Members earned an average of $14 million per day

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the daily ranking of the 500 richest people in the world (listed by net worth, editor’s note), is revealing significant gains for those named these days. Each member earned an average of $14 million per day over the past six months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Overall, members increased their wealth by $852 billion in the first half of 2023. It was loud the report the best half-year for billionaires since the second half of 2020, when the economy recovered from a Covid-19-induced slump.

Bloomberg justifies the gains this time with a so-called stock market rally – a broad-based increase in share prices. This would allow investors to mitigate the effects of central bank rate hikes, the ongoing war in Ukraine and the regional banking crisis.

The evidence is in stock indexes: the S&P 500 rose 16 percent and the Nasdaq 100 rose 39 percent, posting its best-ever half-year results, according to the report. The reason for this is the enthusiasm of investors for artificial intelligence, which gave the technology stocks a boost.

Elon Musk remains the richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The Tesla CEO increased his wealth by $96.6 billion this year through June 30. Mark Zuckerberg still gained $58.9 billion with Meta.

The biggest loser over the past six months is Gautam Adanis, whose net worth fell the most during the said period, losing $60.2 billion. Adani, chairman of the Adani Group, also posted its biggest one-day loss of any billionaire, losing around $20.8 billion on Jan. 27, 2023, after short seller Hindenburg Research accused his group of accounting fraud and stock manipulation, a claim Adani denies.

Hindenburg Research also cost another billionaire handsomely: The net worth of Carl Icahn’s Icahn Enterprises LP fell $13.4 billion, or 57 percent, after Hindenburg announced it was shorting the shares and significantly overvaluing the stock relative to its holdings had. That was Icahn’s biggest loss so far.

Meanwhile, Musk’s wealth growth continued in July: Tesla shares rose 6.9 percent in New York on Monday, adding another $13 billion to his wealth.

The richest German billionaire in the index remains Klaus-Michael Kühne, who gained $229 million and ranks 29th with assets of $42.9 billion.