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Billionaire Wealth: The Biggest Winners and Losers in 2023

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See this visualization first on the Voronoi app.

This scatterplot chart shows changes in billionaire wealth in 2023.

Billionaire Wealth: The Biggest Winners and Losers in 2023

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

In early February, Mark Zuckerberg added $28 billion to his wealth in a matter of hours as Meta’s shares soared after the company announced its first dividend payout.

This follows a banner year for the Facebook founder, who saw his wealth surge 173% in 2023. Like Zuckerberg, many tech billionaires added huge sums to their wealth as the stock market rebounded.

This graphic, from Preyash Shah, shows the biggest winners and losers in billionaire wealth in 2023.

The Top Risers and Fallers

Below, we rank the world’s top 50 billionaires by their net change in wealth:

RankingNameNet Worth 2024Annual Change% Growth
1Elon Musk$250.4B$113.5B+83%
2Mark Zuckerberg$123.6B$78.3B+173%
3Jeff Bezos$174.4B$65.3B+60%
4Prajogo Pangestu$54.6B$49.5B+971%
5Larry Page$116.2B$38.1B+49%
6Sergey Brin$111.5B$36.6B+49%
7Amancio Ortega$99.4B$34.8B+54%
8Steve Ballmer$110.9B$32.4B+41%
9Larry Ellison$133.8B$30.0B+29%
10Jensen Huang$42.9B$29.4B+218%
11Françoise Bettencourt
Meyers & family
$98.1B$26.1B+36%
12Colin Huang$51.6B$21.8B+73%
13Carlos Slim Helu
& family
$102.9B$21.0B+26%
14Bernard Arnault
& family
$203.2B$20.2B+11%
15Michael Bloomberg$96.3B$19.5B+25%
16Reinhold Wuerth
& family
$30.7B$16.7B+119%
17Michael Dell$67.9B$15.4B+29%
18MacKenzie Scott$40.8B$15.3B+60%
19Gianluigi & Rafaela
Aponte
$29.7B$15.2B+105%
20Bill Gates$118.3B$15.1B+15%
21Dieter Schwarz$48.8B$14.3B+41%
22Stephen Schwarzman$37.7B$12.6B+50%
23Warren Buffett$118.8B$11.1B+10%
24Shiv Nadar$32.5B$8.6B+36%
25Mukesh Ambani$97.8B$8.0B+9%
26David Thomson
& family
$59.7B$6.8B+13%
27Tadashi Yanai
& family
$37.8B$6.5B+21%
28Ken Griffin$37.7B$6.4B+20%
29Klaus-Michael
Kuehne
$34.1B$5.2B+18%
30Giovanni Ferrero$40.0B$5.2B+15%
31Rob Walton$64.3B$4.2B+7%
32Jim Walton$65.0B$3.6B+6%
33Gerard Wertheimer$36.3B$3.1B+9%
34Alain Wertheimer$36.3B$3.1B+9%
35Jim Simons$30.7B$2.6B+9%
36Li Ka-shing$35.6B$2.2B+7%
37Zhong Shanshan$65.4B$2.0B-3%
38Julia Koch
& family
$59.2B$1.5B+3%
39Phil Knight
& family
$46.8B$1.3B+3%
40Alice Walton$60.0B$0.8B+1%
41Miriam Adelson
& family
$32.2B$0.1B+0%
42Jacqueline Mars$38.2B-$0.4B-1%
43John Mars$38.2B-$0.4B-1%
44Jeff Yass$28.9B-$1.1B-4%
45Len Blavatnik$31.5B-$2.2B-7%
46François Pinault
& family
$31.8B-$2.8B-8%
47Ma Huateng$34.0B-$3.3B-9%
48Charles Koch$53.9B-$3.8B-7%
49Zhang Yiming$43.4B-$6.1B-12%
50Gautam Adani$69.7B-$56.5B-45%

Adding $113.5 billion to his fortune, Elon Musk saw the biggest gains across the group as Tesla shares doubled in price in 2023.

This marks a sharp reversal from the previous year, when Musk lost more money than any other billionaire. In a record year, Tesla delivered 1.8 million vehicles—a 38% year-over-year increase.

Mark Zuckerberg, with the second-highest gains, raked in $78.3 billion as Meta’s shares skyrocketed. Last year, Facebook saw 5 million new users in North America. Adding to this, users’ time spent on Instagram has increased 40% since mid-2020 when Reels was launched.

As the fastest riser across the top 50, Indonesia’s energy billionaire Prajogo Pangestu saw his wealth climb an incredible 971%. The majority of gains were driven from Barito Renewables, his geothermal power company, going public in October 2023.

By contrast, India’s Gautam Adani saw the steepest decline in wealth. After a Hindenburg report accused the Adani Group of operating several shell companies to manipulate stock prices and launder money, Adani saw his wealth decline by $56.5 billion, cutting it by almost half.

