There Are Now a Record Number of Billionaires—With Taylor Swift and 19-Year-Old Brazilian Heiress Livia Voigt Joining the List
By MICHAEL KAMINER
Fri, Apr 5, 2024 7:30am
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3 min
For celebrities like Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Tiger Woods, and Steven Spielberg, fame is bringing fortune.
They’re among 14 performers, athletes, and entertainment moguls―along with Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, and Michael Jordan― on the 2024 Forbes World’s Billionaires List, which the media company released this week. The annual ranking “has seen an explosion in celebrity billionaires in recent years,” Forbes said in a statement.
Topping the roster of fortunes: LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault , with an estimated net worth of US$233 billion―up from US$211 billion last year. Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk ranked second, with a US$195 billion war chest, up from US$180 billion in 2023. Just a billion dollars short of second place, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos placed third with US$194 billion, or $80 billion more than a year ago.
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Tech titans dominate the rest of the top 10, which includes Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg (US$177 billion), Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison (US$141 billion), Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett (US$133 billion), Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (US$128 billion), former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (US$121 billion), Reliance Industries honcho Mukesh Ambani (US$116 billion), and Google co-founder Larry Page (US$114 billion.)
Swift made her debut on the list this year, along with 262 other “new billionaires” including shoe mogul Christian Louboutin, 19-year-old Brazilian heiress Livia Voigt, and NBA legend and entrepreneur Earvin “Magic” Johnson.
For Swift, worth an estimated US$1.2 billion, it’s the second star turn on a rich list this month. Last week, Swift made her first appearance on the 13th Hurun Global Rich Report, an annual survey from China-based media and research firm Hurun.
But the ultra wealthy had a very good year regardless of name recognition. The world now has more billionaires than ever, Forbes reported, with 2,781 in all. That adds up to 141 more than last year’s list, and 26 more than a record 2,755 billionaires set in 2021.
The richer are also richer, according to the list. Billionaires’ aggregate worth is now US$14.2 trillion, up US$2 trillion from 2023―and US$1.1 trillion above the previous record, also set in 2021, Forbes said.
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A “flurry” of billionaires are getting rich through the AI “gold rush,” according to Forbes.
“The poster child for all this is Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang ,” whose company’s stock surged 300% over the past year. Open AI CEO Sam Altman , who briefly lost control of his company last year, also made the list, owing to canny investments in his former role as head of VC firm Y Combinator.
The U.S. leads in billionaires, with a record 813 worth a total US$5.7 trillion. China ranked second, with 473 billionaires whose combined net worth is US$1.7 trillion. India set a record with 200 billionaires this year. Forbes said it calculated wealth using stock prices and currency exchange rates as of March 8. Two-thirds of the billionaires on the list emerged wealthier than a year ago; one-third have lost money.
Forbes’ list diverged from the Hurun rich list, where Musk reigned as the world’s wealthiest and Bezos and Arnault ranked second and third, respectively. The Hurun list was even richer, ranking 3,279 billionaires, up from 3,112 the previous year. The number of billionaires increased by 5% and their total wealth was up 9%, Hurun said.
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The U.S. now has more billionaires than China for the first time in a decade, driven by AI and a booming stock market.
By ABBY SCHULTZ
Fri, Mar 28, 2025 3 min
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The number of U.S. billionaires in the world reached 870 in mid-January, outpacing the number in China for the first time in 10 years, according to a snapshot of the wealthiest in the world by the Hurun Report.
The U.S. gained 70 billionaires since last year, powered by a rising stock market, a strong dollar, and the insatiable appetite for all things AI, according to the 14th annual Hurun Global Rich List . China gained nine billionaires overall for a total of 823. Hurun is a China-based research, media, and investment group.
“It’s been a good year for AI, money managers, entertainment, and crypto,” Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of the Hurun Report, said in a news release. “It’s been a tough year for luxury, telecommunications, and real estate in China.”
Overall, the Hurun list—which reflects a snapshot of global wealth based on calculations made Jan. 15—counted 3,442 billionaires in the world, up 5%, or 163, from a year ago. Their total wealth rose 13% to just under $17 trillion.
In November, New York research firm Altrata reported that the billionaire population rose 4% in 2023 to 3,323 individuals and their wealth rose 9% to $12.1 trillion.
Elon Musk, CEO of electric-car maker Tesla and right-hand advisor to President Donald Trump, topped the list for the fourth time in five years, with recorded wealth of $420 billion as of mid-January as Tesla stock soared in the aftermath of the U.S. election, according to Hurun’s calculations.
The firm noted that Musk’s wealth has since nosedived about $100 billion, falling along with shares of Tesla although the EV car maker is benefiting on Thursday from Trump’s 25% tariff on cars made outside the U.S.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk’s wealth stood at about $336 billion as of the market’s close on Wednesday, although measuring his exact wealth —including stakes in his privately held companies and the undiscounted value of his Tesla shares—is difficult to precisely determine.
The overall list this year contained 387 new billionaires, while 177 dropped off the list—more than 80 of which were from China, Hurun said. “China’s economy is continuing to restructure, with the drop-offs coming from a weeding out of healthcare and new energy and traditional manufacturing, as well as real estate,” Hoogewerf said in the release.
Among those who wealth sank was Colin Huang, the founder of PDD Holdings —the parent company of e-commerce platforms Temu and Pinduoduo—who lost $17 billion.
Also, Zhong Shanshan, the founder and chair of the Nongfu Spring beverage company and the majority owner of Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise , lost $8 billion from “intensifying competition” in the market for bottled water. The loss knocked Zhong from his top rank in China, which is now held by Zhang Yiming founder of Tik-Tok owner Bytedance. Zhang is ranked No. 22 overall.
Hurun’s top 10 billionaires is a familiar group of largely U.S. individuals including Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Larry Ellison. The list has France’s LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault in seventh place, three notches down from his fourth ranked spot on the Bloomberg list, reflecting a slump in luxury products last year.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is ranked No. 11 on Hurun’s list as his wealth nearly tripled to $128 billion through Jan. 15. Other AI billionaires found lower down on the list include Liang Wenfeng, 40, founder and CEO of DeepSeek, with wealth of $4.5 billion and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, with $1.8 billion.
Also making the list were musicians Jay-Z ($2.7 billion), Rihanna ($1.7 billion), Taylor Swift ($1.6 billion), and Paul McCartney ($1 billion). Sports stars included Michael Jordan ($3.3 billion), Tiger Woods ($1.7 billion), Floyd Mayweather ($1.3 billion), and LeBron James ($1.3 billion).
Wealth continues to surge across the globe, but Hoogewerf noted those amassing it aren’t overly generous.
“We only managed to find three individuals in the past year who donated more than $1 billion,” he said. Warren Buffet gave $5.3 billion, mainly to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, while Michael Bloomberg —ranked No. 19 with wealth of $92 billion—gave $3.7 billion to various causes. Netflix founder Reed Hastings, ranked No. 474 with wealth of $6.2 billion, donated $1.1 billion.
