Top 500 Richest in the World Have Net Worth of $10 Trillion… Musk's Wealth Doubles

Jensen Huang Ranks 12th Amid AI Boom… Trump at 471st

Jay Y. Lee at 331st… "Net Worth Decreased by 2 Trillion Won"

Thanks to the AI boom and the rally in the U.S. stock market, the net worth of the world's top 500 billionaires reached a total of $10 trillion (approximately 14,718 trillion won) last year. The net worth of Elon Musk, the world's richest person and CEO of Tesla, doubled in a year.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index reported by Bloomberg News on the 31st of last month (local time), the combined net worth of the world's top 500 billionaires was $9.8 trillion (approximately 14,423 trillion won) as of the previous day. Although it slightly decreased from the peak of $10.1 trillion (approximately 14,865 trillion won) on the 11th of last month, it still remains high.

Bloomberg explains that the total net worth of the top 500 billionaires is similar to the combined GDP of Germany, Japan, and Australia in 2023.

Last year, their net worth increased by a total of $1.5 trillion (approximately 2,207 trillion won), with 43% of this increase attributed to eight wealthy individuals in the U.S. tech industry.

Notably, Musk's asset increase was prominent, benefiting from the strength of tech stocks including the 'Magnificent 7' and the election victory of Donald Trump as the U.S. President-elect.

As of the 31st of last month, Musk's net worth was $432 billion (approximately 635 trillion won), an increase of $203 billion (approximately 298 trillion won) compared to the end of the previous year.

The asset gap with Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, who is in second place with $239 billion (approximately 351 trillion won), widened to $237 billion (approximately 348 trillion won) on the 17th of last month. According to Bloomberg, this is the largest asset gap between the first and second places ever.

In third place is Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms (parent company of Facebook), with $207 billion (approximately 304 trillion won), and in fourth place is Larry Ellison, chairman of Oracle, with $192 billion (approximately 282 trillion won).

Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, a representative beneficiary of the AI boom, recorded a net worth increase of $70.3 billion (approximately 103 trillion won) to $114 billion (approximately 167 trillion won), ranking 12th.

Donald Trump, the businessman-turned-President-elect, saw his net worth increase by 109% to $6.47 billion (approximately 9.5 trillion won), ranking 471st. The rise in the stock price of Trump Media, the parent company of the social networking service (SNS) Truth Social he founded, contributed to the increase in his net worth.

Jay Y. Lee's Net Worth Decreases by 2 Trillion Won

In South Korea, Jay Y. Lee, chairman of Samsung Electronics, ranked 331st with $8.46 billion (approximately 12.4 trillion won), and Cho Jung-ho, chairman of Meritz Financial Group, ranked 408th with $7.16 billion (approximately 10.5 trillion won).

As the stock price of Samsung Electronics, the largest market cap in South Korea, fell by 32.23% over the year, Lee's net worth decreased by 14.4%, or $1.42 billion (approximately 2 trillion won), according to Bloomberg's tally. Cho's assets increased by $2.42 billion (approximately 3.5 trillion won).

Amid the sluggish luxury industry, Bernard Arnault, chairman of LVMH, who was once the world's richest person, saw his assets decrease by $31.2 billion (approximately 45.9 trillion won) to $176 billion (approximately 259 trillion won), dropping to 5th place in the wealth rankings. Arnault's net worth decrease was the largest among the top 500 billionaires.

Additionally, as the price of Bitcoin surpassed $100,000 for the first time, the assets of figures in the cryptocurrency industry also increased. Zhao Changpeng, founder of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, saw his net worth increase by 55% to $53.3 billion (approximately 78.4 trillion won), ranking 25th.

Kim Young-ri, Hankyung.com reporter smartkim@hankyung.com