According to a major wealth index, the wealth of the ten richest people in the world increased by $64 billion in one day following Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election.
The increase – equivalent to £49.5 billion – marks the largest combined rise in the history of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which started in 2012 and is dominated by US tech billionaires.
Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, saw the biggest increase in his wealth, with $26.5 billion added to his fortune, which now stands at $290 billion.
The prominent Trump ally, who has campaigned together with the Republican in recent weeks, benefited from a rise in the share price of Tesla, the electric car manufacturer of which he is CEO and owns a 13 percent stake.
The gains for the richest were driven in large part by a surge in U.S. stock prices on Wednesday, as investors anticipated low taxes and limited fiscal policy rules.
Prominent Trump ally Elon Musk, who has campaigned alongside the Republican in recent weeks, benefited from a rise in Tesla’s share price
Trump received congratulations yesterday from tech moguls, including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Facebook founder and Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg and Apple chief Tim Cook.
Bezos, the second richest person in the world, added $7 billion to his fortune, bringing it to $228 billion.
Meanwhile, the third richest person, Zuckerberg, suffered a loss of $81 billion yesterday, although his fortune still stands at a staggering $202 billion.
The only other member of the top 10 to lose was French luxury goods magnate Bernard Arnault, whose fortune fell by almost $3 billion.
Nearly all of those who saw their wealth rise were tech leaders – with the exception of world-famous investor Warren Buffet, who added $7.5 billion to his fortune, bringing it to almost $150 billion.
Longtime Republican supporter Larry Ellison, chairman of software company Oracle, increased his fortune by nearly $10 billion to $193 billion.
According to the estimates, Microsoft’s co-founder Bill Gates, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, also delivered significant windfalls.
Meanwhile, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have each increased their fortunes by more than $5 billion.
Jeff Bezos, the second richest person in the world, added $7 billion to his fortune, bringing it to $228 billion
According to estimates, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates saw his fortune increase by almost $2 billion
This is despite Trump attacking Google during the campaign, claiming the search engine showed negative articles about him but not his opponent Kamala Harris.
On social media, he threatened in September to direct the Justice Department to file criminal charges against the tech giant.
Neil Wilson, chief analyst at broker Finalto, told The Guardian that US shares rose on Wednesday on what he called a “pure Maga trade”, with investors buying shares as a clear Trump victory looked increasingly likely.
“It was the prospect of lower taxes, deregulation in a wider variety of sectors, like banking and energy and technology, plus a big, reflexive rally at the fact that the outcome of the election was clean and uncontested,” he said.
“The outcome of the red wave was what any American capitalist would have favored and it was in no way an election certainty, so the response was decisive.”
It wasn’t just billionaires making money yesterday, with one crypto enthusiast claiming the industry raked in an eye-watering $100 billion in just 24 hours as the odds began to turn in Trump’s favor during the US election.
In an interview with MailOnline, Bitcoin investor Dan Held said he believed crypto is on the rise as Trump and Musk signal their plans to reform government agencies.