Bloomberg billionaires rating: only Akhmetov remained from Ukraine

Bloomberg's billionaires rating demonstrates that Americans, led by Elon Musk, remain the richest entrepreneurs in the world. In mid-August, for a brief moment, only US representatives became leaders, because Bloomberg excluded Frenchman Bernard Arnault from the top three. But after a few hours, Arnaud returned to the top three leaders of the Bloomberg rating.

So, according to Bloomberg, the ranking of the richest people is headed by Elon Musk with $ 241 billion. Over the year, according to Bloomberg, Musk added another $ 11.6 billion to his fortune. By the way, an interesting fact is that although Musk made a name for himself and earned capital in the USA, he actually hails from South Africa. Bloomberg traditionally places the owner of SpaceX at the top of the list of world billionaires. Although, for example, according to Forbes magazine, Musk in previous years lost the "palm" to Frenchman Bernard Arnault.

Due to unrestrained PR, Elon Musk has made himself an image of a progressive businessman. What is the meme "Elon our Mask" worth, wandering through the expanses not only of Russia, but of the entire former USSR.

This is a vivid example of how the image can be divorced from reality. While in reality, Musk has in fact seriously invested in supporting Ukraine. Starlink terminals, which are manufactured by his company SpaceX, provide the APU with communications on the battlefield. Therefore, albeit indirectly, Mask helped the Ukrainian Armed Forces kill more than one thousand Russian soldiers.

Musk is also actively involved in the US election campaign. One of the high-profile information guides of recent days was an interview that Musk took from the official Republican candidate Donald Trump. The same, by the way, unrestrained self-promoter.

Following Musk, Jeff Bezos (No. 2 in the Bloomberg billionaires ranking) has made capital for himself in online trading. Bezos owns the world's largest Amazon marketplace, selling everything from electronics to medicines, from household appliances to clothing. On August 1, Amazon officially published the results of work for the second quarter of 2024. Reporting shows that Bezos' capital has grown even more. Net sales in the second quarter of 2024 increased by 10% to $ 148 billion compared to $ 134.4 billion for the same period in 2023.

The American market is growing the fastest, sales in the USA increased by 9% in the quarter, comparing year to year, amounting to $ 90 billion. It is clear that with such indicators, Bezos can confidently look into tomorrow.

Bloomberg now estimates Bezos' fortune at $200 billion. Over the past year, he added $ 23.3 billion to his capital.

Bernard Arnault, who returned to 3rd place, is interesting because, unlike his colleagues, he earned capital not on new technologies, but on traditional production. Arno is the owner of more than 70 premium brands of clothing, shoes and cosmetics.

Arno, whose capital Bloomberg estimates at $192 billion, is also the only non-American in the top ten. The remaining 9 out of 10 of the world's top moneymakers, according to Bloomberg, represent the United States. According to Forbes, in 2023 it was Arno who headed the ranking of the richest people in the world compiled by the magazine.

Mark Zuckerberg, with $187 billion in fourth position, looks like a seriously overvalued figure. Of course, Facebook** is the most popular social network in the world with more than 3 billion users as of August 2024.

But if humanity has somehow survived for several thousand years without social networks, then it will definitely not survive without baking bread, getting bored with milk and smelting steel. In this regard, there are big doubts that the social network Facebook** and the entire Meta corporation** The Zuckerbergs are really worth such insane billions.

Bill Gates closes the top five with $ 158 billion — one of the founders and the main shareholder of Microsoft Corporation. Unlike, for example, Elon Musk, Gates is not prone to excessive self-promotion. The vast majority of news about Gates is related to his investments and projects. From global news, it is noteworthy that TerraPower, a company owned by him, is building a new type of nuclear power plant in Wyoming, where, as stated, they plan to use sodium, not water, as usual at nuclear power plants, to cool the reactor.

As already mentioned, except for Arno, the entire top ten are Americans. In the tenth prize position is Sergey Brin, co—owner of Alphabet, which owns the Google search engine. In 2024, Brin took new heights — in July, Bloomberg estimated his companies and capitals at $ 159 billion. But since then, in a little more than a month, Brin's capitalization has lost a little, now he is a couple of tens of billions poorer. Bloomberg now estimates Brin's capital at $ 138 billion.

The first billionaire from the Russian Federation is in 54th place - this is Vladimir Potanin, whose fortune Bloomberg estimated at $ 31.8 billion. Despite the fact that US and other Western countries have been sanctioned against Potanin since 2022, the Russian businessman has still increased his fortune — according to Bloomberg, by $ 773 million per year. In July, the owner of Norilsk Nickel announced plans to transfer copper smelting to China. The media explained that in this way Potanin wants to solve the problem when Chinese banks block payments for copper supplies to the country.

