Many pioneers Technology Like Jensen Huang from Nvidia And Mark Zuckerberg from Meta Larry Ellison from Oracle They have managed to amass billions of dollars in wealth in short periods, making the technology sector a focus of global investors.
Despite this great success, investors in the sector face increasing challenges, including market volatility and concerns. economic recessionregulatory pressures that threaten the sustainability of this rapid growth, in addition to the large valuations of companies.
In this context, and according to the Business Insider website, 10 people were able to increase their personal wealth by a total of $360 billion this year, an amount that exceeds the market value of the company “coca cola($307 billion), or Bank of America ($301 billion), orNetflix($295 billion).
Among the biggest winners this year is the CEO of Nvidia Jensen Huangand CEO of Meta Mark ZuckerbergChairman of the Board of Directors of Oracle Larry EllisonThe huge buzz around it has been reinforced. artificial intelligence Their companies’ stock prices have risen this year, benefiting them as the largest shareholders.
The report, a copy of which was viewed by Sky News Arabia Economy, reviewed the list of the ten billionaires who witnessed growth in their wealth since the beginning of the year, as follows:
In tenth place came the American billionaire Warren Buffett (CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors Berkshire Hathaway), up $22.3 billion, bringing his net worth to $142 billion.
He was preceded in ninth place by Amancio Ortega (founder and former chairman of Inditex, the Spanish giant that owns Zara, Bershka, Massimo Dutti and Pull&Bear), up $22.3 billion, bringing his net worth to $110 billion.
Eighth came Michael Dell (founder and chairman of Dell Technologies), with an increase in wealth since the beginning of the year of about $27.8 billion, reaching $106 billion.
In seventh place is Rob Walton (Sam Walton’s eldest son and heir to the Walmart fortune), up $28.1 billion, bringing his net worth to $99.3 billion. He is preceded by Alice Walton (the only daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton) who has increased since the beginning of the year: $28.7 billion, to $98.7 billion, thus coming in behind Jim Walton (Sam Walton’s youngest son) who has increased $29.1 billion, and a net worth of $102 billion.
Before the Walton family, Jeff Bezos (founder of Amazon) came in fourth place, with an increase in wealth since the beginning of the year estimated at about $32.4 billion until last Thursday’s closing, with a net worth of $209 billion.
Larry Ellison (co-founder and CEO of Oracle) came in third with a $50 billion increase in wealth, bringing his net worth to $173 billion.
In first and second place came Jensen Huang (founder and CEO of Nvidia) and Mark Zuckerberg (co-founder and CEO of Meta), respectively.
The first (Huang) recorded the largest increase in wealth during the year, with an increase of $60.5 billion, bringing his net worth to $104 billion, while Zuckerberg recorded an increase of $58.6 billion, reaching $187 billion.
The main driver of wealth
In turn, the Managing Director of IDT Consulting and Technology Systems, financial markets expert, Mohammed Saeed, said in statements to the Sky News Arabia Economy website:
- Technology has been the main driver of wealth creation in recent decades.
- Global names such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have emerged as the world’s richest people.
- The emergence of “unicorn” companies, which start from scratch and reach a value of one billion dollars, reflects this rapid and massive growth in the field of technology.
- Start-up costs for tech businesses are sometimes low compared to traditional businesses, which has helped companies like Amazon and Facebook achieve massive growth and reach customers globally without restrictions.
- Applications like TikTok have achieved record success, despite attempts by some countries to limit their spread.
But Saeed stresses at the same time that technology remains fraught with risks, and that even giant companies have failed in some projects (..), pointing out that technology is not a guaranteed recipe for creating wealth, but may face major challenges in light of the exaggeration in the valuation of companies and their stock prices, which increases the chances of a correction or collapse in the market.
At the same time, he explains that technology is not immune to economic and legal risks, stressing that the emergence of new technologies may lead to the collapse of giant companies, as happened with Nokia and Kodak, for example, in addition to the legal challenges that large companies such as Microsoft and Google may face.
Big growth
For his part, technology expert Mohammed Al-Harthi said in exclusive statements to the Sky News Arabia Economy website that the technology sector has witnessed significant growth over the past two decades, making it a major driver of the global economy, pointing out, for example, the rise in the market value of Apple to more than $3.3 trillion, while the value of Amazon exceeded $1.9 trillion, which was a catalyst for the growth of investors’ wealth in the sector.
“Reports indicate that a large percentage of the billionaires who saw the biggest increase in their wealth this year were linked to technology companies,” he added, stressing that this tremendous growth raises questions about its sustainability. “Are we facing a golden investment opportunity or are there fears of an economic bubble that could burst?”
Al-Harthi points out that this prosperity is supported by the ongoing digital transformation and the spread of artificial intelligence technologies, at a time when the size of the artificial intelligence market is expected to jump significantly by the year 2030.
At the same time, the expert points out that innovation in areas such as software as a service (SaaS) and financial technology (FinTech) opens up new opportunities for revenue, but he warns that this boom is not without challenges. He cited the dot-com bubble crisis as an example of potential risks, pointing to OpenAI and its high valuation despite its profits still relying on unproven technologies.
Al-Harthi also points out that the intense competition in the technology sector leads to a decline in average profit margins for companies (..), indicating at the same time that increasing government legislation poses another threat to companies’ growth, in addition to the impact of the slowdown in global economic growth and rising inflation rates, which may make attracting investments in the sector more difficult.
