April 03, 2024 – Forbes released its 2024 Global Billionaires List on April 2nd, revealing a continued surge in wealth among the world’s ultra-rich.
According to the report, the number of billionaires has reached an all-time high of 2,781 individuals, an increase of 141 compared to last year and 26 more than the previous record set in 2021. Not only are there more billionaires, but they are also wealthier than ever before, with a combined net worth of 14.2trillion.Thisrepresentsanincreaseof2 trillion compared to 2023 and is $1.1 trillion higher than the previous record set in 2021.
The United States now boasts a record-breaking 813 billionaires with a combined wealth of 5.7trillion,whileChinafollowscloselywith406billionairesworthatotalof1.33 trillion. India, meanwhile, has a record 200 billionaires, ranking third globally.
Among the global top 10 are Bernard Arnault of LVMH Group with 233billion,ElonMuskofTeslaandSpaceXwith195 billion, Jeff Bezos of Amazon with 194billion,MarkZuckerbergofMetawith177 billion, Larry Ellison of Oracle with 141billion,WarrenBuffettwith133 billion, Bill Gates of Microsoft with 128billion,SteveBallmer,theformerCEOofMicrosoftandowneroftheNBA′sLosAngelesClippers,with121 billion, Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries with 116billion,andLarryPageofGooglewith114 billion.
In the top 10 of Chinese billionaires, Zhong Shanshan, the founder of Nongfu Spring, leads with 62.3billion,followedbyZhangYiming,thefounderofByteDance,with43.4 billion. Huang Zheng, the founder of Pinduoduo, ranks third with 38.9billion,whileDingLei,thefounderofNetEase,isfourthwith33.5 billion. Other notable Chinese billionaires include Ma Huateng, chairman of Tencent, with 30.2billion,HeXiangjian,co−founderofMidea,with25.1 billion, Jack Ma, co-founder of Alibaba, with 24.5billion,LiShufu,chairmanofGeelyHoldingGroup,with16.8 billion, Qin Yinglin, chairman of Muyuan Foods, with 15.5billion,andWangChuanfu,chairman,andpresidentofBYD,with14.2 billion.
Notably, Jensen Huang, the co-founder of NVIDIA, has claimed the title of the wealthiest Chinese person globally, with a personal fortune of $77 billion, ranking 20th on the overall list.
This year’s list welcomes 265 new faces, including fashion designer Christian Louboutin (1.2billion),NBAlegendMagicJohnson(1.2 billion), television producer Dick Wolf (1.2billion),popsingerTaylorSwift(1.1 billion), who became a billionaire through her concert tours and recorded music, and Sam Altman of OpenAI ($1 billion).
