The rally in tech shares has taken the number of people with fortunes of more than US$100-billion to eight.
Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin joined the exclusive club last week, entering a group dominated by US tech entrepreneurs, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The world’s eight richest people together hold fortunes of more than $1-trillion and have added $110 billion-combined this year.
In 2017, Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos was the first to hit the $100-billion milestone since Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates back in 1999. Gates’s wealth then slumped when the dot-com bubble burst, and he regained the title of centibillionaire only in 2019. Tesla’s Elon Musk and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg joined the club last year as the tech industry led a boost in wealth creation with the coronavirus pandemic accelerating a switch to online.
US shares climbed to a fresh record on Friday on optimism over the economic recovery. The tech-focused Nasdaq 100 Index has risen more than 7% this year, with Google parent Alphabet rallying for the past two weeks as it won a copyright ruling. Page and Brin have added more than $20-billion each to their wealth this year, some of the biggest gains.
Warren Buffett briefly reached the $100-billion mark in March before hitting it again last week, while Bernard Arnault of France’s luxury group LVMH has been part of the elite group on and off since 2019. — Reported by Yoojung Lee, (c) 2021 Bloomberg LP
