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Despite the headaches A.I. may be causing the world’s tech founders, they’ve got a lot to thank the technology for. Specifically, $150 billion.
That is the figure that the artificial intelligence boom—prompted by OpenAI’s CHatGPT and then filtering through to announcements from Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and more—is estimated to have added to the pockets of the global super rich.
Large language models like ChatGPT have been the buzzword on the stock market this year—new VC funds have been launched in an attempt to back the next disruptor, while existing Big Tech have seen a windfall after jumping on the bandwagon.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was one of the first to see a direct boost to his philanthropic fortune courtesy of the phrase A.I.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation founder saw his fortune spike by $2 billion following an A.I.-themed Microsoft earnings call in April, which sent the business’s share price skyrocketing.
In the days after the earning report, Gates, who owns an estimated 103 million shares in the company, saw his wealth grow by approximately $40 million for each of the 50 times the phrase “artificial intelligence” was uttered on the call.
According to Bloomberg’s Billionaire’s Index, Gates’s worth has risen by $24 billion so far this year.
Meta windfall
For Mark Zuckerberg—Meta’s largest individual shareholder—a combination of the “year of efficiency” and making A.I. the company’s priority has resulted in a near-$40 billion boost.
Meta’s shares have enjoyed a recovery this year—up 125% in 2023 so far—as Zuckerberg has moved away from his Metaverse dream, returning to reality with swathes of job cuts.
Zuckerberg—who famously only takes $1 in salary every year—also began teasing the company’s adventures into A.I. this year, hinting at its deployment at the end of January before making a major announcement about a new A.I.-focussed project group at the end of February.
Ahead of the January announcement, Zuckerberg’s wealth sat at $55.1 billion, and since the A.I. announcement in February his wealth has grown from $63 billion to $102 billion.
Rich get richer
Oracle’s CTO Larry Ellison has moved ahead of Bill Gates in the Billionaire’s Index, courtesy of the business’s announcements about accelerating the deployment of A.I.
The company’s cofounder and former CEO owns a 35% stake in the $338 billion business—whose share price up nearly 50% year-to-date.
Like Zuckerberg, Ellison’s boost in fortune came following a major announcement from Oracle about A.I.— in a March earnings call that discussed the company’s plans with the technology at length.
The call was on March 9—when Ellison’s fortune was worth around $99.7 billion—and within a week his net fortune began steadily rising. It now sits at $138 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire’s Index.
Of course, the man at the helm of Wall Street A.I. darling Nvidia has also seen his wealth soar.
Jensen Huang, one of the three cofounders of the chip, software and and systems creator and its current president and CEO, has seen the share price of the company swell by 198% so far this year.
The business—which specializes in artificial intelligence products and services—has steadily cemented itself at the heart of the A.I. revolution, and Huang reportedly owns 1.3 million shares of it.
As a result, Huang’s wealth has nearly tripled since January, from $13.8 billion to $38.3 billion according to the index—contributing to Market Insider’s calculation that the rich list has gained $150 billion this year thanks to A.I.
