Donald Trump Watches SpaceX Launch Its Sixth Test Flight Of Starship Spacecraft

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk watch the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket on November 19, 2024 in Brownsville, Texas. SpaceX’s billionaire owner, Elon Musk, a Trump confidante, has been tapped to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency alongside former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

(Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

2024: The Year of the Billionaire

At this point, just 813 U.S. billionaires hold a combined $6.7 trillion in wealth while 15 of them each have over $100 billion for a combined wealth over $2.4 trillion.

Based on an Institute for Policy Studies analysis of data from the Forbes Real-Time billionaire list from December 31, 2024, the last day of market activity, there are 813 billionaires with combined wealth totaling $6.72 trillion.

The total number of billionaires has remained constant at 813 when Forbes published their 38th annual World’s Billionaire List on April 2, 2024. But the combined wealth of U.S. billionaires increased over the last 9 months by $1 trillion, from $5.7 trillion at the beginning of April 2024 rising to $6.72 trillion at the end of 2024.

The top five billionaires and their individual wealth are:

  1. Elon Musk of Tesla/X and SpaceX with $428 billion (up from $252.5 billion in September 2024).
  2. Jeff Bezos of Amazon with $235.2 billion.
  3. Larry Ellison of Oracle fame moving into number three spot with $210.5 billion, surpassing Marc Zuckerberg.
  4. Mark Zuckerberg of Meta with $204.4 billion.
  5. Larry Page of Google, with $157.6 billion.

There are now 15 U.S. billionaires with more than $100 billion each and combined wealth totaling $2.4 trillion.

Among the wealthiest dynastic families on the Forbes list, these dynastic families closed 2024 with huge pools of wealth:

  • Walton. Seven members of the Walton Family with combined wealth of $404.3 billion
  • Mars. Six members of Mars family with combined wealth of $130.4 billion
  • Koch. Two members of Koch family have a combined wealth of $121.1 billion

Many top billionaires have seen their wealth surge during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.

On March 18, 2020, Elon Musk had wealth valued just under $25 billion. By 2024 year’s end, his wealth was $428 billion.

Jeff Bezos saw his wealth rise from $113 billion on March 18, 2020 to $235.2 billion in the Dec 31, 2024 analysis survey.

Three Walton family members—Jim, Alice and Rob—saw their combined assets increase from $161.1 billion on March 18, 2020 to $317 billion in the September 13, 2024 survey.

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