Recently, Forbes released the latest 2024 Global Billionaires List, which shows that the number of global billionaires and the total wealth have hit a record high this year.
AI becomes the "wealth code"
AI has become the "wealth code" of the rich. According to the data, there are 2,781 billionaires worth more than $1 billion in the world this year, a record high, an increase of 141 from last year. Total wealth also hit an all-time high of $14.2 trillion, an increase of $2 trillion from last year.
Data shows that in the past year, the wealth of 10 people in the world has increased by about $507 billion, and among these 10 people, 8 are US tech tycoons, and 6 are related to the current US tech giants. And most of their wealth growth has been driven by the market's appetite for generative AI, which has driven the company's stock higher.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is the person whose wealth has grown the most in the world over the past year. Meta's stock price has soared over the past year after mass layoffs and big bets on AI and the metaverse, with Zuckerberg's net worth growing by $112.6 billion and his ranking on the Forbes rich list rising sharply from 16th last year to fourth this year. Benefiting from the surge in Nvidia's stock price, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang became one of the world's 20 richest people for the first time, with a wealth increase of nearly $56 billion from last year.
In addition, there are more than 10 technology "upstarts" in the field of artificial intelligence who are worth more than $1 billion this year, including Liang Jianhou, the founder of Supermicro Computer, which has in-depth cooperation with NVIDIA, and his wife Liu Qiuzhu. and Lisa Su, the CEO of semiconductor company AMD, whose personal net worth has now reached $1.2 billion.
In addition to listed companies, the founders of AI start-ups have also entered the rich list because of the favor of capital. Zhao Yi, the founder of the multi-functional note-taking software Notion, has a company valued at $5 billion and has also become a billionaire this year because of his stake. In addition, Brett Adcock, the founder of FigureAI, an AI robotics company valued at $2.6 billion, also made the list. AI-focused startups raised nearly $50 billion last year against the backdrop of a slowdown in overall venture capital, according to startup database Crunchbase. Among them, OpenAI received the most investment, with a valuation of more than $80 billion. This year, OpenAI's CEO Altman is also on the list, becoming one of the billionaires.
Doug Clinton, co-founder of Deepwater Asset Management in the United States, said that the most important reason for the rise of this wave of technology stocks is that the current global industry focus has shifted to AI, and the companies that benefit the most are companies whose business focuses on AI research and development.
Pinduoduo founder Huang Zheng's value rose strongly
In terms of Chinese mainland billionaires, the number of Chinese mainland billionaires on the 2024 Forbes Global Billionaires List has declined for the third consecutive year. Among all the richest people on this year's list, there are 406 rich people in Chinese mainland, with a total wealth of US$1.33 billion, down from 495 last year and a record 626 in 2021. Compared with 2023, 31 billionaires will appear on the list for the first time this year, and 11 billionaires will return to the list. Although the number of billionaires on the list this year is lower than in previous years, Chinese mainland still ranks second in the world in terms of billionaires, behind the United States, which has 813 billionaires this year.
For the fourth year in a row, he has been named China's richest man on the Forbes list, with a net worth of US$62.3 billion. Zhang Yiming, the founder of ByteDance, is worth $43.4 billion, making him the second richest person in China.
Among the top 10 richest people in Chinese mainland, five are from the Internet field, including ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming and Pinduoduo founder Huang Zheng, Geely Holding Group Chairman Li Shufu and BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu from the automotive field, and the other three from other industrial fields. Among the 10 richest people, 6 have decreased in value compared to last year, and 4 have risen in value against the trend.
It is worth noting that Huang Zheng, the founder of Pinduoduo, has risen by $8.7 billion, becoming the person with the most money among the 10 richest people in China, ranking third.
Huang Zheng's strong rise in value is due to Pinduoduo's strong performance last year and its stock price. According to the financial report released by Pinduoduo, Pinduoduo's total revenue in 2023 will be 247.6392 billion yuan, and the net income attributable to ordinary shareholders will be 60.0265 billion yuan, both of which will increase by 90% year-on-year.
At the Pinduoduo conference call on March 20, Chen Lei, chairman and co-CEO of Pinduoduo, said that Temu has entered 50 countries and regions in the group's global business. According to the estimate of BOCOM International Securities in the research report, in the fourth quarter of 2023, Temu's GMV reached US$8.1 billion, and the realization rate increased to 42%. According to HSBC estimates, Temu's contribution to Pinduoduo's total revenue will be 23% in 2023, and this figure is expected to rise to 43% in 2024 and further rise to more than 50% in 2025.
