Elon Musk is the billionaire whose wealth has decreased the most in the first half of this year. Meanwhile, semiconductor tycoon Jensen Huang has earned an additional 64.1 billion USD in just 6 months.
According to Forbes estimates , Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s net worth dropped more than any other billionaire in the world in the first half of this year.
Specifically, Elon Musk had assets of 251.3 billion USD at the end of 2023 and decreased to 221.4 billion USD on the last trading day of the stock market in the first half of this year. However, he is still the richest person on the planet.
Much of the decline stems from a Delaware judge invalidating Musk’s record $51 billion compensation package in January, prompting Forbes to slash the value of the package by 50%, citing uncertainty over whether he would receive it.
In addition to the above compensation package, the first half of the year was also considered a “stormy” period for billionaire Elon Musk. The value of his shares in Tesla decreased by about $20 billion due to the company’s stock falling 20% as profits and car sales decreased.
However, Elon Musk’s fortune was still partly offset by a stake in artificial intelligence startup that increased to $14.4 billion. At the same time, Musk also owns about $75 billion in private aerospace company SpaceX, $7 billion in social network X and small investments in the company researching connecting the nervous system to computers Neuralink.
Billionaire Elon Musk during a visit to China
Elon Musk isn’t the only billionaire to see his fortune shrink. Europe’s richest man, Bernard Arnault, saw his net worth drop from $200.7 billion to $193.8 billion as shares of his luxury goods conglomerate LVMH fell.
Mexico’s richest man Carlos Slim Helu’s fortune fell to $91.4 billion from $105.3 billion as shares in his telecoms empire fell.
Nike co-founder Phil Knight’s net worth also “evaporated” nearly $10 billion, from $42.9 billion to $33.7 billion, and Nike’s stock price fell to a four-year low.
Still, the first half of the year has been a largely good one for the world’s richest people, with the combined net worth of the top 10 rising from $1.47 trillion at the end of 2023 to $1.66 trillion at the end of June.
The billionaire who made the most money in the first half of the year was Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Thanks to the explosion of artificial intelligence (AI), his assets increased by 64.1 billion USD in the first half of the year, moving his ranking from 27th to 14th.