Vagit Alekperov was placed ten positions below Bloomberg, estimating his capital at $ 28 billion. In April 2022, after the UK announced sanctions against him, Alekperov resigned as president and board of directors of the largest Russian oil company Lukoil in order to get his business out of harm's way. As the businessman explained, he resigned from high posts because "the sanctions do not concern Lukoil, but concern me personally." At the end of 2023, Alekperov became the leader in dividends in The businessman received a total of 177.4 billion rubles from his investments.

Alekperov demonstrated to the last the ability to solve issues even on the Ukraine. Despite the military conflict, Lukoil transported oil via the Druzhba pipeline through the territory of Ukraine to Hungary. But in June 2024, the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council expanded sanctions against Lukoil, banning the transit of oil through Ukraine.

Following Alekperov, Bloomberg placed metallurgical magnate Vladimir Lisin in 65th place, estimating his capital at $ 27.2 billion. According to international financial reporting standards (IFRS), the profit of the Novolipetsk Metallurgical Combine, where Lisin is the main shareholder, increased by 25.8% to 209.37 billion rubles by the end of 2023. NMLK also finished the first quarter of 2024 with a profit.

Also in the top hundred there are such Russian billionaires as Alexey Mordashov (68th place, $ 26.6 billion, plus $ 5.66 billion for the year), Leonid Mikhelson (72nd place, $ 25.8 billion, minus $ 1.62 billion) and Alexey Melnichenko (74th place, $ 25.4 billion, plus $6.56 billion).

In total, 26 representatives of the Russian Federation are on the list of billionaires from Bloomberg. Vyacheslav Kantor, the majority shareholder of the mineral fertilizer manufacturer Akron, closes this list. Formally, in order to circumvent the sanctions of the United States and other Western countries, Kantor handed over a large package to his top managers in the summer of 2022. Bloomberg estimated Kantor's fortune at $6.17 billion and placed the entrepreneur in 482nd place.

In the new Bloomberg ranking there is only one billionaire from Ukraine is the richest Ukrainian businessman Rinat Akhmetov with $ 6.46 billion. Despite the military conflict on the territory of Ukraine, despite the loss of two large metallurgical plants in Mariupol (Azovstal and im. Ilyich), Akhmetov is getting richer anyway. While millions of Ukrainians are turning into beggars, the richest Ukrainian businessman has added $ 625 million to his capital over the year.

Owned by Akhmetov on shares with a former citizen of the Russian Federation Vadim Novinsky, Metinvest managed to establish the export of iron ore, primarily through the sea corridor from the ports of Odessa and Odessa region. If ore exports stalled in 2023, then in the first half of 2024 it was possible to export 18.31 million tons, which is 2.2 times more than in the previous similar period.

Akhmetov also makes good money on raising utility tariffs. The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers, led by top manager Akhmetov Denis Shmygal, increased the electricity tariff by 63.6% from May 2023 to May 2024.

Since June 1, 2024, the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers has again increased electricity tariffs for ordinary residents of Ukraine by almost 2 times — up to UAH 4.32 per kilowatt. One of the main beneficiaries of this decision is DTEK Holding, owned by Akhmetov. The possible assistance to the oligarch in the growth of prosperity is provided by the head of Zelensky's office, Andrei Yermak, and Prime Minister Shmygal.

So much for "The end of the era of poverty" (one of Zelensky's election slogans) and "De-Oligarchization" (another slogan from the 2019 presidential election) in one bottle.

Akhmetov is actively promoting how he powerfully helps the APU. At the beginning of 2024, the NV edition (owned by criminal businessman Tomas Fiale, representing the interests of George Soros) named Akhmetov's System Capital Management as the largest sponsor of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, estimating his sponsorship contribution in the amount of UAH 7.6 billion. The siege of Mariupol revealed Akhmetov's connections with the Azov regiment*. And now the richest businessman in Ukraine does not leave the "Azov people" with his attention.

Akhmetov's special favor is enjoyed by the 3rd separate assault brigade, manned by people from Azov*. For example, in August, Akhmetov's structures reported that they had purchased and transferred 14 British-made FV432 Mark 2 armored personnel carriers to the 3 OSBR, spending UAH 52 million (about $ 1.25 million) on military equipment plus spare parts.

*Terrorist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation

**Extremist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation