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Millionaires and billionaires
MoneyWealth

A wondrous week for 500 of world’s wealthiest people, as stock market rally boosts their fortunes by US$209 billion

  • Tesla’s chief executive Elon Musk becomes the fourth person in history to join the rarefied centibillionaire club, where fortunes top US$100 billion
  • The world’s 500 wealthiest people were US$209 billion richer than a week ago

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Elon Musk after the successful launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft on NASA's SpaceX Demo-2 mission at Cape Canaveral on May 30, 2020. Musk this week became the fourth person in history to join the rarefied centibillionaire club, where his fortune topped US$100 billion. Photo Reuters
Bloomberg

It’s been one of the most lucrative weeks in history for some of the world’s wealthiest people.

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The net worth of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos topped the once-unfathomable amount of US$200 billion.

Entrepreneur, inventor, provocateur Elon Musk added the title of centibillionaire when his fortune soared past US$100 billion fuelled by Tesla’s ceaseless rally. And by Friday, the world’s 500 wealthiest people were US$209 billion richer than a week ago.

Musk’s surging wealth expanded the rarefied club of centibillionaires to four members. Facebook’s co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, the world’s third-richest person, joined Bezos and Bill Gates among the ranks of those possessing 12-figure fortunes earlier this month. Together, their wealth totals US$540 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

This week marked just the latest boon for the personal fortunes of the richest of the rich, whose red-hot growth has been largely driven by surging markets, particularly for tech shares. US stocks reached fresh highs on Friday as investors took confidence in the Federal Reserve’s new inflation approach.

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Musk’s net worth has grown by US$76.1 billion this year, propelled by Tesla’s stock price and a boosted valuation of Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX. Also helpful: an audacious pay package – the largest corporate pay deal ever struck between a CEO and a board of directors – that could yield him more than US$50 billion if all goals are met.

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