Warren Buffett has re-entered the top five richest people in the world, despite steep drops in tech stocks, which are eroding the wealth of Silicon Valley executives. (*5*) has increased his wealth by 7.2 percent in the last year to $116.7 billion as shares of his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. have risen, putting him in fifth place on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. During the same time period, tech billionaires such as Tesla Inc.’s Elon Musk and Amazon.com Inc.’s Jeff Bezos saw their net worth drop by 15% or more.
It’s the first time in a year that Buffett, 91, has ranked this high on the list of the world’s 500 wealthiest people. In October, he dropped as low as eleventh.
Investors have fled tech stocks in recent weeks, with the Nasdaq Composite Index falling 3.6 percent on Monday to its lowest level in nearly a year. The total value of US stocks has probably dropped the most in 17 months as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has fueled fears of prolonged oil shortages and accelerating inflation.
Berkshire Hathaway disclosed a purchase order for approximately 30 million additional shares in Occidental Petroleum Corp., a Houston-based oil and fuel company, on Friday. The transaction, valued at approximately $1.6 billion as of noon Monday, contributed to his firm’s near-record $146.7 billion cash pile.
Warren Edward Buffett is a business magnate, investor, and philanthropist from the United States. He currently serves as Berkshire Hathaway’s chairman and CEO. He is regarded as one of the world’s most successful investors, with a net worth of more than $117 billion as of March 2022, making him the world’s fifth-wealthiest person.