Along with Adani, Zhang Yiming, the founder of ByteDance—known for its social media app TikTok—lost $6.1 billion while major Republican donor Charles Koch lost $3.8 billion over the year.

Rapidly Changing Wealth

So far, the U.S. stock market has hit record highs in 2024, boosting the fortunes of many of the world’s billionaires.

In fact, Meta recently added $196 billion to its market cap in one day, the biggest gain in the history of Wall Street. Year-to-date, Zuckerberg’s wealth has increased by $38.2 billion as of February 5. Additionally, Jeff Bezos has added $18 billion to his net worth in just over a month as Amazon shares have jumped nearly 14%.

In 2024, Warren Buffett’s net worth has already climbed by $9.9 billion.

Other billionaires have not fared as well, in particular Elon Musk, whose wealth has plummeted $55.8 billion after issuing recalls for 3.8 million vehicles. Tesla’s shares have slumped 27% year-to-date given production headwinds and a host of other setbacks, including legal troubles and increasing competition in the electric vehicle market.

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This article was published as a part of Visual Capitalist's Creator Program, which features data-driven visuals from some of our favorite Creators around the world.

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Economy

Charted: U.S. National Debt, as a Percent of GDP (1900-2035P)

We show U.S. national debt projections, highlighting how debt as a share of GDP is set to soar to 118.5% by 2035.

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Line chart showing U.S. national debt projections as a share of GDP through to 2035.

Charted: The U.S. National Debt (1900-2035P)

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

This year, U.S. national debt is set to approach 100% of GDP, up from 36% in 2005.

By 2035, the tab is projected to reach 118.5% of GDP as higher debt costs steepen the deficit, fueling further government borrowing. Today, the deficit stands at $1.9 trillion with net interest and mandatory spending outpacing revenues.

This graphic shows U.S. federal debt projections to 2035, based on data from the Congressional Budget Office.

Swimming in Debt

Below, we show how national debt held by the public is set to mushroom over the next decade:

YearU.S. Federal Debt as a % of GDP
2035P118.5
2034P117.1
2033P115.3
2032P113.0
2031P111.1
2030P109.2
2029P107.2
2028P105.4
2027P103.4
2026P101.7
2025P99.9
202497.8
202396.0
202295.0
202196.9
202098.6
201978.9
201877.1
201775.7
201676.0
201572.2
201473.3
201371.8
201270.0
201165.5
201060.6
200952.2
200839.2
200735.2
200635.4
200535.8
200435.7
200334.7
200232.7
200131.5
200033.7
199938.3
199841.7
199744.6
199647.0
199547.7
199447.8
199347.9
199246.8
199144.1
199040.9
198939.4
198839.9
198739.6
198638.5
198535.3
198433.1
198332.2
198227.9
198125.2
198025.5
197925.0
197826.7
197727.1
197626.7
197524.6
197423.2
197325.2
197226.5
197127.1
197027.1
196928.4
196832.3
196731.9
196633.8
196536.8
196438.8
196341.1
196242.3
196143.6
196044.3
195946.5
195847.8
195747.3
195650.7
195555.8
195458.0
195357.2
195260.1
195165.5
195078.6
194977.4
194882.4
194793.9
1946106.1
1945103.9
194486.4
194369.2
194245.9
194141.5
194043.6
193942.4
193842.2
193739.6
193642.5
193542.4
193443.5
193338.6
193234.0
193122.0
193016.3
192914.8
192817.0
192718.0
192619.0
192521.6
192423.5
192325.2
192231.1
192131.6
192027.3
191933.4
191830.2
191713.3
19162.7
19153.3
19143.5
19133.2
19123.4
19113.6
19103.7
19093.8
19084.3
19074.0
19064.0
19054.3
19044.7
19035
19025.4
19015.7
19006.6

By 2029, federal debt is forecast to exceed the post-WWII record based on an outlook that doesn’t factor in recessions.

This comes amid a widening deficit during a period of low unemployment and a growing U.S. economy. In many ways, this counters the theory of shrinking the deficit during economic expansion and increasing the deficit during downturns.

Looking ahead, net interest on the federal debt is expected to nearly double from 2024 levels, reaching $1.8 trillion by 2035. To put it in perspective, interest costs will be 1.7 times higher than defense spending that year.

While Modern Monetary Theory suggests that countries that have control over their currencies will never face default since they can print more money, evidence from history suggests a different outcome.

From the British Empire and Habsburg Spain to the Ottoman Empire, historian Niall Ferguson finds that superpowers that have spent more on debt servicing costs than defense have not held onto power for very long.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To learn more about this topic amid swelling debt, check out this graphic on the top holders of U.S. debt.

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