AI boom adds $550B to wealth of US tech billionaires
What's the story
The artificial intelligence (AI) market boom has added over $550 billion to the fortunes of America's richest tech moguls this year. The surge in wealth comes as a result of Wall Street's heavy investment in AI, with the combined net worth of the top 10 US tech founders and executives nearing $2.5 trillion by Christmas Eve. This is a significant increase from $1.9 trillion at the start of the year, according to Bloomberg.
Wealth increase
Elon Musk's wealth surges nearly 50% to $645B
Elon Musk, the world's richest man, saw his net worth jump nearly 50% to $645 billion. This was fueled by a $1 trillion Tesla pay deal approved by shareholders and a surge in SpaceX's valuation to $800 billion. Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin also witnessed massive gains with their fortunes rising by 61% and 59%, respectively, due to Alphabet's progress in AI models/chips.
Tech gains
Oracle's data center deal boosts Larry Ellison's wealth
Oracle founder Larry Ellison also witnessed a massive jump in his wealth after the company announced a $300 billion data center deal with OpenAI. However, investor skepticism over how Oracle would fund this massive project later dragged the stock down 40% from its September peak, trimming some of those gains. Meanwhile, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang saw his net worth climb to $159 billion despite selling over $1 billion worth of shares this year.
Additional gains
Other tech moguls see significant wealth increases
Other tech moguls also saw significant increases in their wealth. Jeff Bezos sold about $5.7 billion worth of Amazon stock while Michael Dell unloaded over $2 billion worth of shares in Dell Technologies. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg gained over $28 billion year-to-date but slipped down the rankings after a pullback in his company's stock amid concerns over its hefty spending on AI infrastructure and talent deals.