Top 10 Richest People in the World!
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Sure we all dream of some day being rich, and perhaps even famous, but to be one of the ten richest people in the world is something, well, only ten people really know about. So with this in mind, here is a list of the ten richest people in the world!
10. Sergey Brin – Net Worth of $116 billion
- Born in Moscow and moved to the United States with his family in 1979, when he was six years old.
- Co-founded Google with Larry Page in 1998 and became Google’s President of Technology in 2001.
- Brin later became President of Technology with Alphabet in 2015 and held this position until he stepped down in 2019.
9. Warren Buffett – Net Worth of $120 billion
- Warren Buffet filed his first tax return at the age of 14, declaring earnings from his paper route.
- He first bought shares in a textile company called Berkshire Hathaway in 1962, becoming the majority shareholder by 1965, and in 1967 expanded the company’s holdings to insurance and other investments.
- Known as the “Oracle of Omaha,” Buffett is a buy-and-hold investor who built his fortune by acquiring undervalued companies.
- Buffett lives by the principle of only “investing in what he understands!”
- Warren Buffett is the most famous living value investor and remains very skeptical about bitcoin.
8. Mark Zuckerberg – Net Worth of $121 billion
- Mark Zuckerberg first developed Facebook, now Meta, alongside fellow students while attending Harvard University in 2004.
- As Facebook began to be used at other universities, Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard to focus entirely on his growing business.
- Today, Zuckerberg is the CEO and chair of Meta, which had 3 billion monthly active users as of Q2 2023.
7. Larry Page – Net Worth of $122 billion
- While attending Stanford University in 1995, Larry Page and his friend Sergey Brin came up with the idea of improving internet data extraction.
- Thus, from a college dorm room, Page and Brin developed a new search engine technology they called “Backrub” after its ability to assess links to a page.
- From this, Google was founded and formed with Page serving as CEO until 2001, and again between 2011 and 2019.
6. Steven Ballmer – Net Worth $128 billion
- Steve Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980 after his college dorm mate, Bill Gates, convinced him to drop out of Stanford University’s MBA program.
- He was Microsoft’s 30th employee and went on to succeed Gates as Microsoft CEO in 2000, holding the position until 2014.
- Under his leadership, Microsoft purchased Skype in 2011 for $8.5 billion.
- Ballmer owns an estimated 4% of Microsoft, making him the software giant’s largest individual shareholder.
- In 2014, shortly after stepping down as Microsoft CEO, he purchased the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team for $2 billion.
5. Larry Ellison – Net Worth of $129 billion
- After dropping out of the University of Chicago in 1966, Larry Ellison moved to California and worked as a computer programmer.
- In 1973, he joined the electronics company Ampex where he met future partners Ed Oates and Bob Miner.
- In 1977, the three individuals founded Software Development Laboratories (SDL) and within two years released Oracle, the first commercial relational database program to use Structured Query Language.
- The database program became so popular that SDL changed its name to Oracle Systems Corporation in 1982, where Ellison served as CEO until stepping down in 2014.
4. Bill Gates – Net Worth of $133 billion
- While attending Harvard University in 1975, Bill Gates worked alongside his childhood friend Paul Allen to develop new software for the original microcomputers.
- Following this project’s success, Gates dropped out of Harvard during his junior year and founded Microsoft with Allen.
- In 2008, Bill Gates moved from Microsoft CEO to Board Chair before stepping down in 2020.
- Today, much of Gates’ net worth is in Cascade Investment LLC, a privately-held investment vehicle that owns a variety of stocks including Canadian National Railway, Deere, Republic Services, as well as private investments in real estate and energy.
3. Jeff Bezos – Net Worth of $169 billion
- Jeff Bezos originally pitched the idea of an online bookstore company to his former boss, who wasn’t interested.
- So, in 1994, Jeff Bezos resigned from hedge fund giant D.E. Shaw and from a Seattle garage began selling books online from his newly formed company, Amazon.
- Though Amazon originally started out just selling books, it has since morphed into a one-stop shop for everything under the sun and is expected to overtake Walmart as the world’s largest retailer by 2024.
- Bezos owned 16% of Amazon in 2019 before transferring 4% to his former wife, MacKenzie Scott, as part of their divorce proceedings.
- In 2021, Bezos stepped down as CEO of Amazon and became its Executive Chairperson.
- Some of Bezos’ other projects include aerospace company Blue Origin and ownership of The Washington Post.
2. Bernard Arnault – Net Worth of $171 billion
- An engineer by training, Bernard Arnault first showed his business acumen while working for his father’s construction firm, Ferret-Savinel.
- After taking charge of the company in 1971, he converted the organization into a real estate company, Férinel Inc., in 1979, and remained its Chairperson until he acquired luxury goods maker Financière Agache in 1984.
- Arnault eventually sold all holdings within Financière Agache, other than Christian Dior and Le Bon Marché.
- In 1987, Arnault was invited to invest in LVMH, the world’s largest luxury goods company, which includes brands such as Louis Vuitton, Hennessey, Marc Jacobs, and Sephora.
- At the time of his investment in LVMH, he became the majority shareholder, Chairperson of the Board, and within two years the CEO – positions he still holds with the company.
1. Elon Musk – Net Worth of $219 billion
- Born in South Africa, Elon Musk attended University of Pennsylvania, where he earned bachelor’s degrees in physics and economics.
- Two days after enrolling in a graduate physics program at Stanford University, Musk deferred attendance to launch Zip2, one of the earliest online navigation services.
- He reinvested a portion of the proceeds from this startup to create X.com, the online payment system that was sold to eBay and ultimately became PayPal.
- In 2004, Musk became a major investor of Tesla Motors, which led to his current position as CEO of the electric vehicle company, which now also produces solar power systems.
- Musk is also CEO and Chief Engineer of Space Exploration Technologies, also known as SpaceX, a developer of space launch rockets.
- In 2022, Elon Musk purchased Twitter, now known as X, for $44 billion.
- Elon Musk first became the “Richest Person in the World” in January 2021 – a title that has fluctuated alongside the value of Tesla.
Except for these ten individuals, none of us will ever get to bask in the glory of money, fame, and such prestige. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun dreaming about it. As we know, the best things in life – walking, jogging, hiking, exercising, playing in the yard, hanging out with loved ones, conversation, worship, smiling, etc. – are free, and that includes living vicariously through the ten richest people in the world!
Source: The 10 Richest People in the World (investopedia.com)