Google founders Larry Page, Sergey Brin among top 8 wealthiest of the world

WASHINGTON: Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin entered the elite club last week, joining a community dominated by US tech entrepreneurs, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The world's top eight wealthiest individuals have a total fortune of over $1 trillion and have added $110 billion this year.

Since Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates in 1999, Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com Inc was the first to reach the $100 billion mark in 2017. As the dot-com bubble exploded, Gates' fortune plummeted, and he only regained the title of centi-billionaire in 2019.

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Elon Musk of Tesla Inc and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook Inc entered the club last year as the tech industry led a surge in wealth growth, with the coronavirus pandemic hastening the shift to online.

The majority of billionaires with a net worth of at least $100 billion are based in the United States.

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and other progressive legislators recently resurrected proposals to enact a wealth tax, but the measure is unlikely to pass in a Congress that is deeply divided.

Warren Buffett briefly surpassed $100 billion in March before surpassing it again last week, while Bernard Arnault of LVMH, France's luxury conglomerate has been a member of the elite community on and off since 2019.

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