The year 2023 is not turning out to be great for rich people, as for the second straight year, both the number of billionaires around the globe and their total wealth has dropped. According to Forbes’ 37th Annual World’s Billionaires List, the number of billionaires around the globe fell from 2,668 in 2022 to 2,640 this year; while the total billionaire wealth fell to $12.2 trillion, down $500 billion from a year ago.
Among the top 10 on the Forbes list, while India’s Mukesh Ambani regained spot as Asia’s richest person and world’s ninth richest billionaire, French luxury goods giant LVMH boss Bernard Arnault gained the top spot with net worth of $211 billion, pushing Tesla boss Elon Musk to the second spot.
Biggest losers
According to the Forbes list, a total of 254 people have lost their billionaire status this year. Two-thirds of the top 25 are poorer than they were last year, in comparison to around half of the list overall, said the Forbes report. The maximum losses was faced by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos as the e-commerce giant’s shares crashed by 38 per cent and this drop lopped $57 billion from Bezos’ wealth. Jeff Bezos was on No 2 position in 2022 in the world, and dropped to No 3 this year. Another big loser this year is Elon Musk who lost his title of world’s richest after his purchase of Twitter. He had purchased the micro blogging website by the sale of Tesla shares, which spooked investors. Musk’s current net worth is $180 billion, which is $39 billion less than a year ago.
Here are the top 10 billionaires, according to the list.
Bernard Arnault & family (Net worth: $211 Billion)
Bernard Arnault made it to the top position on the Forbes list for the first time on the back of LVMH which owns brands like Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Tiffany & Co, among others. LVMH showed record high revenue, profit and shares this year, which helped the firm add $53 billion to Arnault’s fortune over the past 12 months. This is the biggest gain of any billionaire. Earlier in July, Arnault proposed a reorganization of his company Agache (which holds the bulk of his LVMH stocks) to give equal stakes to his five children.
Elon Musk (Net worth: $180 Billion)
Elon Musk is the second on the list with Tesla stock down nearly 50 per cent after he announced the $44 billion takeover of Twitter last April. The fall is outpacing the Nasdaq’s 18 per cent drop. Meanwhile, SapceX is currently valued at $140 billion, up from $127 billion last May. Musk is, however, $39 billion less than a year ago.
Jeff Bezos (Net worth: $114 Billion)
Jeff Bezos stepped down as the CEO of Amazon in 2021, founded Blue Origin in 2000 which had been performing well, made waves with a near-complete $500 million superyacht and stepped up his philanthropy through support for groups such as Bezos Academy free preschools and grants from his Bezos Earth Fund. While he made it to the third spot in the Forbes list, he is $57 billion poorer than a year ago, which was courtesy the 38 per cent decline in Amazon stocks.
Larry Ellison (Net worth: $107 Billion)
Larry Ellison is the chairman and former CEO of Oracle. He rose four spots to reach the fourth position, as Oracle shares increased 10 per cent on solid earnings and a focus on security. He stepped down from Tesla’s board in August after four years.
Warren Buffett (Net worth: $106 Billion)
One of the most successful investors of all times, Warren Buffet has spent the past three years pumping around $90 billion of Berkshire Hathaway’s cash into stocks, share buybacks and the $11.5 billion acquisition of insurance firm Alleghany Corp., which closed in October. Earlier in his annual report, he talked about how through his investment in Coca Cola and American Express, he turned $2.6 billion into $47 billion over two decades. Warren Buffett shares a letter with investors every year, along with the financial report of Berkshire Hathaway.
Bill Gates (Net worth: $104 Billion)
Bill Gates had co-founded Microsoft and served as its chairman and CEO. He stepped down from the board of Microsoft in 2020 but spends 10 per cent of his time working with teams at the software firm, he had told Forbes in February. He and his ex-wife Melinda Gates are the biggest names in the tech world. The duo runs Gates Foundation which focuses on the betterment of the society, and works toward eradicating diseases and poverty.
Michael Bloomberg (Net worth: $94.5 Billion)
Michael Bloomberg first achieved success as a stockbroker, then as a billionaire entrepreneur, and then was the mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013. He co-founded the Bloomberg LP in 1981. Despite his donations of another $1.7 billion to charity over the past year, Bloomberg’s fortune still climbed with estimated revenue at Bloomberg LP reached $13.3 billion in 2022, up from $12.5 billion in 2021, according to Forbes.
Carlos Slim Helú & family (Net worth: $93 Billion)
Mexico’s wealthiest man Carlos Slim Helú is on the eighth position in Forbes Billionaires list. The New York-based shares of his pan–Latin American mobile phone firm América Móvil rose 14 per cent in the past year. This helped Slim’s fortune go up by nearly $12 billion, taking him among the world’s ten richest people for the first time since 2019.
Mukesh Ambani (Net worth: $83.4 Billion)
Mukesh Ambani regained his spot as Asia’s richest person after Gautam Adani tumbled to No 24 after the Hindenburg report on the company led to a loss of $80.6 billion in wealth to the entrepreneur. Adani’s net worth is now $47.2 billion and is the second richest Indian behind Ambani. Last year, Ambani’s oil-to-telecom firm Reliance Industries became the first Indian company to surpass $100 billion in revenue.
Steve Ballmer (Net worth: $80.7 Billion)
Born in Detroit, Michigan, Steve Ballmer became the chief executive officer of Microsoft in January 2000 and retired in 2014 and was replaced by Satya Nadella. Ballmer’s L.A. Clippers–the sixth-most valuable NBA team–are flying high, said Forbes. His fortune is down $10 billion in the past year, primarily due to the slump in Microsoft shares.