It's been a good year for the stock market. It's been an even better year for the billionaires who own huge sums of its best-performing companies.
For Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the already eye-watering net worth of the world's richest has leapt this year as the market has rallied largely on an AI boom.
With the U.S. election uncertainty now over—and analysts looking ahead to a regulation-lite environment with a Wall Street veteran as Treasury Secretary—the trajectory for the rest of the year and into 2025 looks fairly stable.
The gains for the world's richest have already been immense.
Elon Musk net worth
Leading the pack is—perhaps unsurprisingly—the world's richest man, Elon Musk.
Musk's fortunes have been buoyed by EV-maker Tesla's growth throughout the year—up more than 37% from the start of 2024 at the time of writing.
Not only has Tesla become an AI darling with its promises of autonomous cabs and full self-driving software (plus, let's not forget the robots), but Musk's big bet on Trump has paid off.
The X owner admitted he would have been “f–ked” if Trump had lost the election, having donated tens of millions of dollars to the Republican campaign.
While Musk has earned himself an administration position for his proposal for a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Tesla shareholders have been particularly motivated by Trump's change in tone on EVs.
The former president previously said EV drivers are “[destroying] our once great USA” and should “rot in hell” but on the campaign trail did a U-turn, telling supporters: “I’m for electric cars; I have to be because Elon endorsed me very strongly."
As a result of a supportive outlook for EVs direct from the next Oval Office, Tesla—and correspondingly Musk's—fortunes have spiked.
At the time of writing, Musk has added $119 billion to his fortune so far this year per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Larry Ellison net worth
Larry Ellison, the founder and largest shareholder of software and technology giant Oracle, has seen the second largest boost to their wealth.
Because Ellison owns some 40% of the cloud applications business, his riches have boomed, reflecting Oracle's more than 83% stock price spike in 2024—with Ellison's net worth growing $83.2 billion this year at the time of writing.
Oracle has been boosted by interest around artificial intelligence, but has also reported some strong financial outlooks this year.
In June, CEO Safra Catz said the organization had signed “the largest sales contracts in our history—driven by the enormous demand for training AI large language models.”
Catz, who previously held the role of CFO at Oracle, continued: “Throughout fiscal year 2025, I expect continued strong AI demand to push Oracle sales…even higher."
Jensen Huang net worth
Rounding out the top three of 2024 wealth gains is Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, whose net worth has leaped by some $80 billion this year.
Nvidia's year at the top is well-reported, with its share price ballooning approximately $185% this year.
As Huang owns a stake of around 3.5% in the business, with a market cap of more than $3.5 trillion, it's perhaps no surprise that he sits just outside the top 10 rankings of the world's richest people.
The leap in Huang's riches contributes to a sum of approximately $585 billion.
Other major wealth winners
Familiar names round out the rest of the top 10 for fortune gains in 2024.
Mark Zuckerberg—again flying high on the AI boom—has seen his net worth grow to $70 billion as Meta continues to explore emerging technology and reap the rewards of its year of efficiency.
Likewise, Amazon—which is also investing heavily in the artificial intelligence race—has seen its shares bump approximately 38% for the year to date.
Amazon's founder, Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, has seen his net worth leap almost $42 billion—retaining his spot as the world's second-richest man.
Michael Dell, the founder of the eponymous PC maker Dell, has seen his net worth leap to some $41 billion as the company he founded pivots towards artificial intelligence.
The trio of heirs behind the Walmart empire have also seen their net worth grow this year as consumers continued to defy Wall Street's expectations and continue spending.
Jim Walton's fortune has grown to $40.1 billion, while his siblings Alice and Rob's net worth has increased by $39.5 and $39 billion, respectively.
Rounding out the top 10 of 2024 wealth gainers this year (with one month left to go) is Thomas Peterffy, the chairman of Interactive Brokers, which specializes in equities, futures and foreign exchange trades. His net worth has grown approximately $32 billion this year.
