Taylor Swift, Christian Louboutin, Magic Johnson newly-minted billionaires: Forbes

Musician Taylor Swift, shoe designer Christian Louboutin and sportsman Magic Johnson were all announced as latest entrants to the Forbes World’s Billionaires List 2024.

Declaring 2024 as a “banner year” for the ultra-wealthy, Forbes noted an unprecedented 2,781 billionaires around the globe this year —141 more than in 2023 and 26 more than the previous record set in 2021.

Their combined wealth hit also hit new heights totaling $14.2 trillion — $2 trillion more than just a year ago and $1.1 trillion above the previous record, also set in 2021, added the report.

With a wealth of $1.1 billion, Swift made the cut as the first musician to build wealth based on just songwriting and performing — after the record-breaking first leg of her Eras tour.

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NBA legend and businessman Earvin “Magic” Johnson is also new this year with an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion.

French designer Louboutin, the man behind the iconic red-soled high heels, joins the ranks with an estimated $1.2 billion fortune.

French luxury entrepreneur ‘Bernard Arnault & family’ still tops the list for the second year in a row. The head of luxury conglomerate LVMH, Arnault is worth an estimated $233 billion.

LVMH is the holding company behind brands such as Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co. and Sephora.

LVMH roles held by Bernard Arnault’s children

Elon Musk sits in second place, worth about $195 billion. Just behind him, in third place, is Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who is worth an estimated $194 billion. Forbes compiled this data with stock prices and exchange rates from March 8, 2024 for this year’s ranking.

The biggest gains this year were achieved by no other than Mark Zuckerberg, who witnessed a $116.2 billion jump in a single year—thanks to Meta stock nearly tripling amid cost-cutting layoffs and big bets on AI and the metaverse, added the report.

He sits in fourth place on Forbes’ 2024 ranking, worth an estimated $177 billion, the richest he’s ever been.

Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani is placed ninth with an estimated net worth of $116 billion.

The United States is, once again, the country with the most billionaire citizens, with a record-breaking 813, followed by mainland China (406), India (200) and Germany (132).