Elon Musk tops list of world's richest men as group's fortunes double to £680bn
The Tesla and X chief's bank balance leapt from £19.3billion in March 2020 to £192billion by November
by Graham Hiscott · Daily RecordElon Musk has topped the list of the world's richest men as their fortunes have more than doubled in three years alone. A group that also includes former Amazon boss Jeff Bezos saw their bank balances bulge to around £680 billion over that time.
Over the same period, the poorest 60% – nearly five billion people – became even worse off, according to a report.
The gulf was exposed as some of the world's most wealthy and powerful people gather this week for the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, the Mirror reports.
The growth in wealth of the top five wealthiest from around £266bn coincided with the Covid pandemic.
According to Oxfam, the world's more than 2,500 billionaires are a combined £2.6trillion richer than in 2020. Governments around the world backed economies during the crisis that drove up stocks and boosted the value of corporations and delivering record profits.
The rich list is topped by tech tycoon Elon Musk, whose wealth is estimated to have surged from £19.3bn in March 2020 to £192billion by November.
Mr Musk interests extend from electric car maker Tesla to Space X.
Second on the list is French businessman, investor and art collector Bernard Arnault and family.
Their wealth is estimated to have jumped from £59.5bn to £150bn since 2020. Mr Arnault heads up luxury fashion group LVMH, which owns Louis Vuitton among others.
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His Paris mansion boasts paintings by Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso.
Third in the list is Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, whose fortune jumped from £88bn to £131bn since 2020.
The businessman, who is dating journalist Lauren Sanchez, owns a £400m, triple-masted superyacht.
Oxfam chief Aleema Shivji said “These extremes cannot be accepted as the new norm, the world can’t afford another decade of division.
“Extreme poverty is still higher than it was pre-pandemic, yet a small number of super-rich men are racing to become the world’s first trillionaire. “This ever-widening gulf between the rich and the rest isn’t accidental.
“Governments are making political choices that enable and encourage this distorted concentration of wealth, whilehundreds of millions of people live in poverty."
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