The year 2023 was really a great financial year for the top one per cent of the world’s richest as they got wealthier than they were a year ago.

According to billionaire tracking organization, Forbes, the collective fortunes of the top 10 richest people of world skyrocketed by $30 billion in the month of December only.

The increment is of significant gains compared to the $115 billion rise in the month of November 2023.

According to Forbes, these financial giants hold most of their net worth in the stock of the company they founded or cofounded. As their stock price moves up, so does their fortune move along with it.

Here is a list of the top 5 richest people in the world according to Forbes

Elon Musk

Musk is CEO of electric car company Tesla, rocket firm SpaceX and social media company X, formerly known as Twitter. He owns 23% of Tesla between stock and options, and has pledged some of his stock as collateral for loans. The car company accounts for about two thirds of his fortune.

He bought X, then known as Twitter, for $44 billion in October 2022 and owns an estimated 74% of the social media company, which is now worth less than half what he paid for it.

In September 2021, Musk became the world’s richest person. In November 2021, his fortune peaked at a whopping $320 billion. Musk was also the world’s richest person for most of 2022—until December 2022, when a drop in Tesla’s share price pushed down the value of his fortune.

After dropping in the Forbes ranking, Musk became the world’s richest person again on June 8, 2023 and held onto the number one spot for the remainder of 2023. Musk’s fortune rose by about $6 billion in December, lifted by a 4% rise in the price of Tesla shares.

Bernard Arnault

Bernard Arnault, CEO and chairman of LVMH, built the largest luxury goods company in the world with some 70 fashion and cosmetics brands. Among its most notable: Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Moet & Chandon and Sephora. In January 2021, LVMH acquired jeweler Tiffany & Co. for $15.8 billion.

Arnault’s father made millions in the construction business; to get his start, Arnault used $15 million of that fortune to buy Christian Dior.

All five of Arnault’s children work in parts of the LVMH empire. In January 2023, Arnault appointed his daughter Delphine to run Dior, the second largest brand in the group.

Arnault was the world’s richest person for most of the first half of 2023; he fell to No. 2 on June 8, 2023. As of January 1, 2024 Arnault is worth $9.4 billion more than a month ago, per Forbes’ estimates, following a rise in the the price of LVMH shares.

Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos created e-commerce giant Amazon in 1994 and ran it as CEO until July 2021 (he remains chairman); that same month he went to space on a rocket built by private rocket company Blue Origin, which he founded and has funded with billions of dollars. His fortune rose by $5.8 billion during December 2023 as the result of an uptick in Amazon shares.

Bezos overtook Bill Gates to become the richest person in the world in July 2017. He and Gates traded the number one and number two richest spots off and on. Bezos was the world’s richest person on Forbes’ list of the World’s Billionaires from 2018 through 2021; he dropped to second richest on the 2022 billionaires list. He dropped to fourth richest but moved back to No. 3 on January 25, 2023 as the fortune of India’s Gautam Adani (formerly No. 3 richest) fell.

Larry Ellison

Larry Ellison cofounded software firm Oracle in 1977 and ran it as CEO until 2014; he now serves as chairman and Chief Technology Officer of the company. Over the years Oracle has made a series of large acquisitions, including buying Sun Microsystems in 2010 for $7.4 billion.

For eight days in June 2023, Ellison overtook Jeff Bezos as the third richest person in the world following a rise in Oracle’s share price. Shares then receded and Ellison fell back to fourth richest. His fortune fell by $11.2 billion during December 2023 as Oracle shares fell 10%.

Mark Zuckerberg

Zuckerberg cofounded Facebook now called Meta Platforms, when he was a student at Harvard University in 2004. It has grown to be the world’s largest social network, with 3.88 billion monthly users. The company also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, both of which it acquired and greatly expanded. Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, took the company public in 2012 and still owns about 13% of it. He and his wife Priscilla Chan have pledged to direct 99% of their stock in the company toward “measures that promote human potential.”

One ambitious goal they are funding is the development of tools to help others cure, manage or prevent all disease by the end of this century; Zuckerberg and Chan spoke to Forbes earlier this year about their philanthropic efforts. And Zuckerberg talked to Forbes in September about Meta’s two biggest bets ahead of the company turning 20.

EAN/OGB

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