Donald Trump's election win is already helping the world's richest get even richer

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos added billions to their wealth after Former President Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election. - Photo: Brendan Smialowski, Mandel Ngan/AFP (Getty Images)
Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos added billions to their wealth after Former President Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election. - Photo: Brendan Smialowski, Mandel Ngan/AFP (Getty Images)

Donald Trump’s election victory sent the stock market skyrocketing, with key indexes surging on Wednesday. As a result, some of the wealthiest people on Earth found themselves billions of dollars richer.

Elon Musk, as usual, was the leader in this.

The world’s wealthiest person saw his net worth gain $26.5 billion by market close on Wednesday after Tesla stock rose almost 15%. Musk controls close to 13% of Tesla’s (TSLA) outstanding shares, although he may be able to buy more stock — at a serious discount — if his compensation plan is approved by the courts. So far this year, Musk has added $61.3 billion to his net worth, reaching $290 billion in total, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index.

His close relationship with the president-elect is helping fuel the gains, with Musk planning to advocate for a national approach to regulating driverless vehicles. He’s eyeing some kind of government role, although it’s unclear whether he would take an official position.

Read more: What Donald Trump’s election win means for stocks, the economy, and trade

Amazon (AMZN) and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos and Oracle’s (ORCL) Larry Ellison, the second and fourth wealthiest people, respectively, also saw gains Wednesday. Bezos, who still owns 9% of Amazon stock, added $7.14 billion to his net worth, while Ellison — a Trump and Musk ally — added almost $10 billion to his own net worth.

Other major beneficiaries among the top 10 wealthiest people alive include Microsoft (MSFT) founder Bill Gates, former Google (GOOGL) CEO Larry Page, Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK.A) Warren Buffett, and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Meta (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg and LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault were the only losers after Wednesday, with Zuckerberg’s net worth dropping $81 million and Anault’s falling by $2.85 billion.

Nvidia’s (NVDA) Jensen Huang’s net worth gained $4.86 billion, adding to his massive wealth increase this year. In total, his net worthhas increased by $83 billion in 2024, making him the 11th wealthiest person alive.

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