Elon Musk has reclaimed his position as the richest person in the world, thanks to his new AI company, xAI. Over the Memorial Day weekend, his startup raised a staggering $6 billion from private investors, valuing the company at an impressive $24 billion. With Musk’s 60% stake in xAI worth $14.4 billion, his fortune has surged to over $210 billion as of June 1, according to Forbes.
/
June 2024
★AFROLATELY
While Musk’s wealth soared, French luxury goods tycoon Bernard Arnault, who had been the world’s wealthiest person from February through late May, now occupies the second spot. Arnault’s LVMH group saw a 5% decline in shares amid a weaker environment for luxury goods, resulting in a $7.8 billion decrease in his fortune, which currently stands at $201.6 billion. Notably, Arnault is the only one among the top ten richest individuals whose fortune contracted in the past month.
The biggest winner among the top 10 in May was Mark Zuckerberg, whose fortune rose by an astonishing $12.6 billion to an estimated $163.8 billion, thanks to an 8.5% increase in Meta stock. Zuckerberg now ranks as the fourth richest person in the world.
The biggest winner among the top 10 in May was Mark Zuckerberg, whose fortune rose by an astonishing $12.6 billion to an estimated $163.8 billion, thanks to an 8.5% increase in Meta stock. Zuckerberg now ranks as the fourth richest person in the world.
Bill Gates, who reigned as the world’s richest person for most of three decades starting in 1995, remains incredibly wealthy with an estimated $129.4 billion. However, he now ranks as the world’s ninth richest, a position he hadn’t held since the early 1990s. While Microsoft and Gates’ other investments are performing well, they haven’t kept pace with stocks like Zuckerberg’s Meta or Larry Page’s Alphabet. Google cofounders Page and Sergey Brin are both richer than Gates. Additionally, Gates’ fortune has been affected by his nearly $59 billion in charitable donations to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and a costly 2021 divorce.
Together, the world’s top 10 richest individuals are worth a combined nearly $1.59 trillion, about $50 billion more than a month ago. Forbes has been tracking the world’s billionaires since 1987, and in April, they found 2,781 billionaires for their annual list. Stock prices fluctuate routinely, so these net worths may change on a daily basis. Forbes tracks the daily changes on their Real Time list of billionaires.
