If the ten richest people in the world If we could make one wish for 2025, it would surely be that the year was as good as 2024. The billionaire elite saw their wealth grow by $795.8 billion, far surpassing the $585.2 billion in 2023. Artificial intelligence fever has rewritten the rankings. of the richest people on the planet.
Elon Musk tops the rankings with 468 billion dollars, doubling his fortune thanks to Tesla and SpaceX. He is followed by Jeff Bezos, with 245.9 billion, who saw his wealth grow by 69 billion thanks to the 8.8% he controls of Amazon, and Mark Zuckerberg, with 213.4 billion, recovering from the setback of the metaverse. But where is Apple if it's one of the most valuable companies in the world?
Apple's mind is indirectly among the richest people in the world
History is full of curious links with Apple. Larry Page, with his 173.7 billion, once dreamed of having Steve Jobs as CEO of Google. Warren Buffett is accumulating $143.6 billion as he sold many of his Apple shares. And Michael Dell, who climbed five positions to 128.5 billion, is the same one who, in 1997, suggested that Apple close its doors.
Larry Ellison, now fourth with $193.5 billion thanks to Oracle, has a special history with Apple: he was member of its board of directors from 1997 to 2002 and was a close friend of Steve Jobs, whom he decisively supported in his return to the company.
Bill Gateswhich now occupies eighth place with 161.9 billion, played a major role in one of the most important moments in Apple's history: in 1997, when the company was on the verge of bankruptcy, Microsoft invested $150 million and became the largest Mac software developer outside the world. Apple.
Carlos Slim, who now closes the list of the 20 richest despite having lost 23.4 billion this year, also had his moment with Apple: purchased 3% of the company in 1997just before the return of Steve Jobs, only to sell his shares a year later at significant profits.
|
character |
Heritage |
Businesses |
|---|---|---|
|
Elon Musk |
$468 billion |
Tesla, SpaceX, X (before Twitter), Neuralink, The Boring Company, xAI |
|
Jeff Bezos |
$245.9 billion |
Amazon, Blue Origin, The Washington Post |
|
Mark Zuckerberg |
$213.4 billion |
Meta |
|
Larry Ellison |
$193.5 billion |
Oracle |
|
Larry Page |
$173.7 billion |
Google/Alphabet |
|
Sergey Brine |
$163.3 billion |
Google/Alphabet |
|
Bill Gates |
$161.9 billion |
Microsoft (co-founder, no longer in management position) |
|
Steve Ballmer |
$151.9 billion |
Former CEO of Microsoft, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers |
|
Michael Dell |
$128.5 billion |
Dell Technologies |
|
Jensen Huang |
$122.2 billion |
Nvidia |
In the end, everyone went their own way, and if it weren't for Steve Jobs' death, maybe we could see him on this list too. We now know that Steve's widow prefers to devote all her money to other types of actions. Why don't we see Tim Cook here? It should be borne in mind that Cook is the CEO of Apple, but not the founder. He doesn't own the company, he “simply” runs it as Steve Jobs asked him to. When his day comes, another replacement will come. Apple's wealth is distributed among its many shareholders.
But if there is a company that stands out in this list is NVIDIA. An impressive transformation: from its beginnings manufacturing graphics cards for video games to becoming the pillar of artificial intelligence. Jensen Huang, with just 3.5% of Nvidia, achieved what seemed impossible. His fortune soared by $78.2 billion in just one year, reaching $122.2 billion. The key to success lies not in electric cars or social media, but in something much less visible: the chips that power ChatGPT and the rest of the AI systems who are revolutionizing the world.
Jeff Bezos is not left behind in the AI race either. The Amazon founder saw his fortune grow by $69 billion this year, reaching $245.9 billion. Even if the e-commerce giant remains its main source of income, it is its cloud, IT and AI services division the one who makes the difference. Amazon has seen its profits and shares soar this year, thanks in part to this technological component of its business, which has even led the company to collaborate with Apple on the development of AI chips and services.
Overview of the Tranium2 chip that Apple uses to train its AI
You could say that 2024 was the year of AI. We have Apple Intelligence, the arrival of xAI, Gemini, the integration of ChatGPT with iOS… This is only the beginning of a revolution that has begun, similar to what the arrival of the Internet was. In the list of people Other sectors such as textiles or fashion are also appearing.. For example, Amancio Ortega is in 16th place or Françoise Bettencourt from L'Oréal closes the top 20.
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