For the first time in history, 15 people in the world simultaneously have wealth of more than 100 billion dollars (92 billion euros). There have never been so many in the club of the super-rich as this one Bloomberg Billionaires Index
shows. The billionaires are profiting from the hype artificial intelligence
, the continued high demand for luxury goods and geopolitical shifts.
Combined, net assets tracked by the index rose to $2.2 trillion this year. This corresponds to an increase of 13 percent. This means that assets increased faster than inflation and stock market levels. The total wealth of the super-rich accounts for a quarter of the wealth of the world’s 500 wealthiest people.
The 15 super-rich include L’Oréal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers (70), Dell founder Michael Dell (59) and Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim (84). They all exceeded the $100 billion mark in recent months, some of them not for the first time.
Bettencourt Meyers is the first woman in history, who amassed a twelve-figure fortune. Shares of its luxury cosmetics company L’Oréal had jumped after the group recorded its best year since 1998. Therefore, the French woman ranks 14th in the index with $101 billion.
Michael Dell is in 11th place with $113 billion. Demand for AI-enabled devices had driven Dell shares to a record high. Carlos Slim, the richest person in Latin America, is in 13th place with $106 billion. He benefited from the boom in the Mexican peso, which sent shares in his corporate empire soaring.
The Indian Gautam Adani (61) is back in the club of the super-rich. He lost more money than anyone else in a short-selling attack in 2023. Meanwhile, shares of its flagship Adani Enterprises have surged as global investors increasingly focus on Indian companies.
At the top of the richest people in the world is Bernard Arnault (75), founder and CEO of the luxury goods group LVMH (Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior), with $222 billion, followed by Amazon-Founder Jeff Bezos (60) with $208 billion and Tesla boss Elon Musk (52) with 187 billion dollars.