The fortunes of Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google Inc., surged about $10 billion each as the world’s largest search-engine business rose 58 percent.

“Google is very much investing,” Eric Schmidt, the company’s chairman and the world’s 118th-richest person, said in an interview. “We’re hiring globally. We see strong growth with the arrival of the Internet everywhere.”

Carl Icahn spent much of the year jousting with other billionaires while adding $7 billion to his net worth. The 77- year-old financier battled with short-seller Bill Ackman over Herbalife Ltd., and tried to snatch Dell Inc. from founder Michael Dell during his failed attempt to take the company private.

He also took bond maven Bill Gross to task in a fight played out on Twitter, demanding the billionaire join him in committing to the Giving Pledge, which encourages the world’s richest to give the majority of their wealth to charity.

Henry Kravis’s fortune rose about $740 million this year. KKR & Co., the private-equity firm he founded with his cousin George Roberts, said in December that it raised $1.5 billion for its first real estate fund, with most of the money to be spent in North America and as much as a quarter of it in western Europe.

“We think energy on a global basis is going to be very interesting for us,” Kravis said in a November interview. “And of course with the uncertainty in health care, that does create some opportunities for us.”

The outlook was less rosy for Steven A. Cohen, the founder of SAC Capital Advisors LP. While the company posted a 20 percent gain in 2013, according to a person briefed on the the returns, the 57-year-old tycoon’s $14 billion hedge-fund firm struck a $1.8 billion deal in November to end a criminal investigation into insider trading.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara called SAC “a veritable magnet for market cheaters,” in an insider-trading scheme that dated back to 1999. SAC agreed to pay the record fine and shutter its investment advisory business. Cohen will still manage his personal wealth, which is valued at $8.7 billion.

Asian Wealth

Li Ka-Shing remains Asia’s richest man with a fortune of $30.2 billion. The 85-year-old controls the Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd. property investment company and conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Ltd.

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