Benzinga - by Chris Katje, Benzinga Staff Writer.
Billionaire Elon Musk regained the title of world's richest person to end the 2023 year, after a move back to first place in February and again in May.
Musk and the other nine richest people in the world all saw their wealth grow dramatically in 2023 thanks to a strong stock market and soaring prices of technology stocks.
Here's a look back.
What Happened: The S&P 500 ended 2023 on a streak of consecutive weeks with positive gains, helping boost the stock prices of many large caps further to end the full year. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 was up 24% in 2023, which came after a decline of 19% in 2022.
The soaring stock prices helped boost the wealth of the ultra-wealthy, with the top 10 richest people in the world gaining a combined $465.4 billion in wealth in 2023.
Here are the top 10 richest people in the world to close out 2023 and a look at how much their wealth increased, as reported by Bloomberg.
The billionaires saw their wealth grow by an average of $46.5 billion in 2023 for a total gain of $465.4 billion. Together, the 10 richest people gained more than the market capitalization of Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT). The retail giant is valued at $424.4 billion.
Surpassing Walmart’s valuation comes as Jeff Bezos’s Amazon.com remains a dominant force in the ecommerce sector, exerting significant competitive pressure on brick-and-mortar retailers, including Walmart and similar companies.
The $465.4 billion amassed by the top 10 billionaires also exceeded the market capitalizations of major corporations like Novo Nordisk, Broadcom Inc, Samsung, Mastercard and ExxonMobil.
Related Link: If You Had A Nickel For Every Search Done On Google, Here’s How Long It Would Take To Equal Elon Musk’s Wealth
Why It's Important: The 10 richest people weren't the only ones who gained in 2023 with the top 14 richest people all adding to their wealth. Eleventh ranked Carlos Slim ended the year with a wealth of $105 billion, gaining $31.0 billion.
Outside of the top 10, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was one of the top gainers of the year with the soaring valuation of the chip stock, as its market capitalization topping $1 trillion for the first time.
Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao was also a top gainer in 2023 with a wealth of $34.4 billion, gaining $21.8 billion and ending the year ranking 42nd.
Gautam Adani ended 2023 as the 15th richest person in the world, losing $36.2 billion as the biggest decliner among the world's richest people. Adani and his companies were the subject of short reports in 2023.
Among the world’s 30 wealthiest individuals, only six experienced a decrease in their wealth in 2023. Similarly, within the top 50 richest people globally, 11 witnessed a decline in their wealth last year.
Other decliners in the top 50 were Charles Koch, Jacqueline Badger Mars and John Mars who lost $4.63 billion, $8.16 billion and $8.16 billion respectively.
Read Next: Tesla, Twitter, SpaceX Or Dogecoin: Which Musk-Associated Asset Saw Highest Value Growth In 2023?
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