The world's top 10 richest people added more than $400 billion to their worth in 2021

 

The top 10 richest people in the world added $402 billion to their already enormous fortunes in 2021and Tesla CEO Elon Musk was the biggest wealth gainer.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Elon Musk, who started 2021 with a net worth of $156 billion ended it with around $277 billion.  The Space X founder in December said he’s planning to pay more than $11 billion in taxes.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the world’s richest people and the figures are updated at the close of every trading day in New York.

 

Although Musk gained $121 billion in 2021, it's smaller than the $140 billion he made in 2020.

Much of the income Musk made in 2021 has been spent on SpaceX, the private space rocket company he founded in 2002. He has already launched more than 1,600 satellites, including a recent launch on Dec. 18.

 

Musk's closest competitor, Jeff Bezos, entered 2022 worth $190 billion gaining $4.5 billion more than what he gained in 2020.

Bezos, 57 resigned from his CEO role at Amazon in July.

 

Also on the list is Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg who added nearly $25 billion to his fortune in 2020. He’s worth $128 billion, according to Bloomberg. Zuckerberg bought an extra 110 acres to his controversial 1,500-acre estate in Kauai, Hawaii.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who is also on the list, began 2022 worth $139 billion. He entered 2021 with a value of $132 billion. His former wife, Melinda French Gates — who ended her 27 year marriage to Bill in August reportedly has a net worth of $11.4 billion.

 

Google co-founder Larry Page in 2021 added $47 billion to the $83 billion he had coming into 2022. Fellow Google co-founder Sergey Brin is also now worth $125 billion, thanks to a 2021 gain of $45 billion.

 French luxury goods seller, Bernard Arnault also saw his fortune leap to $176 billion after making more than $61 billion. He’s the only non U.S billionaire to have cracked Bloomberg’s 2021 top 10 list in terms of total wealth.

All 10 of those power players are worth more than $100 billion. The 11th-wealthiest person on the list, is Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, who’s valued at nearly $94 billion. She is the richest woman alive according to Bloomberg.