The world’s wealthiest individuals experienced substantial gains in the first half of 2023, with Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk emerging as the top gainer. Over the past six months, the maverick tech entrepreneur headed private aerospace and communications giant SpaceX and Twitter Inc and added $96.6 billion to his fortune. A rally helped Musk’s rise in Tesla shares, up almost 88% on Monday to close at $247 per share, boosting the value of his stake in the electric carmaker.
The tycoon’s fortune is tied closely to the price of Tesla shares which account for more than half of his total net worth, while the rest comes from the equity in his other companies. The tycoon offloaded more than $40 billion worth of his Tesla shares between November 2021 and December 2022 to fund the purchase of Twitter. The move saw him temporarily surpass Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest person.
However, the stock tumble during the year’s second half eroded his wealth, and in June, he again slipped behind LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault to take third place on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Musk’s colossal wealth is primarily linked to the rise of artificial intelligence, a technology that has accelerated exponentially in recent years. His company, the tech firm he founded and held a majority stake in, is currently worth nearly $140 billion.
Indian business tycoon Gautam Adani’s wealth, also fell significantly after a report accusing him of “pulling the largest con in corporate history.” Shares in Adani Group dropped as much as 10% on Wednesday following a report by short-seller Hindenburg Research. The U.S-based research firm said in a 413-page rebuttal that it had targeted the group to “effect a downward spiral of its share price and make a wrongful financial gain.” It accused Adani of attacking India, violating securities and foreign exchange laws, and providing only 30 pages of detailed response compared to 88 questions posed by it.
Carl Icahn’s fortune, the Embattled industrialist, also plummeted after his investment firm revealed it had used a Ponzi-like economic structure to conceal debt levels, the latest in a long string of investigations into the activist’s business practices. His stake in Icahn Enterprises, which owns a portfolio of publicly traded companies, fell by about 20 percent, wiping off more than $10 billion from his net worth.
In contrast, the 500 wealthiest people on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index globally collectively added $852 billion to their fortunes over the six months, marking the most successful half-year in the past three decades. The tycoons’ wealth had almost doubled since the start of 2000 when it stood at $36 trillion. The surge has been driven by a booming economy, higher interest rates, and more stable global currencies. The wealthiest individuals on the index enjoyed an average daily increase of $14 million each, or 0.2%, during this period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
