Watch These Billionaires in 2024

Steve Cohen

The founder of Point72 Asset Management is all in on New York dynasties — old and new. Cohen, 67, owns the News York Mets and is attempting to revitalize the baseball franchise after years of lackluster performance. He's also partnering with Hard Rock International in an attempt to secure one of the state's limited new casino licenses, giving beleaguered Mets fans the chance to gamble their sorrows away. His wealth rose to $13.9 billion in 2023.

Credit: Bloomberg

Mark Cuban

Cuban, 65, has a knack for getting out at the right time, selling his radio-streaming website Broadcast.com shortly before the dot-com bubble burst. He purchased the Dallas Mavericks in 2000 for $285 million, winning three division titles, two conference championships and an NBA championship before flipping them to Adelson for $3.5 billion. (He'll keep a minority stake.) Whether this goes down as another well-timed Cuban sale remains to be seen. His fortune climbed to $6.8 billion this year.

Credit: Bloomberg

Carl Icahn

It was a rough year for the activist investor after short-seller Hindenburg Research initiated a meltdown that wiped $18.1 billion from his fortune, including more than $10 billion in just one day. Still, 87-year-old Icahn has a lot of fight left in him. He intends to launch a new proxy battle to take control of Illumina Inc.'s board, according to people familiar with the matter, after the DNA-sequencing company terminated a costly acquisition that Icahn had criticized.

Credit: Bloomberg

Rupert Murdoch

The 92-year-old News Corp. founder has officially retired, ceding control to his son, Lachlan. It's set to be a rocky year for the heir as candidates including Joe Biden and Donald Trump vie for the presidency again. Fox Corp. already settled with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million after the company accused the network of airing false claims that it rigged the vote against Trump. Fox still faces another lawsuit by Smartmatic Corp. in a similar case. The controversy hasn't dented Rupert Murdoch's net worth, which rose to $8.9 billion in 2023.

Credit: Bloomberg

Masayoshi Son

The Japanese investor made a big bet on WeWork, which officially crumpled in 2023, and people are questioning his judgment after he continued to pour money into Adam Neumann's remote-work business even after it was clearly struggling. The SoftBank Group Corp. founder, 66, is likely to struggle further as deals dry up. But he's pulled himself out of deeper holes before, climbing back after losing tens of billions of dollars in the dot-com crash. Son's wealth fell to $11.4 billion this year.

Credit: Bloomberg

Donald Trump

Changpeng “CZ” Zhao

In many ways it was a rough year for the 46-year-old founder of Binance, the world's biggest crypto exchange. In November, CZ and Binance pleaded guilty to money laundering and US sanctions violations. He agreed to step down as CEO and personally pay a $50 million fine in addition to the $4.3 billion Binance will have to fork over. Still, the rebound in crypto boosted CZ's wealth by nearly $25 billion this year, even as he may be headed to jail in 2024.

Credit: Bloomberg