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.
#10 Amancio Ortega
- NET WORTH – $83.7 B
- AGE – 85
- SOURCE OF WEALTH – Zara, Self Made
- RESIDENCE – La Coruna, Spain
- CITIZENSHIP – Spain
- MARITAL STATUS – Married
- CHILDREN – 3
Success Story:
- Amancio Ortega of Spain is one of the wealthiest clothing retailers in the world.
- A pioneer in fast fashion, he cofounded Inditex, known for its Zara fashion chain, with his ex-wife Rosalia Mera (d. 2013) in 1975.
- He owns about 60% of Madrid-listed Inditex, which has 8 brands, including Massimo Dutti and Pull & Bear, and 7,500 stores around the world.
- Ortega typically earns more than $400 million in dividends a year.
- He has invested his dividends primarily into real estate in Madrid, Barcelona, London, Chicago, Miami and New York.