List of Top 10 richest people on the planet
According to Forbes, The world currently has 2640 Billionaires, with a combined net worth of well above $12 Trillion. Last year the world had a total of 2668 Billionaires, which is down by 28, in the latest Forbes list of richest people on the planet 2023.
Combining the net worth of the top 10 richest individuals would be over $1.4 Trillion in 2023. Even though the Finance and investments industry has the most billionaires (372), Tech start-up CEOs have 80% of the top 10 wealthiest people. Elon Musk (CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, a Boring Company & recently acquired microblogging company Twitter) is the richest man in the world with a net worth of $229.8 Billion as of August 09, 2023.
Quick Summary
- Elon Musk (Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter) is the richest man in the world, with a net worth of 229.8 Billion.
- On second position is the Chairman of LVMH (French Multinational luxury Goods Company: Louis Vuitton, Dior, Sephora, Tiffany & Co. Hublot Etc.)
- Warren Buffet and Bernard Arnault are two of the top ten billionaires who made their fortune other than technology start-ups.
- Top ten billionaires list includes Tech Billionaires: Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Larry Ellison (Oracle), Bill Gates and Steve Balmer (Microsoft), Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Google), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta; Facebook).
Most of these ultra-high-net-worth individuals have their net worth tied to the companies they own in the form of shares. It has been a point of discussion recently where billionaires would often avoid paying taxes because they will not receive salaries. Instead, they are given more shares of the company. These shares then they will use as collateral to get loans (Debt: Tax-free Money).
List of top 10 Ultra High Net Worth individuals.
#1 Elon Musk $225.3 Billion
- Founder, CEO, and CTO at SpaceX
- CEO Tesla
- Owner and CTO at Twitter
- Founder of Boring Company & Co-Founder Neuralink.
Elon Reeve Musk was born (on June 28, 1971) in South Africa to wealthy and successful parents, engineers, Politician fathers, and Model and Dietician mothers. Musk joined the Internet Boom with ZIP2 with his brother. Zip2 was sold to Compaq in 1999; Musk received 22 Million for his 7% share and later invested 12 Million when he cofounded X.Com. X.com, later merged with PayPal, was sold to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 Billion, of which Elon Musk received $175 Million. Musk went on to found SpaceX and Boring Company, cofounded Neuralink and became CEO of Tesla.
#2 Bernard Arnault $222 Billion
- CEO and Chairman of LVMH,
- Christian Dior,
- LVMH includes brands Louis Vuitton, Dior, Sephora Etc.
Bernard Arnault is the Chairman and CEO of LVMH (French multinational luxury Goods Company). LVMH has a multi-sector market presence, including Fashion and leather goods, Cosmetics and Perfumes, watches and jewelry, as well as wines and spirits.
#3 Jeff Bezos $161 Billion
- Founder and Chairman of Amazon,
- Founder of Blue Origin (Aerospace company),
- Superyacht Koru, $500 Million
Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com, an E-Commerce Company, which he started from a garage in Seattle in 1994.
Before starting Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos used to work for a Hedge fund named D. E. Shaw. He pitched his idea to his Former Boss, David Shaw, who refused to participate. Bezos resigned from the hedge fund and started amazon.com from his garage in 1994, initially selling books. Now, Amazon has over 25000 Sub-Categories and is set to surpass Walmart by 2024.
Also, Jeff Bezos owns a $500 Million worth of Super luxurious yacht, Koru.
#4 Larry Ellison $141.9 Billion
- Cofounder and CTO at Oracle,
- Oracle Ownership 35%,
- Hawaiian Island Lanai ($300 Million)
Larry Ellison dropped out of the University of Chicago and worked as a computer programmer in California. In the next ten years, Ellison worked for two more companies, Ampex and Precision Instruments, and He served as Vice-President of research and development at Precision. Ellison initially formed a company (Software development laboratories) with two of his friends and changed the name of the company to Oracle after two years, right after the success of the first SQL-based commercial database program.
Ellison bought Hawaiian Island Lanai in 2012 for $300 million and moved permanently to the island in 2020.
#5 Warren Buffet 119.5 Billion
- CEO, Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
- Oracle of Omaha,
- Philanthropy (Over 51 Billion ),
Warren Buffet, popularly known as the Oracle of Omaha, is 92 an old CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, and one of the most successful investors ever. He bought his first shares at age 11 and filed for taxes at age 13. Berkshire Hathaway owns many businesses, such as GEICO Insurance, Dairy Queen, Duracell Etc.
Buffet and Bill Gates have pledged to donate over 99% of their wealth. He has donated almost $51 Billion, mainly through Bill and Melinda gates foundation.
#6 Bill Gates $117.1 Billion
- Cofounder of Microsoft,
- Bill and Melinda Foundation,
- Cascade Investment, Terra Power, Breakthrough Energy, etc.
Bill Gates and his Harvard University friend, Paul Allen, founded Microsoft after several small successes together in creating small software for computers 50 years ago. Microsoft became the largest company in the world, and Bill Gates became and was the richest man in the world right from 1995 through 2017 (except in 2008, 2011, 2012, and 2013).
Bill Gates now hardly owns 1.4% of Microsoft (worth $35 Billion). Bill and Melinda Gates are also the largest owner of private farmland in the United States, comprising 269000 Acres of land in 18 states.
It is estimated that Bill Gates, through Gates Foundation, has donated over $50 Billion in total in the last 30 years to cure diseases & promote education.
7# Larry Page 109.6 Billion
- Cofounder Google,
- Stepped Down as CEO in 2019,
- Owns 6% Alphabet stake (Google Parent Company)
Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google, which was earlier named Backrub due to its nature for analyzing backlinks. Larry Page advocates for clean energy; his house is powered by fuel cells and geothermal energy. Sundar Pichai became CEO of Google and Alphabet (Parent company) in 2019.
Larry Page’s net worth has more than doubled since March 2020, from below $52 billion to the latest 109.6 Billion.
8# Mark Zuckerberg 106.9 Billion
- Chairman and CEO, META Platforms (formerly Facebook),
- Ownership stake Meta 13%,
- Pledged to philanthropy 99% stake.
Mark Zuckerberg owns a 13% stake in META platforms (Formerly known as Facebook). Facebook was launched in 2004 and went public in 2012. Facebook acquired Photo and now video-sharing app Instagram in 2012 for $1 Billion.
Mark Zuckerberg and his wife have pledged to donate over 99% of their stake in their lifetime.
9# Sergey Brin 104.1 Billion
- Cofounder And Board Member, Alphabet,
- Owns a 6% stake in Alphabet,
- Stepped Down as CEO in 2019.
Sergey Brin cofounded Google with Larry Page. He stepped down as CEO, but Sergey remains a board member. Sergey is known to be funding an airship project.
10# Steve Ballmer $99.6 Billion
- Former CEO, of Microsoft,
- Microsoft 30th Employee,
- Owner, Los Angeles Clippers.
Steve Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980 as an employee (Number 30th) after he dropped Stanford’s MBA program. Steve Ballmer was CEO of Microsoft from 200 to 2014. After retiring from Microsoft, Steve Ballmer bought the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers for almost $2 Billion.
So these are the Top 10 richest people who have made a fortune and now it is the list of billionaires.