Top 10 Richest Billionaires in the World in 2021

The list of the world’s richest persons can vary from year to year, depending on their latest net worth and financial performance.

#1 Jeff Bezos

• NET WORTH – $193.2 B
• AGE – 57
• SOURCE OF WEALTH – Amazon, Self Made
• RESIDENCE – Seattle, Washington
• CITIZENSHIP – United States
• MARITAL STATUS – In Relationship
• CHILDREN – 4
• EDUCATION – Bachelor of Arts/Science, Princeton University

Success Story:

• Jeff Bezos founded e-commerce giant Amazon in 1994 out of his garage in Seattle. He will step down as CEO and become executive chairman in late 2021.
• Between March and April 2020, amid the pandemic, Amazon said it hired 175,000 additional workers.
• In April 2020, Bezos said he would give $100 million to Feed America, a nonprofit that operates food banks and food pantries across the country.
• Amazon has faced criticism from U.S. senators and the general public for its treatment of warehouse workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
• He and his wife MacKenzie divorced in 2019 after 25 years of marriage and he transferred a quarter of his Amazon stake to her.
• In 2019, Amazon notched $386.1 billion in revenues and a record $21.3 billion in net profit.
• Bezos owns The Washington Post and Blue Origin, an aerospace company that is developing rockets for commercial use.

#2 Bernard Arnault & family

• NET WORTH – $183.2 B
• AGE – 72
• SOURCE OF WEALTH – LVMH
• RESIDENCE – Paris, France
• CITIZENSHIP – France
• MARITAL STATUS – Married
• CHILDREN – 5
• EDUCATION – Bachelor of Arts/Science, Ecole Polytechnique de Paris

Success Story:

• One of the world’s ultimate taste-makers, Bernard Arnault oversees an empire of 70 brands including Louis Vuitton and Sephora.
• In January 2021, LVMH completed a deal for American jeweler Tiffany & Co for $15.8 billion, believed to be the biggest luxury brand acquisition ever.
• LVMH spent $3.2 billion in 2019 for luxury hospitality group, Belmond, which owns or manages 46 hotels, trains and river cruises.
• His father made a small fortune in construction; Arnault got his start by putting up $15 million from that business to buy Christian Dior in 1985.
• Four of Arnault’s five children work in corners of the LVMH empire: Frédéric, Delphine, Antoine and Alexandre.

#3 Elon Musk

• NET WORTH – $166.2 B
• AGE – 49
• SOURCE OF WEALTH – Tesla, SpaceX, Self Made
• RESIDENCE – Austin, Texas
• CITIZENSHIP – United States
• MARITAL STATUS – In Relationship
• CHILDREN – 7
• EDUCATION – Bachelor of Arts/Science, University of Pennsylvania

Success Story:

• Elon Musk is working to revolutionize transportation both on Earth, through electric car maker Tesla – and in space, via rocket producer SpaceX.
• He owns 21% of Tesla but has pledged more than half his stake as collateral for loans; Forbes has discounted his stake to take the loans into account.
• He stepped down as chairman in 2018, after making alleged “false statements” about a plan to take Tesla private, triggering an SEC probe.
• SpaceX, Musk’s rocket company, is now valued at $74 billion after its latest funding round in February 2021.
• He grew up in South Africa, then immigrated to Canada at age 17. He landed in the U.S. as a transfer student to the University of Pennsylvania.

#4 Bill Gates

• NET WORTH – $130.4 B
• AGE – 65
• SOURCE OF WEALTH – Microsoft, Self Made
• RESIDENCE – Medina, Washington
• CITIZENSHIP – United States
• MARITAL STATUS – Married
• CHILDREN – 3
• EDUCATION – Drop Out, Harvard University

Success Story:

• With his wife Melinda, Bill Gates chairs the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest private charitable foundation.
• In May 2020, the Gates Foundation said it would spend $300 million to fight the coronavirus pandemic, funding treatment, detection and vaccines.
• Gates has sold or given away much of his stake in Microsoft — he owns just over 1% of shares — and invested in a mix of stocks and other assets.
• In mid-March 2020, Gates stepped down as a board member of Microsoft, the software firm he founded with Paul Allen (d. 2018) in 1975.
• The foundation works to improve global health and to create equal opportunity for people around the globe.
• To date, Gates has donated $35.8 billion worth of Microsoft stock to the Gates Foundation.

