Shawn Knigh
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The big picture: Nvidia's share value is once again on the rise, boosting CEO Jensen Huang's net worth. According to the latest data from the Forbes 400 list, which ranks the richest people in America, Huang's fortune now sits at $104 billion. That's more than the total worth of fellow chipmaker Intel, whose market cap is currently $96.43 billion.
Nvidia has been at the forefront of the AI revolution since early 2023, and its shareholders have been rewarded accordingly. The company's stock more than tripled in value last year, and the meteoric rise continued into 2024. Values corrected a bit over the summer, but things have been trending upward once again as of late. AI is showing no signs of slowing down, and that is great news for one of leading hardware suppliers.
Forbes has Huang as the 11th richest person in the US. Unsurprisingly, almost everyone in the top 10 has earned their wealth in the technology sector.
Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk remains the richest person in America with a net worth of $244 billion, and his lead is substantial. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is worth around $197 billion – or about $47 billion less than Musk. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg ranks third with a net worth of $181 billion.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who previously held the top spot for several years, now sits in ninth place with a fortune of $107 billion. This past summer, longtime company man Steve Ballmer passed Gates in terms of net worth. Considering Gates has pledged to give away most of his fortune, his fall down the list isn't surprising.
Only two people in the top 10 – investor Warren Buffet and businessman Michael Bloomberg – made their money outside of tech.
Nvidia, meanwhile, remains in a prime position with a market cap of $3.11 trillion. That's good enough for second place among all American companies, trailing only Apple whose value sits at $3.42 trillion. Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon round out the top five with values of $3.09 trillion, $2.05 trillion, and $1.91 trillion, respectively.
