A surge in AI-driven technology stocks reshaped global billionaire rankings in April, pushing Google co-founder Larry Page into the $300 billion club while keeping Elon Musk at the top of the world's richest list, according to Forbes’ compilation as of 12 a.m. EST on Friday.
April was a strong month for markets. The S&P 500 rose 10.4%, its best monthly performance since November 2020, while the Nasdaq climbed 15.3%, marking its strongest gain since April 2020. The rally lifted the combined net worth of the world's ten richest people to $2.7 trillion as of May 1.
Page leads gains
Page saw his fortune increase by $76 billion to an estimated $313 billion after Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares surged more than 33% over the past month. He became only the third person ever to surpass $300 billion, joining Musk and Oracle’s Larry Ellison.
Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) gains were driven by strong quarterly revenue and renewed investor optimism around artificial intelligence, particularly in search and cloud computing. Shares also rose after easing regulatory concerns following a key antitrust ruling that the company would not be forced to sell its Chrome browser.
Sergey Brin was the second-biggest gainer of the month, rising from No. 4 to No. 3 with a net worth of $289 billion. Jeff Bezos slipped to No. 4 despite a $49 billion increase, as Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares climbed 27% supported by strength in cloud services and improving retail margins.
Musk remains On top
Musk retained his position as the world's richest person with a net worth of $782 billion, although his fortune declined by $35 billion after Forbes revised its estimate of his SpaceX stake from 43% to 40%.
Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares lost 8.6% and 3.9%, respectively, following quarterly results. Heading into earnings, Microsoft was already one of the laggards of the Magnificent 7, down roughly 22% from its 52-week high of $555.45, with analysts flagging AI capacity constraints as a key risk.
All-American Top Ten
For the first time in more than three years, all ten of the world's richest people were American. France's Bernard Arnault fell out of the top 10 after his fortune slipped to $142 billion. Walmart Inc. (NASDAQ:WMT) heirs Rob Walton and Jim Walton held the final two positions, with fortunes of $150 billion and $147 billion, respectively, supported by a 6% rise in Walmart shares.
Disclaimer: This content was produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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