Big Tech led the charge as artificial-intelligence euphoria continued to bolster US mega-cap stocks. About a quarter of all the gains recorded by Bloomberg’s wealth index came from just eight individuals, including Oracle Corp chairman Larry Ellison, Tesla Inc chief executive officer Elon Musk, Alphabet Inc co-founder Larry Page and Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos. Notably, though, that represented a smaller contribution than last year, when the same eight billionaires made up 43% of the total gains.
(Dec 31): The world’s 500 richest people added a record US$2.2 trillion ($2.8 trillion) to their collective fortunes this year, as booming markets in everything from equities to cryptocurrencies to precious metals sent the value of their holdings soaring, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The gains, which brought their combined net worth to US$11.9 trillion, were turbocharged by Donald Trump’s election victory in late 2024, and were only briefly derailed by tariff fears in April, when plunging markets caused the biggest one-day wealth wipeout since the pandemic.
