Ten Billionaires, Led By Elon Musk, Dan Gilbert And Jeff Bezos, Got $53 Billion Richer...

THE CHANGING FORTUNES OF THE WORLD’S RICHEST

^Though the Dow Jones and S&P 500 remained virtually flat in the week through Friday, the fortunes of 10 billionaires grew by an astonishing $53.4 billion over the same period, which saw a symbolic milestone on Tuesday: The S&P 500 reached an all-time high, marking a complete reversal of losses after the stock market crash in March.

The week’s biggest gainer is Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk, who reclaimed the title of the world’s fifth-richest person on Monday after an analyst upgrade citing bullishness in Chinese electric vehicle demand sent shares soaring. In just the past week Tesla stock has surged more than 24%, driving up Musk’s net worth by $15 billion. He ended Friday with a fortune of $91.7 billion, an all-time high for Musk. His Palo Alto, California-based company became the world’s most valuable carmaker earlier this summer and even surpassed Walmart in market cap on Friday.

Mortgage tycoon Dan Gilbert is the week’s largest gainer percentage-wise. Just two weeks after a monster public market debut that fueled a six-fold increase in Gilbert’s net worth, shares of Rocket Companies—parent of the nation’s largest home mortgage lender, Quicken Loans—continued their upward tear, climbing 37% this week and adding $13 billion to Gilbert’s fortune, including $4 billion on Friday alone. The Detroit resident, who founded Rocket Companies (then called Rock Financial) in 1985, is now worth $53.5 billion; he ended Friday as the world’s 20th richest person, surpassing Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim Helú, who was the richest person on the planet for several years until being officially overtaken by Bill Gates in 2013.

All of the week’s 10 biggest gainers owe their fortunes to booming tech stocks–most of which are S&P 500 components. Jeff Bezos and his ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, for example, were the third- and seventh-biggest gainers, up $7.6 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively. Though Amazon stock leveled off by Friday, shares ended the week up 4% and even hit a new all-time high on Tuesday. The shares are up more than 70% in 2020, and Bezos’ fortune is now an eye-popping $196.3 billion.

Only two non-U.S. billionaires are among this week’s top gainers. One is Richard Liu, the Chinese e-commerce chief often dubbed the “Jeff Bezos of China.” The CEO of Beijing-based JD.com, Liu has added $2.6 billion to his fortune since last Friday. Shares of his Nasdaq-listed company skyrocketed up 21% this week after a Monday earnings report revealed that revenues jumped more than 33% in the second quarter to $28.5 billion. The firm attributed part of its stellar performance to the success of its shopping holiday 618, which spans the first 18 days of June. This year, the firm handled nearly $40 billion in transactions, 30% more than last year. JD.com shares closed at an all-time high on Friday, and Liu is now worth $16.1 billion. Lei Jun, the cofounder and chairman of popular Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, is the only other biggest gainer hailing from outside the U.S. The 50-year-old is worth $17.2 billion, up $2.6 billion this week.