less expensive than other clouds,” Ellison said recently.
Jeff Bezos
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Jeff Bezos attends an event of the New York Times in 2024. Photo by AFP |
Jeff Bezos, founder and chairman of e-commerce giant Amazon, has seen a $69 billion gain in wealth.
The 52% rise of Amazon shares as the company continues to bet on AI for stronger revenues now gives Bezos a net worth of $246 billion, making him the second richest man in the world.
