here's your Forbes daily briefing for Wednesday April 3rd today on Forbes forbes's 38th annual world's billionaires list facts and figures 2024 yesterday we unveiled our annual world's billionaires list the official ranking keeping track of the mega wealthy Forbes found an unprecedented 2,781 billionaires around the globe for this year's list 141 more than in 2023 and 26 more than the previous record set in 2021 the super rich are also richer than ever with their combined wealth hitting $4. 2 trillion $2 trillion more than just a year ago and 1. 1 trillion above the previous record also set in 2021 as with the economy in general the money is concentrated at the very top there are now a record 14 people who are members of The 100 billion dollar Club the elite group of people whose fortunes stretch into 12 digits that's up from just one four years ago these lucky few are worth $2 trillion in all meaning just 0.
5% of the world's 2781 billionaires hold 14% of all billionaire wealth the richest of all is Bernard Arno who holds the number one spot for a second year in a row the French luxury goods Kingpin is worth an estimated $233 billion $22 billion more than in 2023 thanks to another record year for his conglomerate lvmh the company behind Brands such as Louis vuon Tiffany and Co and Sephora he's $38 billion richer than the world's number two Elon Musk who is worth an estimated $195 billion just behind him at number three is Amazon's Jeff Bezos who is worth an estimated 94 billion Forbes used stock prices and exchange rates from March 8th 2024 for this year's ranking for daily movements of Fortunes you can see our real-time tracker 2/3 of the planet's billionaires are richer than a year ago no one has gained more in sheer dollar terms than Mark Zuckerberg who has benefited to the tune of a 116. 2 billion doll jump in a single year thanks to metastock nearly tripling amid cost cutting layoffs and big bets on AI and the metaverse zck is number four on forbes's 2024 ranking worth an estimated $177 billion the richest he's ever been Oracle Larry Ellison worth an estimated 141 billion rounds out the top five Zuckerberg and Ellison are just two of the scores of Technology Moguls who are significantly richer than a year ago the AI Gold Rush is on helping to add more than a dozen newcomers working in artificial intelligence to the ranks including super microcomputers Charles leang worth an estimated $6. 1 billion and his wife Sarah louu worth 1.
5 billion Advanced Micro Devices Lisa Sue worth 1. 3 billion and longtime Nvidia board member Harvey Jones worth 1 billion open AI Sam Altman is also now a billionaire thanks to Investments he made when he was president of startup incubator y combinator from 2014 to 2019 an early bet on stripe and stakes in Reddit and nuclear fusion startup helon rabid demand for AI has also boosted tech stocks generally pushing the combined wealth of the world's Tech billionaires up by some $750 billion to $2. 6 trillion more than any other industry in just a year celebrities are getting richer too Taylor Swift worth $1.
1 billion joins the 2024 ranks the first musician to do it based solely on songwriting and Performing after the record-breaking first leg of her eras tour TV Producer Dick Wolf worth $1. 2 billion a mastermind behind shows such as Law and Order and Chicago is also new to the billionaires list as is Magic Johnson the NBA Hall of Famer who really made his stash after retirement through Savvy business deals and stakes in several sports teams they joined nearly a dozen other famous A-list billionaires including George Lucas worth $5. 5 billion Michael Jordan worth 3.
2 billion and Kim Kardashian worth 1. 7 billion the United States is once again the country with the most billionaire citizens with a record-breaking 8813 worth $5. 7 trillion compared to 735 worth 4.
5 trillion in 2023 China remains second the despite troubles in the Asian Nation with 473 including Hong Kong worth $1. 7 trillion India meanwhile is surging there are now 200 Indian billionaires the most ever worth 954 billion for full coverage and to see the entire list check out Chase Peterson Whit Horn's piece on forbes.
