As the economy faltered, with businesses shuttering and unemployment soaring, the stock market boomed. As the major shareholders of the companies they founded, those like Musk and Bezos got richer despite a lagging economy. Those ranked on the Bloomberg list represent multiple industries and geographies.

During the same time period, the collective wealth of the poorest 60% of the world’s population—approximately 4.8 billion people—fell 0.2%, which, while a small percentage, illustrates the divergent trends for the rich and the poor. Things get drastically better for those with money and marginally worse for this without it. The ranks of billionaires dwindled over the past year, with their total worth dropping by $400 billion, says the latest list of the world’s richest people from Forbes magazine. Despite giving away tens of billions of dollars over the past few decades, Gates’ wealth continues to grow, thanks in part to the strong performance of shares of Microsoft, the company he co-founded and still owns about 1% of.

These Are the World’s Richest Families

The following year, Musk announced that his primary residence was a prefab abode in Boca Chica, Texas, rented via his astronautics company, SpaceX. It’s set up much like a typical studio apartment, complete with a fully equipped kitchen, bathroom, living area, and bedroom. The world’s billionaires are accumulating wealth at a rate “unprecedented in human history,” according to a recent report from Oxfam International. While one can argue about the ethics behind owning so much wealth in the world, there’s no denying that billionaires play a supersized role in shaping philanthropy, politics and the global economy. The 92-year-old News Corp. founder has officially retired, ceding control to his son, Lachlan.

In November, CZ and Binance pleaded guilty to money laundering and US sanctions violations. He agreed to step down as CEO and personally pay a $50 million fine in addition to the $4.3 billion Binance will have to fork over. Still, the rebound in crypto boosted CZ’s wealth by nearly $25 billion this year, even as he may be headed to jail in 2024. The combined net worth of the 500 richest people surged by $1.5 trillion in 2023, fully rebounding from the $1.4 trillion lost the year prior, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

A lucrative pandemic

The U.S. appears to be making some headway in improving workers’ wages. In the third quarter of 2023, weekly wages rose 4.5% compared to the same time the year before, while inflation only rose 3.5%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest available data. The Tesla CEO recently got approval from Twitter board members to buy the social media platform. Here, bottles of soda water produced by the beverage company Nongfu Spring are displayed for sale at a supermarket on June 29, 2021 in Shanghai, China. Her net worth is derived from her holdings in L’Oréal, the world’s largest cosmetics company.

• In addition to its line of electric automobiles, Tesla produces energy storage devices, automobile accessories, and, through its acquisition of SolarCity in 2016, solar power systems.
• 60 people from the 2012 list fell below a billion dollars of assets in 2013, and eight others from the 2012 list died.
• The new ranking marks a step down for Bezos, who was No. 1 on the 2021 list.
• The list also featured a record number of newcomers, 210, representing 42 countries.
• The 2013 list featured 138 women, of which 50 came from the United States.
• As the major shareholders of the companies they founded, those like Musk and Bezos got richer despite a lagging economy.

But despite its reputation as a haven for the most well-off among us, New York City isn’t the primary residence for any of the richest people in the world. While one of the planet’s most moneyed figures famously keeps a modest dwelling in the middle of the US, others boast more lavish digs in coastal areas, purchased via record-breaking transactions. Unsurprisingly, many of the world’s most affluent (though not all of them) have portfolios filled with a number of spots to split their time between. Read on to learn more about where some of the richest people in the world have chosen to set down roots. Facing a deadline to post a bond of more than $500 million in a New York fraud lawsuit, a state appeals court tossed him a lifeline, slashing the amount he’d have to post to $175 million — an amount he says he’ll cover.

Trump’s net worth, boosted by Truth Social stock, lands him on world’s 500 richest list

Currently the fourth richest person in the world, the Oracle cofounder resides in Hawaii. Though he’s no longer the software company’s CEO after more than 30 years at the helm, Ellison still serves as the tech corporation’s CTO and boasts a net worth of about $138.2 billion. But the 79-year-old’s primary residence is still in Lanai, a Hawaiian island that is home to about 3,000 people.

In January, BlackRock’s legendary founder and chief executive Larry Fink laid out this two-step plan for crypto in an interview with CNBC. A cryptocurrency called BlackRock USD institutional digital liquidity fund (buidl) was created earlier this month on the ethereum blockchain, 5 wealthiest people in the world according to Etherscan data spotted by The Block. “This partnership reflects our commitment to connecting institutions to crypto and demonstrates our ability to provide the necessary technology and products to support the rapidly growing tokenization sector.”