A stock market boom in artificial intelligence companies has added more than half a trillion dollars to the wealth of America’s tech barons in the past year, data shows.
The top 10 US founders and bosses of some of the world’s largest technology companies saw their finances swell to nearly $2.5tn, up from $1.9tn, in the year to Christmas Eve, according to figures from Bloomberg.
Elon Musk, already the world’s richest man, has again proved to be one of biggest winners as the AI gold-rush has pushed US stock markets to record highs.
Musk’s net worth increased by nearly 50% year-on-year to $645bn. The tycoon, whose business interests include xAI, an artificial intelligence company, became the first person to have a net-worth of more than $500bn in October this year. He could become the world’s first trillionaire if he hits targets set by Tesla, the electric car company he runs.
Musk sits ahead of Google co-founder Larry Page and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in the overall rankings of the world’s wealthiest billionaires. Page is estimated to be worth $270bn, and Bezos $255bn.
The growing concentration of wealth among an ultra elite has fuelled debate about how best to rebalance economies, with some calling for more effective wealth taxes.
The chief executive of the chipmaker Nvidia, Jensen Huang, was also one of the biggest gainers. The value of his investments, equity and other assets rose $41.8bn, taking his personal fortune to $159bn. This puts him ninth in the overall Bloomberg Billionaire Index, and eighth among the top 10 US tech billionaires, according to a separate report from the Financial Times.
Huang sold nearly $1bn worth of shares this year, cashing in on Nvidia’s soaring stock price. Its relatively advanced computer chips are a critical component in building the more powerful processing capability required by AI. It became the world’s first $5tn company in October, larger than the economic output of some of the world’s biggest economies, such as Japan or India.
The wealth of Page and Sergey Brin, the co-founders of Google, swelled by around $102bn and $92bn respectively, as investors bet on the company’s AI progress, including its own in-house efforts to build new chips, known as a Tensor Processing Unit.
Such has been the surge in AI investments in recent years that the Bank of England has warned of a “sudden correction” in global markets if investor confidence proves misplaced.
“On a number of measures, equity market valuations appear stretched, particularly for technology companies focused on artificial intelligence,” top policymakers at the central bank said in October.
This means that stock markets are “particularly exposed should expectations around the impact of AI become less optimistic”, they said.
While technology is the dominant industry among gainers in the billionaire rankings, there are other familiar names, too. Bernard Arnault, the French chair of the LVMH luxury goods company, which makes the likes of Louis Vuitton bags and Dom Perignon champagne, saw his wealth rise by $28.5bn over the past year. The 76-year-old controls around half of LVMH and analysts have turned more positive on the stock in recent months, with strong spending by wealthy North American consumers.
The Spaniard Amancio Ortega, who holds 59% of Inditex, the parent company of the high street clothing retailer Zara, and seven other brands, was among the biggest gainers, adding $34.3bn to his fortune, which sits at $136bn. This was boosted by a record dividend of €3.1bn from the retail group.
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