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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.
Jan 04, 2025
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:
- Elon Musk of Tesla/X and SpaceX with $428 billion (up from $252.5 billion in September 2024).
- Jeff Bezos of Amazon with $235.2 billion.
- Larry Ellison of Oracle fame moving into number three spot with $210.5 billion, surpassing Marc Zuckerberg.
- Mark Zuckerberg of Meta with $204.4 billion.
- 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.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Chuck Collins
Chuck Collins is co-founder of CARP and author of Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power are Ruining Our Lives and Planet.
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:
- Elon Musk of Tesla/X and SpaceX with $428 billion (up from $252.5 billion in September 2024).
- Jeff Bezos of Amazon with $235.2 billion.
- Larry Ellison of Oracle fame moving into number three spot with $210.5 billion, surpassing Marc Zuckerberg.
- Mark Zuckerberg of Meta with $204.4 billion.
- 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.
Chuck Collins
Chuck Collins is co-founder of CARP and author of Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power are Ruining Our Lives and Planet.
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:
- Elon Musk of Tesla/X and SpaceX with $428 billion (up from $252.5 billion in September 2024).
- Jeff Bezos of Amazon with $235.2 billion.
- Larry Ellison of Oracle fame moving into number three spot with $210.5 billion, surpassing Marc Zuckerberg.
- Mark Zuckerberg of Meta with $204.4 billion.
- 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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