In 2024, the collective wealth of the world’s top 500 billionaires surged to a staggering $10 trillion, marking an unprecedented milestone. The year saw tech giants Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jensen Huang dominate the wealth rankings, with their fortunes significantly boosted by a rally in US technology stocks. Tesla, Meta, and Nvidia stocks performed exceptionally well, contributing heavily to the increase in wealth. Musk, the wealthiest individual, saw his fortune soar to $442.1 billion, largely driven by his companies like Tesla and SpaceX, and his close ties to President-elect Donald Trump. His wealth gained $213 billion in 2024 alone, making the gap between him and second-ranked Jeff Bezos the largest ever recorded.

The broader stock market also benefitted, particularly from the “Magnificent Seven” stocks, which helped propel the S&P 500 to a 24% gain in 2024. The market’s strength was further supported by Trump’s election victory, which contributed to a historic rally for digital assets like Bitcoin. This led to substantial gains for crypto billionaires such as Changpeng Zhao of Binance and Brian Armstrong of Coinbase. However, the year was not without its challenges, as several billionaires in industries like luxury goods and telecom suffered significant losses, including Bernard Arnault and Carlos Slim.

Among the year’s biggest winners were tech moguls like Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg. Huang saw his net worth rise by $76 billion, driven by Nvidia’s rise to the world’s most valuable company. Zuckerberg added $81 billion to his fortune, despite facing challenges like an EU antitrust fine. Meanwhile, Chinese billionaires like Pony Ma and Lei Jun saw a return to wealth growth, reversing losses from previous years. On the flip side, several billionaires, including French luxury tycoons and Vietnamese mogul Pham Nhat Vuong, experienced substantial declines in their fortunes due to market fluctuations and company struggles.