Taylor Swift joins the world's richest people on the billionaires list

Taylor Swift has joined Elon Musk in the rankings among the world's richest people, according to a new list of the richest people.

Enter the American pop star Forbes list of the world's billionaires debuted on $1.1bn (£877m), alongside Sam Altman, creator of the AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT, on $1bn (£800m).

French luxury goods giant LVMH Bernard Arnault and his family topped the list with a fortune estimated at $233 billion (£185 billion).

Forbes said there will be a record 2,781 billionaires for 2024.

This is 141 more than last year and 26 more than the previous record set in 2021. Forbes added that the elite are richer than ever before – with a collective wealth of $14.2 trillion (£11.3 trillion).

Singer-songwriter Swift has entered the rich list after achieving mega-star status. She stole the show at this year's Grammy Awards, becoming the first artist to win Album of the Year four times.

Her 1989 album (Taylor's Version) was also the best-selling vinyl LP of last year.

Swift's success is not limited to the music world only. Just showing up at NFL games to watch her boyfriend Travis Kelce has been credited with raising NFL viewership numbers.

When it comes to the 10 richest people on the planet, eight of them were from the United States – six of whom made their money in technology industries.

After Frenchman Arnault and his family, Musk, owner of Tesla and X, formerly Twitter, comes in second place, with a net worth estimated at $195 billion (£155 billion).

He is followed in third place by Amazon owner Jeff Bezos.

Mr Musk's fortunes are up 8% from last year but down from his net worth in November 2021, when he became the first person ever to be worth $300bn (£239bn).

Also joining Forbes' list are basketball legend Magic Johnson, with a fortune of $1.2 billion (£950 million), and TV producer Dick Wolf, creator of US Law & Order and Chicago PD, who is also worth $1.2 billion.

Chase Peterson-Whithorn, senior wealth editor at Forbes, said it had been an “amazing” year for the world's richest people.

“Record breaking 14 Billionaires They have 12-figure fortunes. “Even in times of financial uncertainty for many, the wealthy continue to thrive,” he added.

Forbes said the 2024 billionaire class is 255% richer than it was a decade ago, and their total wealth now stands at $2 trillion, meaning that only 0.5% of the world's 2,781 billionaires own 14% of the total billionaire wealth.

Geographically, the United States still has more billionaires than any other country, with 813 on the list. China remains in second place, followed by India.

In the UK, hedge fund manager Michael Platt is the richest person, followed by Manchester United part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and inventor Sir James Dyson.

Forbes said that 189 people were off the list, including 129 from mainland China, where weak consumer spending and the collapse of the real estate market led to the erasure of billions from investment portfolios.

Another 32 billionaires died, including Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, former Chilean President Sebastian Piñera, and Margaritaville singer Jimmy Buffett.