Net worth of world's richest people up $1.5 Trln in 2023
Bloomberg Billionaires Index (BBI) found that Elon Musk remains the world's wealthiest individual, followed by CEO of Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH) Bernard Arnault.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index (BBI), the total net worth of the world's 500 richest entrepreneurs has increased by $1.5 trillion since the beginning of 2023, fully rebounding from a $1.4 trillion loss in 2022.
The index is generated using the market value of billionaires' stock. For certain companies, the computation is based on the capitalization to EBITDA or share price to profits per share ratio.
BBI further reported that Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla and SpaceX, remains the wealthiest individual, with his net worth increasing by $95.4 billion to $232 billion in 2023.
Bernard Arnault, CEO of Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), is the second-richest entrepreneur, with a net worth of $179 billion, up $16.9 billion year on year. Following him is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, whose net earnings climbed by $71.3 billion to $178 billion in 2023.
According to BBI data, tech billionaires have considerably contributed to the combined net worth of the globe's richest businessmen in 2023, with their overall net worth growing by as much as $658 billion due to artificial intelligence development.
In January, Oxfam urged for quick action to address a post-Covid widening in global inequality after showing that the richest 1% have collected nearly two-thirds of the additional wealth amassed since the start of the pandemic.
The charity stated in a report released to coincide with the annual gathering of the global elite at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the wealthy had collected $26 trillion in new wealth up to the end of 2021. That accounted for 63% of total new wealth, with the remaining 99% of people receiving the remainder.
For the first time in a quarter-century, the rise in extreme wealth is being followed by an increase in extreme poverty, and it is calling for higher taxes on the super-rich, Oxfam reported.