How the highest 10 richest tech tycoons have extra wealth than majority of world’s economies – with Elon Musk’s internet price above all however 24 nations

The world’s richest tech tycoons are now worth more than the economies of most countries, it can be revealed after the MI6 boss told of her fears over their power.

Tesla boss Elon Musk has a net worth of $676billion which puts him above all but 24 nations in the world – and close to Argentina’s gross domestic product of $684billion.

Musk’s value is now greater than the economies of 187 countries including Sweden ($620billion), Ireland ($594billion), Singapore ($565billion) and Austria ($534billion).

The data comes as Blaise Metreweli said Britain faces a new frontier of information warfare where algorithms and tech bosses will become more powerful than states.

The new head of the MI6 spy agency suggested this week that information is being ‘weaponised’ by tech bosses as well as hostile states, algorithms and corporations.

As states race for tech supremacy, she predicted some algorithms will ‘become as powerful as states’, suggesting data tracking and filtering could ‘become a new vector for conflict and control’, while tech bosses become ever-more powerful.

Musk’s wealth comes primarily from his ownership stakes in Tesla and SpaceX and he became the first ever person worth $500billion in October, according to Forbes.

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and dropping out of Stanford University, Musk banked his first millions when he sold an online publishing software company to US computer maker Compaq for more than $300million in 1999.

His next company eventually merged with PayPal and he then founded space rocket company SpaceX in 2002 and became the chairman of electric carmaker Tesla in 2004. Then in 2022 he acquired the social media network Twitter, now called X.

The entrepreneur is significantly ahead of Google co-founder Larry Page who is the publication’s second richest real-time billionaire with a net worth of $253billion.

Page’s wealth puts him just above the economies of New Zealand ($249billion) and Hungary ($237billion). 

In third place is Oracle founder Larry Ellison on $235billion.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is just behind on roughly the same, with Page’s fellow Google co-founder Sergey Brin in fifth on $234billion – in line with Qatar’s GDP.

The next richest bosses are Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg on $223billion, Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang on $153billion and Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer at $144billion.

Completing the top ten are Dell Technologies chairman Michael Dell at $141billion and Microsoft’s Bill Gates, who has given away much of his wealth, at $104billion.

The wealth data was compiled from the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires tracker index and compared to GDP data published by the World Population Review website.

On Monday, Ms Metreweli warned of the battle ahead for truth and trust saying we need to ensure our children ‘don’t get duped by information manipulation’ and algorithms that trigger fear.

She said: ‘Power itself is becoming more diffuse, more unpredictable as control over these technologies is shifting from states to corporations and sometimes to individuals.

‘The foundations of trust in our societies are eroding. Information, once a unifiying force, is increasingly weaponised. Falsehood spreads faster than fact, dividing communities and distorting reality.

‘The algorithms flatter our biases and fracture our public squares. As trust collapses, so does our shared sense of truth – one of the greatest losses a society can suffer.’

She added: ‘Our world is more dangerous and contested now than for decades.

‘We are being contested from sea to space, from the battleground to the boardroom, and even our brains as disinformation manipulates our understanding of each other and ourselves.’

Ms Metreweli was previously MI6’s head of technology, known as ‘Q’, and much of her speech focused on the peril posed by technological innovations, such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology and quantum computing.

It meant power was becoming more diffuse and unpredictable, shifting from states to corporations, and sometimes to individuals, she said.

‘AI-powered robots and drones are brilliant for scaled manufacturing but devastating on the battlefield. Discoveries that cure disease can also create new weapons,’ she added.

‘And as states race for tech supremacy, or as some algorithms become as powerful as states, those hyper-personalised tools could become a new vector for conflict and control.’

Faced with these challenges, she said MI6 would take on a more active, operational role, ‘hustling to make things happen’.

‘We will take calculated risks, where the prize is significant and the national interest clear,’ she said. ‘We will never stoop to the tactics of our opponents. But we must seek to outplay them.’