Tag: Rich

Posted on

If I were a rich man

Super rich

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has overtaken Jeff Bezos as the world’s second-richest person

Zuckerberg’s wealth surged by $78 billion in 2024, a rise unmatched by any other member of the index’s 500 richest individuals, thanks to his 13% stake in Meta.

Throughout the year, Wall Street has applauded Meta as the company’s quarterly earnings have consistently exceeded analysts’ expectations.

On Thursday 3rd October 2024, Zuckerberg’s net worth hit $206.2 billion, as per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, surpassing the $205.1 billion fortune of the ex-Amazon CEO and president. The co-founder of Facebook is now approximately $50 billion behind Tesla’s Elon Musk, according to the index.

Bloomberg Billionaires Index as of 3rd October 2024

Bloomberg Billionaires Index as of 3rd October 2024

Fact: Apparently Mark Zuckerberg says he plans to give away 99% of his Facebook shares.

Posted on

Elon Musk’s wealth is just crazy!

Wealth

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Elon Musk is the wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $243.46 billion USD as of 8th Jan 2024.

Musk is the founder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, X and X.ai as well as the co-founder of PayPal and Neuralink. He made his fortune from various business ventures, starting from a web software company called Zip 2 that he sold in 1999 for around $307 million. He also inherited some wealth from his father, who owned an emerald mine in South Africa.

Think about this for a moment

It’s a little difficult to imagine such wealth so, maybe think of it like this… If you had been given $10,000 every day since the birth of Jesus Christ, 2024 years ago – you would have accumulated some $7.4 billion (without interest and leap years etc).

So, Mr Elon Musk has a net worth of around $243 billion and you would have $7.4 billion and that equates to only 3% of his current wealth.

Or, if you had been given $10,000 every day since the pyramids were built in Egypt around 4500 years ago – you would have accumulated $16.4 billion. That’s still only 6.75% of Elon Musk’s current wealth.

One last thought

A recent report conducted by Oxfam calculated that just 5 of the world’s richest men (including Musk) are worth $869 billion between them.

Your $16.4 billion accumulated over 4500 years would equate to less than 2% of that combined wealth.

Now that’s crazy!

Final thought

8 of the top 10 current billionaires made their money in… technology.

Please note: figures are estimated, but it perfectly demonstrates my point.

Posted on

Oxfam report says world’s five richest men have more than doubled their wealth in 3 years

Wealth

The world’s five richest men have increased their combined fortune from $405 billion in March 2020 to $869 billion in November 2023, according to a report from Oxfam.

Wealth increased at a rate of $14 million per hour for 5 people

A report by the charity highlighted the wealth of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, LVMH boss Bernard Arnault and family, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, and investor Warren Buffett.

Oxfam is calling for restrictions on ‘corporate power’ to reduce the massive inequality between the super-rich and the rest of society. Two of the suggestions to correct the inequality is through capping CEO pay and introducing taxes on permanent wealth and excess profits.

This report was released to coincide with the Davos meeting as the rich and wealthy business leaders and bankers gather.

Oxfam says

  • Fortunes of five richest men have shot up by 114% since 2020.
  • Oxfam predicts the world could have its first-ever trillionaire in just a decade while it would take more than two centuries to end poverty. 
  • A billionaire is running or the principal shareholder of 7 out of 10 of the world’s biggest corporations.
  • 148 top corporations made $1.8 trillion in profits, 52% up on 3-year average, and dished out huge payouts to rich shareholders while hundreds of millions faced cuts in real-term pay.
  • Oxfam urges a new era of public action, including public services, corporate regulation, breaking up monopolies and enacting permanent wealth and excess profit taxes.

Full report here

Posted on

World’s richest 1% create carbon emissions equal to the poorest 66%

Carbon output

That’s a shocking headline

The world’s richest 1% of people are responsible for around the same percentage of global carbon emissions as the 5 billion people who represent the 66% poorest, according to a report published by Oxfam.

In the report he wealthiest 10% were responsible for 50% of global emissions, it found, while the bottom 50% were responsible for just 8%.

The top 1% represents 77 million people and is defined in the report as having an estimated income threshold of $140,000 per year, and an average income of $310,000.

The report states that personal consumption varies depending on factors such as location, use of renewable energy and transport where the very wealthiest contribute significantly more due to the use of private jets and yachts.

It also includes between 50% and 70% of emissions by the 1% coming through investments in companies, measured by taking firms’ reported emissions and distributing that proportionate to shareholder ownership of those firms by the 1%.

See report here.