Entrepreneur Elon Musk has topped the annual Forbes World's Billionaires list for the second consecutive year. This was announced on the official Forbes website.
The fortune of the founder of Tesla, SpaceX, and owner of the social network X reached $839 billion. Musk became the first person to surpass the $800 billion mark after his company SpaceX merged with his xAI startup in early February.
The gap between the leader and the second-place co-founder of Google, Larry Page ($257 billion), exceeds $500 billion. Third place in the ranking is held by another Google founder, Sergey Brin, with a fortune of $237 billion.
The following places are occupied by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ($224 billion), and the top five is closed by Meta owner Mark Zuckerberg with $222 billion.
"Over the past year, prosperity has grown at an unprecedented rate, as the rich continue to get richer at an astonishing pace. This year's list features 3,428 billionaires, which is 400 more than last year and a record number since the list's inception in 1987," the article states.
The world's richest people collectively hold a record $20.1 trillion (compared to $16.1 trillion a year ago). The total wealth of the top ten in the ranking is estimated at $2.6 trillion. Furthermore, the number of people with wealth exceeding $100 billion has also reached a record level — 20 individuals.
This year's Forbes billionaires list welcomed 390 new entrants, including Musk's brother Kimbal, rapper and producer Dr. Dre (Andre Young), singer Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, and tennis player Roger Federer. 89 people were dropped from the list, notably NASA administrator Jared Isaacman.
The rapid growth of Musk's fortune was driven by investments in his xAI startup, valued at up to $250 billion, and the successes of SpaceX. The latter is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) as early as 2026, which could value the company at over $1.5 trillion. This would be the largest IPO in history and further increase the entrepreneur's wealth.
According to analysts' forecasts, if the SpaceX IPO is successful and his companies maintain their current growth rate, Musk could become the first person in history with a $1 trillion fortune. Representatives of the technology sector dominate the Forbes top ten, with eight of the ten billionaires being U.S. citizens.
The growth of Musk's fortune is occurring against a backdrop of instability in the technology market. Six of the world's ten richest people lost part of their wealth in February due to falling share prices of their companies. The biggest losses were seen by Jeff Bezos (minus $260 billion), Mark Zuckerberg (minus $230 billion), and Oracle founder Larry Ellison (minus $210 billion).
