Matthew effect: Top 10 billionaires who got even richer in 2021

A week left before the New Year, it's time to sum up the results of 2021. From a financial point of view, he was excellent. Experts estimate that more than half of the 2,660 billionaires have become even richer. Some of them added billions of dollars to their capital, others millions of dollars. For example, the top ten oligarchs gained $458 billion in wealth, which is approximately 25% of the total wealth gain of the rich ($1.6 trillion).

Six of the top 10 billionaires are from the United States of America and represent tech companies or technology-related businesses. The capital gain of these oligarchs is over 50%. For comparison, in 12 months, the Nasdaq index has increased by 23%, and the S&P 500 has increased by 27%. American oligarchs got rich by 304 billion dollars.

Given the rapid development of markets, the top ten wealthy businessmen included not only Americans, but also Chinese, French, and Indian billionaires.

1. Elon Musk

• capital increase for 2021 - $109.8 billion;
• total capital - 265.4 billion dollars;
• Country: USA.

For Elon Musk, 2021 has been a crazy year. He sold posh mansions and moved into a one-bedroom modular home, broke up with singer Grimes, argued with officials, and even started talking about retirement. Boiling at the head of SpaceX and Tesla, not only personal life, but also business. During 2021, his capital increased significantly against the backdrop of an increase in the valuation of SpaceX and a meteoric rise in Tesla quotes by almost 40%.

A month ago, he became the first person to be worth more than $300 billion. However, Musk could not maintain capital at this level. After lowering the price of Tesla shares and posting a poll on the social network Twitter regarding the partial sale of shares, he lost several billion dollars. Although Elon Musk still remains on the first line of the ten richest oligarchs. As in 2020, the growth of his capital amounted to actually 110 billion dollars.

2. Gautam Adani

• capital increase for 2021 - $52.5 billion;
• total capital - 81.1 billion dollars;
• country is India.

BSE SENSEX, India's key index, is up 23% in 12 months. And all thanks to investors who played for the increase. This was the reason why Gautam Adani got into the top ten rich people who earned a tidy sum. His corporation specializes in the delivery of commodities, construction, energy and infrastructure development.

3. Larry Page

• 2021 capital increase of $49.1 billion;
• total capital - 126.3 billion dollars;
• Country: USA.

Alphabet (which owns the Google brand) surged 71% thanks to the buyback and strong results. JPMorgan said GOOGL shares are the least controversial and clearly attract savers. Undoubtedly, Larry Page, who 23 years ago, together with his student friend Brin, founded Google, the current situation is on hand. He made $49.1 billion rich. It should be noted that Page continues to actively participate in the life of the corporation and is listed among its largest shareholders.

4. Larry Ellison

• capital increase for 2021 - $47.5 billion;
• total capital - 135.7 billion dollars;
• Country: USA.

For Larry Ellison, 2021 has also been a good year. Several reasons contributed to the Oracle founder's capital growth. Firstly, Ellison made good money on Tesla papers, since after Elon Musk he has the second largest shareholding. A few years ago, he bought 3,000,000 shares of an electric car company. Experts estimate that it cost him less than $1 billion. Now the total value of this package has exceeded $15 billion. And, mind you, Ellison only has 1.5% of Tesla shares. Secondly, Oracle's share price increased by 61% this year, which also contributed to the oligarch's capital.

5. Sergey Brin

• capital increase for 2021 - $46.7 billion;
• total capital - 121.7 billion dollars;
• Country: USA.

The second founder of Google has not been heard from since 2019, when he and Page decided to vacate their positions at the company. Although Brin, like Page, is on the board of directors of Alphabet. The businessman preferred another field of activity. He specializes in the production of modern airships, and also financially supports research on Parkinson's disease (among his close relatives there were cases of this disease). A couple of years ago, Brin sold some shares of Alphabet, although he still has most of it, thanks to which he was able to earn a tidy sum.

6. Bernard Arnault

• capital increase for 2021 - $43 billion;
• total capital - 193.9 billion dollars;
• country is France.

For some time, the French billionaire was even considered the richest person in the world (in 2021, the share price of his company LVMH jumped sharply). Although this did not last long, he was quickly "jumped" by Elon Musk, as well as Jeff Bezos. They moved Bernard Arnault to the third line in the list of the richest people in the world. Note that this year, LVMH securities jumped in price by 29% due to rising consumer demand for luxury goods. LVMH owns brands such as Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, Hennessy, etc.

7. Steve Ballmer

• capital increase for 2021 - $32.3 billion;
• total capital - 107.5 billion dollars;
• Country: USA.

The Los Angeles Clippers, owned by Ballmer, are now on the crest of success. Not surprisingly, in 2021, its estimated value increased by 20%. Although even this was not the reason for the active growth of the capital of the billionaire. Ballmer profited from Microsoft shares, which increased in price by 57%. Recall that at one time Ballmer was among the first employees of this company, and in the period from 2000 to 2014 he even held the position of CEO at Microsoft.

8. Zhang Yiming

• capital increase for 2021 - $31.7 billion;
• total capital - 59.4 billion dollars;
• country is China.

Almost 10 years ago, Yiming founded ByteDance, which gave the world TikTok. Today, this application is very popular all over the world, so it is not surprising that the billionaire from China has become even richer.

It should be noted that now the Chinese businessmen are having a difficult time. Local authorities have tightened control over the industry. In addition, investors are afraid of problems in the Chinese real estate market (recall that the country's largest developer is on the verge of collapse). Yiming also had to take drastic measures to save his capital. Given the increased control over activities on the Internet, he first decided to leave the position of head of ByteDance, and then from the board of directors. Yiming has about 22% shares of the company left.

9. Robin Zeng

• 2021 capital increase of $26.8 billion;
• total capital - 57.6 billion dollars;
• country is Hong Kong.

Robin Zeng's CATL is actively developing its production capacity. Recall that the company specializes in the supply of batteries for electric cars. Among his clients are such well-known representatives of the automotive industry as Geely, Volkswagen, BMW, and even Tesla. In 2021, Contemporary Amperex Technology shares increased in price by 58%, this is a success. In addition, the company continues to actively develop. Not so long ago, it became known that the Zeng empire plans to raise $9 billion to boost its production capacity.

10 Bill Gates

• capital increase for 2021 - $18.9 billion;
• total capital - 139.2 billion dollars;
• Country: USA.

The outgoing year was difficult for Gates - he went through a high-profile divorce and gave his ex-wife $ 6.2 billion in assets, he was criticized in the media for an old office romance and connections with the "dark horse" of the financial world, Jeffrey Epstein. The billionaire admitted that on a personal level, “2021 is a year of great sadness.” Although from a financial point of view, you can’t say that. Despite the fact that for the first time in many years, Gates failed to take the leading position in the ranking of the richest people in the United States, he managed to earn nearly $19 billion. Most of this amount was brought to him by shares from his personal investment portfolio.

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