The fact that one family has two chip-making billionaires illustrates the scale of the artificial intelligence boom, which has taken the stock market by storm and accounted for most of the wealth gained by the world's rich this year.
The biggest winners include Hwang and Mark Zuckerberg, whose Meta Platforms has been the second-best performer in the S&P 500 for two straight years, behind Nvidia; Steve Ballmer, who rode a wave of optimism around Microsoft's OpenAI deal; and Michael Dell, whose fortunes have soared thanks in part to Dell Technologies and Broadcom's AI initiatives.
Xu isn't the only new billionaire to emerge from the surge. Supermicro Computer co-founder Charles Liang has tripled his wealth to $6.2 billion this year as his company's shares have far outpaced returns on other AI stocks. And Alex Karp, co-founder of AI-enabled software maker Palantir Technologies, saw his net worth rise to $2.8 billion after its shares surged 31% in one day last week following strong quarterly earnings.
Other billionaires are benefiting indirectly. SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son's net worth increased by $3.7 billion this year as chipmaker Arm Holdings Ltd., 90% owned by SoftBank, nearly doubled in three transactions after results showed its investments in AI were boosting sales.
The magnitude of the gains has raised questions about the sustainability of the rally. Bank of America strategist Michael Hartnett said earlier this month that the rush to buy tech stocks is starting to resemble the dot-com bubble.
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