The LV boss once again topped the Forbes list of global billionaires
Compared with last year's Forbes rich list, the top 10 on the list are mostly old faces. Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH, once again surpassed Tesla CEO Elon Musk to become the world's richest man. As of now, Arnault and his family have a net worth of 207.6 billion US dollars (about 1.49 trillion yuan), ranking first on the Forbes list of the world's richest people, followed by Musk with a net worth of 204.7 billion US dollars, and Jeff Bezos ranking third.
It is reported that as the world's leading luxury giant, Bernard Arnault's LVMH Group is not to be underestimated, and it is currently the world's most valuable luxury group.
LVMH Group has a total of 75 fashion and cosmetics brands, such as Louis Vuitton, Dior, Tiffany, Sephora and many others. According to the 2023 annual financial report released by LVMH Group, in addition to the alcohol business, the group's five major businesses have achieved organic growth. According to the financial report, the group's full-year sales were 86.2 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 9%, exceeding analysts' expectations of 85.8 billion euros, net profit of 15.2 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 8%, and gross profit margin of 69%. Although this data is broadly in line with market expectations, the revenue growth rate in LVMH2023 has slowed significantly compared with the company's 2022 revenue growth rate of 23%.
By region, Asia is still LVMH's largest consumer market if we look at the share of revenue alone. Asia (excluding Japan), including China, contributed the highest revenue of 26.707 billion euros, accounting for 31% of the group's revenue, up 1% from 2022, the United States and Europe each contributed 21.538 billion euros, accounting for 25% of the group's revenue, of which the proportion of revenue in the United States decreased by 2 percentage points and Europe increased by 1 percentage point, and Japan's revenue remained at 7% with 6.031 billion euros, and the rest of the world accounted for 12%.
Jean-Jacques Guiony, chief financial officer of LVMH, said that the number of customers in China is now twice as high as in 2019. The share of business from tourists has declined, but this part of the revenue is still the same as before, which means that domestic purchases in China have increased significantly. To meet this demand, Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior are considering opening larger stores in China.
It is worth mentioning that LVMH Group's fund, LVM Kaiten, will invest in 3 companies related to China's beauty industry chain in the second half of 2023, namely the base makeup brand Blankme, the synthetic biology company to create a medical treatment, and the children's skin care brand Turtle Dad, continuing to increase the Chinese beauty market.
A little more news: Mildew has become the richest man in the global music industry
In the 38th Global Billionaires List released by Forbes, American music diva Taylor Swift (nicknamed "Mildew"), with a net worth of 1.1 billion US dollars (about 8 billion yuan), became the first artist in history to become a billionaire only with music and acting income. In addition, Moldy has an enviable real estate portfolio, with properties in New York, Beverly Hills, Nashville, and a mansion in Rhode Island with ocean views.
In March this year, Moldy's "Times Tour" was held in Singapore for six consecutive performances, which not only brought huge economic benefits to the host country, but also went crazy with fans around the world to an unprecedented degree. The concert, which started on March 2 and ended on March 9, attracted more than 300,000 fans from Singapore and around the world, which is equivalent to 5.3% of Singapore's total population. For a time, Singapore was full of hotels, strong consumption figures, and a massive shortage of temporary jobs, an economic phenomenon known as "mold economics". Economists also raised their growth forecasts for Singapore's economy in the first quarter, with some attributing the growth in part to the economic effects of the moldy concert.
It is understood that the "Times Tour" is Mildew's first global tour in 5 years, starting in March 2023 and continuing until the end of 2024, with 151 scheduled to be held around the world, making it its largest tour to date. According to Bloomberg, Moldy's "Times Tour" sold more than $700 million in tickets in the United States alone, and that doesn't include ticket sales for her 89-day international tour. Pollstar estimates that it grossed $1.04 billion in the first 60 shows alone.
It is estimated that in the first half of last year, Mildew's 52 performances in the United States generated about $5 billion (about 36 billion yuan) of GDP for the United States, and at the end of the year, Time magazine selected a single artist as the person of the year for the first time. Mildew has also become one of the few people in the world to amass more than $1 billion in assets based on music alone. Question Pro, a foreign data analysis agency, once analyzed that if it were an economy, it would be more than 50 small countries, which can be called "walking GDP".
Since its debut, Mildew has released 243 songs and won 14 Grammy Awards, 40 American Music Awards, 39 Billboard Music Awards, and 23 VMA (MTV Music Television Awards). She is the only living artist in the world to have 10 albums on the US Billboard chart at the same time, and the first musician in history to win the Grammy Album of the Year Award four times.
China Business Daily is synthesized from the Forbes official website, Forbes official WeChat public account, CCTV Finance, China Securities Journal, etc
The picture comes from the official WeChat public account of Forbes