#5 Mark Zuckerberg

• NET WORTH – $115.4 B
• AGE – 36
• SOURCE OF WEALTH – Facebook, Self Made
• RESIDENCE – Palo Alto, California
• CITIZENSHIP – United States
• MARITAL STATUS – Married
• CHILDREN – 2EDUCATION – Drop Out, Harvard University

Success Story:

• Facebook, the social network Zuckerberg runs, has become a go-to communications tool during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown.
• More than 1,000 advertisers joined boycott in June to protest Facebook’s lax policing of hate speech and misleading posts from politicians.
• Zuckerberg started Facebook at Harvard in 2004 at the age of 19 for students to match names with photos of classmates.
• He took Facebook public in May 2012 and still owns about 15% of the stock.
• In December 2015, Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, pledged to give away 99% of their Facebook stake over their lifetimes.

#6 Warren Buffett

• NET WORTH – $105.9 B
• AGE – 90
• SOURCE OF WEALTH – CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Self Made
• RESIDENCE – Omaha, Nebraska
• CITIZENSHIP – United States
• MARITAL STATUS – Widowed, Remarried
• CHILDREN – 3

Success Story:

• Known as the “Oracle of Omaha,” Warren Buffett is one of the most successful investors of all time.

• Buffett runs Berkshire Hathaway, which owns more than 60 companies, including insurer Geico, battery maker Duracell and restaurant chain Dairy Queen.
• The son of a U.S. congressman, he first bought stock at age 11 and first filed taxes at age 13.
• He has promised to donate over 99% of his wealth. So far he has given more than $41 billion, mostly to the Gates Foundation and his kids’ foundations.
• In 2010, he and Bill Gates launched the Giving Pledge, asking billionaires to commit to donating at least half of their wealth to charitable causes.

#7 Larry Ellison

• NET WORTH – $103.2 B
• AGE – 76
• SOURCE OF WEALTH – software, Self Made
• RESIDENCE – Lanai, Hawaii
• CITIZENSHIP – United States
• MARITAL STATUS – In Relationship
• CHILDREN – 4

Success Story:

• Larry Ellison is chairman, chief technology officer and cofounder of software giant Oracle, of which he owns about 35%.
• He gave up the Oracle CEO role in 2014 after 37 years at the helm.
• Oracle has grown in part through steady acquisitions of software companies, the biggest of which was $9.3 billion for NetSuite in 2016.
• In May 2016, Ellison pledged $200 million to the University of Southern California for a cancer treatment center.
• In 2012, Ellison spent $300 million to buy nearly all of Hawaiian island Lanai; so far, he has built a hydroponic farm and a luxury spa there.
• Ellison joined Tesla’s board in December 2018, after purchasing 3 million Tesla shares earlier that year.

#8 Larry Page

• NET WORTH – $100.7 B
• AGE – 48
• SOURCE OF WEALTH – Google, Self Made
• RESIDENCE – Palo Alto, California
• CITIZENSHIP – United States
• MARITAL STATUS – Married
• CHILDREN – 1

Success Story:

• Larry Page stepped down as CEO of Alphabet, the parent of Google, in December 2019 but remains a board member and a controlling shareholder.
• He cofounded Google in 1998 with fellow Stanford Ph.D. student Sergey Brin.
• With Brin, Page invented Google’s PageRank algorithm, which powers the search engine.
• Page was CEO until 2001, when Eric Schmidt took over, and then from 2011 until 2015, when he became CEO of Google’s new parent company Alphabet.
• He is a founding investor in space exploration company Planetary Resources and is also funding “flying car” startups Kitty Hawk and Opener.

#9 Sergey Brin

• NET WORTH – $97.6 B
• AGE – 47
• SOURCE OF WEALTH – Google, Self Made
• RESIDENCE – Los Altos, California
• CITIZENSHIP – United States
• MARITAL STATUS – Married
• CHILDREN – 3

Success Story:

• Sergey Brin stepped down as president of Alphabet, parent company of Google, in December 2019 but remains a controller shareholder and a board member.
• He cofounded Google with Larry Page in 1998 after the two met at Stanford University while studying for advanced degrees in computer science.
• Google went public in 2004 and changed its name to Alphabet in 2015.
• Brin was absent from public Alphabet events for much of 2019; he spent his time on Alphabet’s moonshot research lab X.
• Brin is reportedly funding a high-tech airship project.