The wealth of the 10 richest people in the world – a list dominated by US tech billionaires – increased by a record amount after Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election, according to a widely cited index.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimated that the world’s 10 wealthiest people gained nearly $64bn (about £49.5bn) on Wednesday, the largest daily increase since the index began in 2012.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, registered the largest increase with a $26.5bn addition to his fortune, which now stands at $290bn. The prominent backer of Trump’s campaign, benefited from a surge in the share price of Tesla, the electric carmaker where he is chief executive and in which he owns a 13% stake.
The gains came as tech business leaders, including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook parent Meta, and Apple’s Tim Cook publicly congratulated Trump on his election win.
Much of the gains for the top 10 was because of a surge in US stocks on Wednesday as investors anticipated a low-tax and regulation-light policy platform.
Other beneficiaries were Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the world’s second richest person, who added $7bn to his near-$230bn fortune, and Larry Ellison, the chair of the software company Oracle, historically a Republican supporter, who increased his wealth by nearly $10bn to $193bn.
Other members of the top 10 whose wealth grew included Microsoft’s co-founder Bill Gates, the former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, and Google’s co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
However, Trump has also expressed his frustration with Google on the campaign trail, after threatening in September to direct the justice department to pursue criminal charges against the search company if he won the election. He claimed that Google was displaying negative news articles about him but not about his opponent, Kamala Harris – a claim Google denied.
The only member of the wealth elite to lose money on Wednesday was the French luxury goods tycoon Bernard Arnault, whose fortune decreased by nearly $3bn.
Zuckerberg’s wealth dipped slightly by $81m although he is still worth $202bn. The entrepreneur has drawn Trump’s ire, after the president-elect in August threatened to jail him for life for allegedly plotting against him in the 2020 election.
Neil Wilson, chief analyst at the broker Finalto, said US stocks rose on Wednesday owing to a “pure Maga trade”, referring to Trump’s slogan “make America great again” and investors buying shares on the back of a clear Trump win.
“It was the prospect of lower taxes, deregulation across a wider variety of sectors, such as banks and energy and tech, plus a big, reflexive relief rally on the fact that the outcome of the election was clean and uncontested,” he said. “The red-wave result was what every American capitalist would have favoured and was not a certainty by any means coming into the election, so the reaction was decisive.”
Wealth increases from 5 November to 6 November 2024
1. Elon Musk $290bn (+10.1%)
2. Jeff Bezos $228.3bn (+3.2%)
3. Mark Zuckerberg $202.5bn (0%)
4. Larry Ellison $193.5bn (+5.4%)
5. Bernard Arnault $173.2bn (-1.6%)
6. Bill Gates $159.5bn (+1.2%)
7. Larry Page $158.3bn (+3.6%)
8. Sergey Brin $149.1bn (+3.6%)
9. Warren Buffett $147.8bn (+5.4%)
10. Steve Ballmer $145.9bn (+2%)
Source: Bloomberg
