World's wealthiest people get at least $150 billion richer thanks to AI-fueled stock-market boom

Artificial intelligence has been one of the defining themes for stocks in 2023 – and it's also helping the rich get richer.

The surge in interest in the intelligent language tool ChatGPT quickly spread across markets, with big-name investors rushing to snap up shares in companies they believe could power AI's rise to prominence,  Business Insider reports.

Big Tech giants like Meta Platforms and Nvidia have already racked up triple-digit gains thanks to the AI boom, while Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, and Oracle have also all surged.

That's helped the companies' founders – already among the world's richest people at the start of 2023 – to become even wealthier.

Meta shares have rallied 134 per cent year-to-date thanks to both the rise of AI and Zuckerberg's so-called "year of efficiency" cost cuts, and that's lifted the Facebook founder's wealth by over $57 billion, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Meanwhile, Oracle founder Larry Ellison passed Bill Gates on the publication's rich list for the first time ever earlier this week, with his fortune up $47 billion in 2023 thanks to the tech stock's 55 per cent gain.

Gates himself has gotten $24 billion richer this year thanks to his Microsoft shares, with the Redmond-based tech giant emerging as a preferred AI play for billionaire investors including Stanley Druckenmiller.

And the man at the helm of one of the stock market's biggest success story of 2023 – Nvidia founder Jensen Huang – has also seen his personal fortune balloon by $24 billion, according to Bloomberg's index.

Again, that's largely thanks to Huang's shares in the chipmaker, which have jumped 192 per cent in value to lift the company to a $1 trillion market capitalization.

The members of the rich list have seen their combined wealth jump by over $150 billion in 2023, by Insider's calculations.