WASHINGTON: The world’s wealthiest people, led by tech founders and business magnates, control fortunes that rival the GDP of entire nations, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Tesla and SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk remains the richest person with an estimated net worth of $459 billion, driven by stakes in Tesla, SpaceX and artificial intelligence firm xAI.
Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle, ranks second with $340 billion, followed by Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg at $258 billion and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos at $243 billion.
Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin take the fifth and sixth spots with $213 billion and $200 billion, respectively.
Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer ranks seventh at $178 billion, while French luxury tycoon Bernard Arnault, who heads LVMH, is eighth with $172 billion.
Jensen Huang, chief executive of chipmaker NVIDIA, has surged to ninth place with $162 billion, reflecting the boom in artificial intelligence. Veteran investor Warren Buffett rounds out the top 10 with $151 billion through Berkshire Hathaway.
The combined wealth of the top 10 exceeds $2.4 trillion, underscoring the concentration of economic power in a handful of individuals whose fortunes fluctuate with markets and technology trends.