America’s richest technology billionaires have increased their combined net worth by more than $550bn this year, riding an investor frenzy around leading companies in artificial intelligence.
According to Bloomberg, by the close of trading in New York on Christmas Eve the ten largest US founders and executives in the technology sector controlled nearly $2.5tn in cash, equity stakes, and other investments. At the start of the year, that figure stood at about $1.9tn. The gains came during a period in which the S&P 500 rose by more than 18 percent.
Silicon Valley’s leaders have benefited from the hundreds of billions of dollars being channelled worldwide into AI chips, data centre construction, and the development of artificial intelligence-related products. In recent months, however, part of those gains has been eroded amid growing concerns that the market may be overheated by investment fuelled by expectations around AI.
“All of this is speculative and directly tied to the success of AI,” said Jason Furman, a professor of economics at Harvard University and an adviser to the OpenAI start-up. “There remains a big question as to whether these bets will pay off, but investors are wagering that they will.”
The increase in Musk’s wealth came in a year in which he secured shareholder approval for a $1tn compensation package at Tesla, while the valuation of his space company, SpaceX, surged to $800bn.
One of the principal beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence boom has been Jensen Huang, the founder of chipmaker Nvidia. The company has rapidly grown into the world’s largest listed corporation, with a market capitalisation exceeding $4tn. Huang himself ranks as the eighth-wealthiest executive in the US technology sector, with an estimated net worth of $156bn.
Regulatory filings show that over the course of the year he sold more than $1bn worth of Nvidia shares, capitalising on the company’s meteoric rise as the leading producer of advanced AI chips.
Other industry figures have also been cashing out. Jeff Bezos sold $5.6bn worth of Amazon shares, while Michael Dell disposed of more than $2bn in stock of his eponymous company.
Mark Zuckerberg’s position in the rankings has weakened following a recent slide in Meta’s share price. Investors have reacted warily to the company’s heavy spending on AI infrastructure and generous compensation packages for leading specialists in the field.
Larry Ellison’s fortune surged after Oracle announced a $300bn data centre contract with OpenAI three months ago. Concerns over how the project is being financed, however, have pushed Oracle’s shares down 40 percent from their September peak.
Zuckerberg and Ellison were overtaken in the rankings by Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Their fortunes rose by $270bn and $255bn respectively, as the company advanced the development of its own AI models and chips.
The only member of the rankings to end the year with a smaller fortune than at its outset was Bill Gates. He continued to sell Microsoft shares, channelling the proceeds into funding his philanthropic projects.