4 billionaires getting even richer from AI
The artificial intelligence boom has sent shares and net worths to new heights this year, meaning some billionaires have only been getting wealthier.
While most eyes have been on AI chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) and its CEO Jensen Huang, some of his fellow tech billionaires have also seen their net worths grow as their companies invest more in the technology.
Here are four billionaires getting even richer this year thanks to AI.
Jensen Huang
Nvidia founder and chief executive Jensen Huang has seen his net worth skyrocket during the AI hype due to demand for the company’s AI chips, which power some of the world’s leading AI models.
Huang’s net worth has climbed $63.5 billion so far this year to $107 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The majority of Huang’s net worth comes from his 3.5% stake in Nvidia, according to Bloomberg.
According to the Forbes Billionaires List, Huang’s real-time net worth was $108.6 billion as of Friday afternoon.
In September, Nvidia rejoined the $3 trillion market-cap club during an uptick in its shares, adding about $2.3 billion to Huang’s net worth.
Ever since shares of Nvidia reached an all-time high in June, the chipmaker’s stock has experienced some turbulence. However, the company’s shares have climbed around 158% so far this year, and compared with a year ago, Nvidia’s stock is up over 180%.
In June, Nvidia briefly surpassed Apple in total market cap and crossed the $3 trillion threshold for the first time. Weeks later, Nvidia overtook both Apple and Microsoft to become the world’s most valuable public company. Despite since falling back into third place, Nvidia remains the most valuable semiconductor company in the world. In February, it became the first semiconductor company to reach a $2 trillion valuation after reporting record fourth-quarter earnings.
Michael Dell
Dell Technologies (DELL) founder and CEO Michael Dell has seen his net worth gain $31.6 billion so far this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The majority of Dell’s $110 billion net worth comes from his stake in the computer company of which he owns about half, according to Bloomberg.
The company’s shares have risen about 58.4% so far this year. In March, Dell beat analysts’ earnings expectations in its fourth-quarter results, which were driven by demand for AI optimization in its server business.
“Our strong AI-optimized server momentum continues, with orders increasing nearly 40% sequentially and backlog nearly doubling, exiting our fiscal year at $2.9 billion,” Jeff Clarke, Dell’s vice chairman and chief operating officer, said in the company’s earnings report.
Clarke said Dell is only at the start of its venture into AI and believes it’s “uniquely positioned with our broad portfolio to help customers build GenAI solutions that meet performance, cost and security requirements.”
In August, Clarke said that Dell’s “AI momentum accelerated” during the second quarter and that the company has “seen an increase in the number of enterprise customers buying AI solutions each quarter.”
“AI-optimized server demand was $3.2 billion, up 23% sequentially, and $5.8 billion year to date,” Clarke said about the second quarter.
According to the Forbes Billionaires List, Dell’s real-time net worth was $104.9 billion as of Friday afternoon.
Mark Zuckerberg
Meta (META) founder Mark Zuckerberg has seen his net worth soar $78.1 billion so far this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Friday, Zuckerberg surpassed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as the world’s second-richest person, according to Bloomberg.
Zuckerberg’s net worth reached $206 billion — just $1 billion above Bezos’s $205 billion. According to the Forbes Billionaires List, Zuckerberg is the third-richest person in the world, with a real-time net worth of $204.3 billion as of Friday afternoon.
Shares of Meta have climbed around 69.5% so far this year. The company’s stock jumped 5% in July after it announced second-quarter earnings results that beat expectations.
“We had a strong quarter, and Meta AI is on track to be the most used AI assistant in the world by the end of the year,” Zuckerberg said in a statement. “We’ve released the first frontier-level open source AI model, we continue to see good traction with our Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, and we’re driving good growth across our apps.”
Larry Ellison
In September, Oracle (ORCL) co-founder Larry Ellison saw his net worth surpass that of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, making Ellison the second-richest person in the world.
Ellison’s real-time net worth was $206.8 billion as of Friday afternoon, according to the Forbes Billionaires List. The Oracle executive chairman is the fifth-richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Oracle’s shares have climbed around 62.7% so far this year due to its cloud businesses. Ellison owns just under 40% of Oracle’s outstanding stock, according to Forbes.
“As Cloud Services became Oracle’s largest business, both our operating income and earnings per share growth accelerated,” Oracle CEO Safra Catz said in a statement after Oracle’s first-quarter earnings results.
The company’s total quarterly revenues in USD were up 7% from the previous year, while its revenues were up 8% in constant currency, it said. In its cloud services division, Oracle’s revenues in USD were up 12% year-over-year, while the company was up 22% in constant currency.