The boom in artificial intelligence (AI) has increased the wealth of the world's richest people. The 40th edition of the annual Forbes ranking includes a total of 3,428 billionaires, which is about 400 more than the previous year and represents a new record since the American magazine has been keeping such a ranking since 1987.
“This is the year of the billionaires“, said Forbes editor-in-chief Chase Peterson-Whitthorne. According to him, over the past 12 months, the number of billionaires has increased by an average of more than one per day, with the growth of stock markets, stimulated by the development of artificial intelligence, leading to a significant increase in their wealth.
Elon Musk remains the richest person
The ranking is again headed by American billionaire Elon Musk. The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Elon Musk remains the richest person in the world for the second consecutive year and could become the first trillionaire in history.
According to “Forbes", the 54-year-old entrepreneur's fortune is estimated at about $839 billion. Musk is the first person whose wealth exceeds the $800 billion threshold.
Over the past year, Musk's fortune has doubled. According to Forbes calculations, he has more money than the next three richest people on the list combined.
In second place is Google co-founder Larry Page with a fortune of about $257 billion, followed by the company's other co-founder Sergey Brin with about $237 billion. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is in fourth place with an estimated $224 billion, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is in fifth place with about $222 billion.
The richest German remains the founder of the Lidl supermarket chain, Dieter Schwarz, with a fortune of over $67 billion. He ranks 29th in the global ranking, after a year earlier he was in 37th place.
Trump has become rich thanks to cryptocurrencies
Among the billionaires who have increased their wealth in the past year is US President Donald Trump. According to “Forbes" in the first year of his second term, his fortune grew by 27 percent to about $6.5 billion. The reason for this is investments in cryptocurrencies. In the global ranking, Trump ranks 645th.