The richest of rich Americans had a stellar year in 2024 as their wealth soared to 1.8% of total US household wealth.
The jump in wealth added around $1 trillion to the fortunes of around 19 households or 0.00001%, including those of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates. Total US household wealth last year reached $148 trillion of which the ultra-rich’s share was $2.6 trillion.
The analysis by economist Gabriel Zucman has been reviewed by the Wall Street Journal and puts the sharp rise in wealth for the ultra-rich in context; it took from 1982 to 2023 for the top 0.00001% to grow their share from 0.1% to 1.2% - averaged out at 0.03 percentage points per year compared to a 0.6 percentage point increase in just one year to 2024.
Although wealth has grown for Americans overall since the nineties, the elite cohort’s fortunes have escalated faster.
“You see this gradual rise and then, very recently, dramatic acceleration in the rise of the share of wealth owned by the truly super wealthy,” Zucman told the WSJ.
Strong market performance helped catapult the ultra-richest Americans’ wealth in 2024. A broader analysis of the top 500 wealthiest on the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index showed an aggregate $1.5 trillion was added to their wealth in 2024. Tech billionaires saw their wealth grow by 48% or $658 billion, thanks to a significant boost in the interest in artificial intelligence.
But while the size and type of equities held by the cohort paid off in 2024, the diversified portfolio of assets they hold is critical to their overall position. Most own businesses, real estate, bonds, and a range of alternative assets that shield them against inflation or sectoral swings, keeping multiple advisors busy.
However, large parts of their wealth usually comes from some core holdings which mean they are not necessarily protected from heavy dents to their fortunes. Elon Musk has found to his detriment that getting involved in politics while taking the foot of the gas from running one of your main stock holdings can be costly.
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