Taylor Swift Makes Billionaire Debut, Joining Elon Musk In Richest List

Elon Musk has some new company on the list of the world’s richest people: Taylor Swift, who’s now reached her billionaire “era.”

Buoyed by the rise in Tesla stock and the surge in SpaceX’s valuation, Musk has reclaimed the title of the world’s richest person in an annual ranking of billionaires.

Musk’s US$231 billion fortune catapulted him above Amazon executive chairman Jeff Bezos (US$185 billion) and LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault (US$175 billion), who ranked second and third, respectively, on the 13th Hurun Global Rich Report, an annual survey from China-based media and research firm Hurun. This year marked Musk’s third time in four years at the top of the roster.

Swift made her debut on the list, her wealth, estimated at US$1.2 billion, propelled by her Eras Tour and royalties from re-recording her albums. Mark Zuckerberg (US$158 billion), CEO of Meta Platforms Inc., trailed at No. 4, but added more wealth than anyone on the list, as Meta shares more than doubled, the report said.

Miami-based entrepreneur Ryan Breslow (US$1.3 billion), the 30-year-old chairman of fintech platform Bolt, entered the list this year as its youngest self-made billionaire. While 66 is the average age of billionaires on the list, 93 billionaires ranked are 40 or younger.

The list ranked 3,279 billionaires, up from 3,112 the previous year. The number of billionaires increased by 5% and their total wealth was up 9%, Hurun said in a news release. The wealthiest hail from 2,435 companies and 73 countries.