Elon Musk Worth '272 Trillion Won' Maintains World's Richest Position Despite Market Crash

World's Richest Musk Loses 77.8 Trillion Won
Buffett Also Lost 16 Trillion Won in First Half
Energy Tycoons' Wealth Rises on Oil and Commodity Price Surge Benefits

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Lee Gyehwa] In the first half of this year, the wealth of the world's top 500 billionaires decreased by $1.4 trillion (approximately 1,817 trillion KRW). As a result, the number of billionaires with assets exceeding $100 billion, which was 10 at the beginning of this year, dropped to 4 as of the end of last month.

According to recent reports from Bloomberg News, the wealth of the top 500 global billionaires declined by $1.4 trillion during the first half of the year. The news agency explained that this was due to central banks around the world raising interest rates to curb soaring inflation, which led to fears of an economic recession and a stock market crash. Consequently, billionaires holding large amounts of stocks rapidly lost their wealth.

It added that the sharp decline in global billionaires' wealth contrasts with the past two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, when governments and central banks worldwide implemented economic stimulus measures that significantly increased the wealth of the rich.

According to Bloomberg, as of the 3rd, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, retained his position as the world's richest person with $210 billion (approximately 272.6 trillion KRW). However, due to Tesla's stock price decline, his wealth decreased by $59.9 billion (approximately 77.8 trillion KRW) this year. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, ranked second with $130 billion, followed by Bernard Arnault, chairman of Louis Vuitton Mo?t Hennessy (LVMH), with $128 billion. Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft ($115 billion), and Larry Page, founder of Google ($99.2 billion), followed behind them.

On the last day of the first half of the year, the 30th of last month (local time), the S&P 500 index closed at 3,785.38, down 33.45 points (0.88%) from the previous session, marking a 20.6% decline over six months. This represents the largest drop in the first half of the year since 1970.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and known as the 'investment genius,' who succeeded in increasing his wealth in the first quarter, was not spared from the stock price decline shock. His wealth decreased by $12.5 billion to $96.4 billion. Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEO, who was among the top 10 billionaires last year, lost $65.9 billion and dropped to 17th place.

On the other hand, energy tycoons increased their wealth due to the windfall from rising prices of crude oil and other raw materials. Gautam Adani, chairman of the Adani Group and Asia's richest person from India, increased his wealth by $22.3 billion this year, rising to 6th place with $98.8 billion. He was the only one among the top 10 billionaires to successfully increase his wealth. Charles Koch, CEO of Koch Industries and the largest donor to the U.S. Republican Party, increased his wealth by $7.03 billion to $68.2 billion, ranking 15th.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.