SpaceX's public offering on June 12 pushed founder and CEO Elon Musk into rarefied trillio n aire status, solidifying his place as the wealthiest person in the world -- by far.
But how are the rest of the multibillionaires doing at this midpoint of the year?
Just fine, for the most part. But, it would take adding the wealth of the next five richest people in the world to surpass Musk's net worth, which was about $1.2 trillion as of June 30, according to Barron's calculations.
A 13.4% gain in Alphabet shares through the first half contributed to co-founder Larry Page maintaining his second place ranking among the world's multibillionaires with a net worth of $301 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as of June 30. Sergey Brin, Page's fellow co-founder, moved up to third place from second at the end of the first quarter, with a net worth of $280 billion. Each own about 6% of Alphabet, Bloomberg said.
Brin's gain was Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' loss, as he slipped to fourth place from third in Bloomberg's rankings this past quarter with a net worth of $262 billion. Bezos derives 8.2% of his net worth from shares of Amazon, which were up 5.2% through June 30.
The most striking change among the top 10 multibillionaires was the emergence of Michael Dell at No. 5. The net worth of the founder and CEO of Dell Technologies -- named a top CEO by Barron's -- climbed this year along with Dell's shares (up nearly 238%) to reach $217 billion as of June 30. Dell's net worth was $140 billion at the start of the year, when he ranked at No. 11. The company has emerged as a leading provider of servers to artificial intelligence data centers.
Among the richest who have lost billions -- but remain among the top 10 richest people in the world -- are Oracle founder and CEO Larry Ellison at No. 6 and Meta Platforms founder Mark Zuckerberg, who slid two spots this quarter to the No. 7, according to Bloomberg.
Ellison's net worth fell nearly $45 billion through June 30 as Oracle shares slid 25%, dragged down by AI threats to its software business despite the strength of its cloud business. Ellison, whose wealth briefly exceeded Musk's this past September, owns about 40% of Oracle shares.
A volatile year for Meta Platforms, hurt by ramped up spending on AI, led to a $32.7 billion loss in Zuckerberg's net worth to $201 billion, according to Bloomberg. But the stock was turning around on Wednesday on reports it is building a cloud business. Zuckerberg owns about 13% of Meta, Bloomberg said.
Bernard Arnault, founder and chairman of luxury retailer LVMH, lost about $44 billion in the first half as shares of the conglomerate slid nearly 27% in the first half as the Iran war dimmed enthusiasm for luxury goods. LVMH's fortunes pushed Arnault down a peg from his first quarter rank to No. 8. Arnault, whose net worth is estimated at $163 billion, owns 49% of the company, but the figure represents shares held by his family, Bloomberg said.
Since joining the ranks of top 10 in the third quarter last year, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang remains firmly at No. 9 with a net worth of $162 billion even as shares of the AI chip leader have been under pressure along with other technology stocks. Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett is ranked 10th with a net worth of $148 billion.
Outside of the top 10, a 21% slide in Microsoft's share price through the first half, as it struggles with the AI transition, appears to have pushed former CEO Steve Ballmer's net worth down to $132 billion, ranking him No. 15 from No. 8 among the top billionaires at the start of the year. Ballmer is "assumed" to own about 4% of Microsoft, according to Bloomberg. In December 2024, the former CEO told The Wall Street Journal that the stock is " overwhelmingly" the main thing he owns.
Similarly Bill Gates, Microsoft's co-founder, continues to slide down the ranks, falling to No. 19 with a net worth of $104 billion. Gates slipped from the top 10 richest individuals in the world as of the third quarter of 2024 after he said he would give away $200 billion of his current and future wealth to philanthropy over the next 20 years.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
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