The 10 richest people added more than US$400bil to their worth in 2021

Musk and his son X Æ A-12 on stage for the Time Person of the Year award on Dec 13, 2021 in New York City. Musk’s US$121bil (RM504.69bil) gain was smaller than the US$140bil (RM583.94bil) he made in 2020, but was more than enough to make him the richest person alive by a long shot. — Getty Images for Time/TNS

It’s never a bad time to be a billionaire, but this is an especially good time to have a 10-figure bank statement.

The 10 richest people in the world added US$402bil (RM1.67 trillion) to their already enormous fortunes in 2021. The biggest gainer was Elon Musk, who started the year with a net worth of US$156bil (RM650.67bil) and will end it with around US$277bil (RM1.15 trillion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The Tesla founder said he’s planning to pay more than US$11bil (RM45.88bil) in taxes.