They were led by the richest person on the planet, Elon Musk, who saw a jump of $95.4 billion.
The world’s richest people may be sad to hear that 2023 is coming to a close, given how lucrative the year was for them.
In total, the 500 wealthiest people saw their net worth jump an eye-popping $1.5 trillion, Bloomberg reported on Friday. That’s a massive turnaround from 2022, when that same group lost almost $2 trillion. The growth was largely due to the stellar performance of tech stocks, which helped billionaires in that field gain a whopping $658 billion, or a 48 percent surge in their wealth.
Unsurprisingly, Elon Musk led the pack, with an additional $95.4 billion boosting his net worth to $232 billion and easily making him the wealthiest person in the world. In comparison, the Tesla and SpaceX founder saw a $138 billion dip in 2022. After his impressive 2023, though, the mercurial Musk regained his position on top from LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault, who is now virtually tied with Jeff Bezos for the title of the second-wealthiest person on the planet. (Arnault has a $179 billion fortune, while Bezos clocks in at $178 billion, after gaining $71.3 billion this year.)
Other notable names from 2023 include Mark Zuckerberg, who added $84 billion to his bank account throughout the year. The Meta founder is now worth $130 billion in total. And while she may not be a household name, the L’Oréal heir Françoise Bettencourt Meyers is now the wealthiest woman on the planet and the first woman to amass a $100 billion fortune.
While it’s impossible to tell whether 2024 will follow the favorable headwinds of 2023 or the downward dip of 2022, Bloomberg identified a handful of billionaires to watch in the new year. Several of them are related to the ever-growing world of sports: Miriam Adelson, worth $34.3 billion, just bought a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks. That was thanks to Mark Cuban, worth $6.8 billion, who sold his stake in the team for a cool $3.5 to $4 billion. And Steve Cohen, with a net worth of $13.9 billion, owns the New York Mets and is working to make the team a baseball powerhouse. If their bets on sports go poorly, though, Adelson is behind the casino operator Las Vegas Sands, and Cohen is teaming up with Hard Rock International in a bid to nab one of New York’s lucrative new casino licenses.
Everyone’s surely hoping for a favorable hand in 2024, too.
