World’s 500 richest people start 2024 $2.2tr richer

LONDON: The 500 wealthiest people in the world have begun 2024 $2.2 trillion richer than they were at the start of last year, foreign media reported.

The staggering bounty, calculated by Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, was attributed mostly to the performance of these billionaires’ tech stocks, which rose to record highs in 2023.

The wealth of tech billionaires in particular grew by 48 per cent, or $966 billion, according to Bloomberg, propelled by the hype around AI. They included Elon Musk, who regained his title as the world’s richest person after dropping a rank in 2022, adding $140.5 billion to his net worth over the course of last year. His closest rival, Bernard Arnault of French luxury titan LVMH, lags in wealth by more than $70 billion compared to Musk. Arnault is now neck-in-neck for second place with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The year also began with a new world’s richest woman, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, 70, who became the first female centibillionaire as the heir to the L’Oreal empire. Bettencourt Meyers’ fortune was boosted by 40 per cent over 2023 as L’Oreal shares climbed to record highs. Her net worth now totals six figures. The billionaires’ $2.2 trillion gain was a healthy rebound from the $2.1 trillion lost by the richest 500 people in 2022, amid the ongoing fallout from Covid-19, according to Bloomberg.