According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the group of technology billionaires alone “pocketed” a total of 658 billion USD, up 48% compared to the beginning of the year, mainly thanks to the artificial intelligence (AI) fever.

Elon Musk was the billionaire who made the most money in the world last year and took back the richest position on the planet from French luxury goods billionaire Bernard Arnault. As of the last trading session of 2023, the assets of Mr. Musk, CEO of electric car company Tesla, increased by 95.4 billion USD compared to the beginning of the year, thanks to the success of Tesla and the space exploration company SpaceX. In 2022, this billionaire’s assets will decrease by 138 billion USD.

Currently, Mr. Musk’s assets are about 50 billion USD more than that of billionaire Arnault – the second richest person in the world. Last year, Mr. Arnault’s assets only increased by $17 billion, quite modest compared to the top billionaires on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index’s list of the world’s 500 richest billionaires. The decline in global demand for luxury goods last year is the reason why the stock price of his LVMH “empire” plummeted.

Meanwhile, billionaire Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, “pocketed” more than 70 billion USD, the third richest in the world. Followed by Mr. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, with assets increasing by more than 80 billion USD in 2023.

2023 is also a “successful” year for Ms. Bettencourt Meyers, heiress to the French cosmetics company L’Oréal and also the richest woman on the planet. Her fortune surpassed the $100 billion mark for the first time last year thanks to the strong growth of the French fashion and beauty industry. Her fortune increased 40% thanks to L’Oréal shares setting a record.

On the contrary, many billionaires saw their assets decline sharply. On January 27, 2023 alone, Indian billionaires lost 21 billion USD and their assets decreased by a total of 37.3 billion USD for the whole year. Last year, the stock price of his Adani Group company plummeted after being accused by short-selling firm Hindenburg Research of stock price manipulation and accounting fraud. However, this billionaire still owns nearly 90 billion USD in assets, ranking 14th in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Notably, Changpeng Zhao, founder of Binance – the world’s largest virtual currency exchange – has just experienced a turbulent year. In November 2023, he and Binance were accused of money laundering and violating US sanctions. He was forced to resign as CEO of Binance and pay a personal fine of $50 million, in addition to the company’s $4.3 billion fine. Even so, the recovery of the virtual currency market still helped Zhao’s assets increase by nearly $25 billion during the year.