Jeff Bezos has dethroned Elon Musk to reclaim his title as the world’s richest man after raking in a massive $23bn in 2024, while Musk has lost $31bn, the latest Bloomberg Billionaires Index has shown.
The Amazon founder’s net worth currently stands at $200bn, topping the Tesla chief’s $198bn, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index showed on Tuesday.
The billionaires’ wealth gains and losses closely tracked the stock market fortunes of Amazon and Tesla, who count their founders as their biggest shareholders.
Amazon’s share price has surged by more than 18 percent this year, while Tesla’s has dropped by 24 percent.
Despite selling $8.5bn worth of Amazon shares earlier this month, Bezos remains the biggest shareholder in the e-commerce giant with a 9.56 percent stake.
Musk has an equity stake in Tesla of about 20 percent.
In January, a judge in the United States struck down a Tesla pay package for Musk valued at up to $55.8bn after finding that the process for approving his remuneration was deeply flawed.
Musk, who also runs X and SpaceX, rose to the top of the rich list in May after toppling Bernard Arnault, the chairman and CEO of luxury goods company LVMH, who now ranks third with $197bn.
Bezos, Musk and Arnault have jockeyed for the top spot in recent years in the ranking, which is based on fluctuations in the stock market and other economic data.
Meanwhile, Chairman Dangote Industries, Aliko Dangote maintained his position as Africa’s richest person.
The Lagos, Nigeria-based company owns sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest cement producer, Dangote Cement, which had revenue of 1.38 trillion naira ($3.4 billion) in 2021. It also has interests in sugar, salt, oil, fertilizer and packaged food.
As of March 5, 2024, Dangote gained $141m to keep his top spot.
The majority of Dangote’s fortune is derived from his 86% stake in publicly traded Dangote Cement. He holds the shares in the company directly and through his conglomerate, Dangote Industries.
Dangote’s other publicly traded assets include stakes in Dangote Sugar, Nascon Allied Industries and United Bank for Africa. His stakes in the publicly traded companies are held directly and through Dangote Industries, which also owns closely held businesses operating in food manufacturing, fertilizer, oil and other industries.
His most valuable closely held asset is a fertilizer plant with capacity to produce up to 2.8 million tonnes of urea annually. Its net value is based on a discounted cash flow analysis by KPMG. The valuation was confirmed by outside analysts.
A $19 billion oil refinery that is currently being developed in Nigeria isn’t included in the valuation because it’s not yet operational.
The billionaire owns six residential and commercial properties in Lagos. They are valued using the capitalization method, using rental income provided by Dangote’s spokesman, Anthony Chiejina, and capitalization rates from CBRE Broll Nigeria.
His cash holdings are based on an analysis of dividends, taxes, insider transactions and other expenditures.
See the list of the world’s top ten richest below:
Rank Name Total net worth ($) Last change $ YTD change Country / Region Industry
1 Jeff Bezos $200B -$500M +$23.4B United States Technology
2 Elon Musk $198B -$17.6B -$31.3B United States Technology
3 Bernard Arnault $197B -$1.84B +$18.3B France Consumer
4 Mark Zuckerberg $179B -$1.42B +$50.7B United States Technology
5 Bill Gates $150B +$475M +$8.88B United States Technology
6 Steve Ballmer $143B -$125M +$12.6B United States Technology
7 Warren Buffett $133B -$1.26B +$13.4B United States Diversified
8 Larry Ellison $129B -$242M +$6.26B United States Technology
9 Larry Page $122B -$2.86B -$4.09B United States Technology
10 Sergey Brin $116B -$2.66B -$3.76B United States Technology
By: Babajide Okeowo
