The 100 Billion Dollar Club

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index shows that the world's most exclusive club is almost entirely an American affair at the moment. Among the ten people with net worths upwards of $100 billion as of Aug. 4, 2023, nine are American. The only exception is Frenchman Bernard Arnault of luxury conglomerate LVMH.

After stock markets crashed following the Omicron wave of the coronavirus pandemic in late 2021 and Russia's invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, potential new memberships in the club of the obscenely wealthy were thwarted, including those of Indian industrial magnates Mukesh Ambani, who joined briefly in October 2021 and early 2022, and Gautam Adani, who was still flying high as of early 2023, but was cut down by a scandal alleging widespread corruption within his business empire.

U.S. tech billionaires dominate the global $100 billion club. Even though Tesla CEO Elon Musk – currently the richest person in the world – is arguably a hybrid case, the only non-techies are aforementioned luxury tycoon Arnault and Warren Buffett of investment group Berkshire Hathaway, also hailing from the United States.

In comparison, the global 1 percent are a group of around 80 million people, while the global 0.1 percent still comprises 8 million individuals – making the $100 billion club the equivalent of the global 0.0000001 percent. The index is mainly influenced by the stock market valuations of the billionaires’ companies, where the large majority of their wealth is tied up.