Musk regains world's richest title ahead of Louis Vuitton boss amid tech shares boom 

Global billionaires add $1.5trn to their wealth this year 

No one did better than Elon Musk, who recaptured the title of world’s richest person. Photo: Reuters/Guglielmo Mangiapane

It was a comeback year for the world’s wealthiest when the combined net worth of the 500 richest people surged by $1.5 trillion (€1.35trn), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Once again, their fortunes were closely correlated to the performance of tech stocks, which rose to fresh records this year despite recession fears, lingering inflation, lofty interest rates and geopolitical turmoil. Tech billionaires saw their wealth grow by 48% or $658bn, propelled by intense hype around artificial intelligence.