2023 is considered a year of making a lot of money for the super rich. In the context of the world stock market recovering, more than 50% of the 2,568 billionaires became richer than at the beginning of the new year. Notably, billionaire Elon Musk has had an impressive comeback by earning more than 100 billion USD this year, after losing the most money in the world in 2022.
Billionaire Elon Musk. Photo: AFP/TTXVN
According to Forbes estimates, as of December 15, the total assets of the 10 billionaires who made the most money this year increased by 490 billion USD, of which 7 billionaires are from the technology world. If 2022 is a year of reflection for tech giants, 2023 is a year of recovery, with the Nasdaq Composite index rising 42%, nearly double the 23% increase of the S&P 500 index. And stocks The votes of the “seven giants” including Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Tesla and Meta all outperformed the market, helping the billionaires behind them become even richer.
In 2023, no one can surpass billionaire Elon Musk, who is listed by Forbes as an auto billionaire because most of his assets come from the car manufacturer Tesla. Billionaire Musk started 2023 with the second richest position in the world, having lost the most money in 2022. But now, he has returned to the first position with an increase in assets of 108 billion USD, also an increase. the most in the world.
This year, Mr. Musk mainly spent time on social network X (formerly Twitter). However, his fortune still increased the most in the world, thanks to Tesla and SpaceX. The stock price of electric car company Tesla has increased more than 100% since the beginning of the year. Aerospace company SpaceX was also valued at up to 150 billion USD in July 2023, thanks to the successful launch of dozens of rockets this year.
Second is the owner of the largest social network on the planet Facebook. 2022 is considered a particularly difficult year for billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, facing a decline in stock prices and profits and large-scale layoffs. However, in 2023, Mr. Zuckerberg’s total assets increased by nearly $75 billion in assets, thanks to Meta’s thriving business. Shares of parent company Facebook rose 178% as of December 15, on track to record its best year to date.
The stock price of retail giant Amazon has increased nearly 80% this year, helping founder Jeff Bezos’ wealth increase by $65 billion. Billionaire Bezos also spent $700 million worth of shares on charity, mainly supporting the homeless and fighting climate change, and pledged $100 million to wildfire relief in Maui. . Amazon started out as a book selling website. After that, they gradually expanded into all industries, created a logistics system spanning the globe and became a technology giant, such as cloud computing.
Standing in fourth place is Indonesian billionaire Prajogo Pangestu. Mr. Prajogo Pangestu accumulated a huge fortune thanks to the wood and petrochemical sectors. In 2023, he listed two companies on the Indonesian stock exchange, one in mining and one in renewable energy. The shares of these two businesses have both increased by more than 800%. The two co-founders of Google also appear on this list: Larry Page (at number 5) and Sergey Brin (at number 7). The stock price of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has increased 50% this year, due to investors’ expectations for the Gemini AI software expected to launch in 2024. In March 2023, Alphabet also launched the AI chatbot Bard.
Sixth place belongs to billionaire in the fashion industry, Mr. Amancio Ortega. The share price of Spanish fast fashion company Inditex, Zara’s parent company, has increased 57% this year to a new record. The reason is that product demand increased sharply and Inditex achieved record profits. This is good news for Ortega, who holds 60% of the company’s shares. In 2022, he ceded the position of President of Inditex to his daughter Marta Ortega Perez.
The final positions on the list of the richest billion in 2023 are all in the technology sector, including former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, from 2000 to 2014. 2023 is Ballmer’s year of effective investment. He owns two major assets: the NBA team Los Angeles Clippers, worth 19% more than a year ago, and Microsoft, where it remains a shareholder. His shares are up 55%, thanks in large part to Microsoft’s lucrative $10 billion investment in OpenAI, the developer of Chat GPT.
Thanks to AI, demand for data center services has also skyrocketed, pulling software giant Oracle’s stock up. This year, Oracle’s stock price has increased 26%, helping founder Larry Ellison earn more than $30 billion.
Still, no one has benefited from the AI wave more thanΒ Jensen Huang, co-founder and CEO of chipmakerΒ Nvidia. AI chips have helped Nvidia stock rise more than 230% this year. The company’s capitalization has thus increased to 1,200 billion USD, putting Huang in the Top 20 richest people in America.
