Elon Musk, 49, now one of four centibillionaires in the world, has seen his capital grow by $73.6 billion this year. The profit gained by Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk exemplifies the latest high water mark for wealth accumulation in the tumultuous year set by both surging markets and catastrophic human and economic deprivation. Three of the world’s wealthiest people have reached unbelievable levels of personal wealth this year
The net worth of Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos surpassed $200 billion on Wednesday as shares of the e-commerce giant set a new record. The move simultaneously pushed his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott, 50, to the verge of becoming the world’s richest woman, just behind L’Oreal SA heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers.
In the meantime, Elon Musk arrived at an extraordinary stretch of revenue that made him a centibillionaire. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Tesla Inc. shares rallied Wednesday, pushing his net worth to $101 billion, a listing of the world’s 500 richest people.
Tech companies raised the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes to new highs for a fourth continuous day, buoyed by news that the Federal Reserve is expected to keep short-term interest rates near zero for five years at the least.
The surge in wealth concentrated in the upper ranks of the billionaires’ index and has been primarily fueled by tech stocks, which have been on a tear as the pandemic drove more people online. That also constitutes of a rise in the number of retail investors acquiring stocks.
Musk, 49, is now one of four global centibillionaires has seen his fortune swell by $73.6 billion this year, a plunge still smaller than Bezos’s, who is up by $87.1 billion. Facebook Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth surpassed $100 billion ahead of this month. On Wednesday, it increased by $8.5 billion.
U.S. tech tycoons haven’t been the only beneficiaries. India’s Mukesh Ambani became the first Asian to rank among the five richest people globally last month. He’s earned $22.5 billion this year because of a hike in shares of his conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd., whose tech division has attracted new investments from the likes of Facebook and Silver Lake.
And despite growing tensions with the U.S., China’s tech billionaires have gained this year too. Tencent Holdings Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Pony Ma has garnered a profit of $16.6 billion this year and is now worth $55.2 billion. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Jack Ma and William Ding of NetEase Inc. have also tallied more than $12 billion each, settling their fortunes at $58.9 billion and $30.8 billion, respectively.
