Despite Tesla Stock Plunge, Musk Becomes 'World's Richest Person'

Forbes' Billionaires List This Year

3028 Billionaires... Total Assets 2.3 Quadrillion Won

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, topped the Forbes billionaire rankings with a total asset of $342 billion (approximately 503 trillion won).

On the 1st (local time), Forbes announced that this year's world billionaire list included 3028 people, an increase of 247 from last year, with their total assets exceeding $16 trillion (approximately 23,552 trillion won).

Among them, Musk has been listed on the Forbes billionaire list for 14 consecutive years. This year, he boasts a net worth of $342 billion, surpassing Bernard Arnault, chairman of Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (VLMH), who was last year's number one, to become the top.

Musk's assets grew by 75% in a year thanks to the strong performance of SpaceX and Tesla stocks. Although his assets decreased by $52 billion (approximately 74 trillion won) due to the recent political moves causing Tesla's stock to plummet, he remains the world's richest person.

In second place is Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook and CEO of Meta, with $216 billion (approximately 318 trillion won), and in third place is Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, with $215 billion (approximately 316 trillion won).

Newsweek evaluated, "Musk is likely to remain the richest person in the world as the gap with Zuckerberg exceeds $100 billion," but added, "However, Musk's future growth may be limited as public backlash against Tesla continues."

Following them, Larry Ellison, chairman of Oracle, holds $192 billion (approximately 282 trillion won) in fourth place, and Bernard Arnault, last year's number one, has fallen to fifth place with $178 billion (approximately 262 trillion won).

Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, ranks 13th with $108 billion (approximately 159 trillion won), and Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, ranks 16th with $98.7 billion (approximately 145 trillion won).

Reporter Goh Jung-sam, Hankyung.com jsk@hankyung.com