Musk is CEO of electric car company Tesla and rocket firm SpaceX; chairman and chief technology officer of social media company X, formerly known as Twitter; and founder of artificial intelligence firm xAI. Musk is CEO of electric car company Tesla, rocket firm SpaceX and social media company X, formerly known as Twitter. He owns 23% of Tesla between stock and options, and has pledged some of his stock as collateral for loans. He bought X, then known as Twitter, for $44 billion in October 2022 and owns an estimated 74% of the social media company, which is now worth less than half what he paid for it. For most of the first half of 2023, French luxury goods magnate Bernard Arnault was the world’s richest person, per Forbes—but that changed on June 8, 2023, when Musk overtook Arnault to become No. 1 in the world again. As of January 1, Arnault still ranks No. 2 richest, worth an estimated $200.7 billion.

Net Worth: $38.9 Billion Age: 44 Country/Territory: China Industry: Technology

He was invited to invest in LVMH in 1987 and 5 richest people in the world became the majority shareholder, chair of the board, and CEO of the company two years later. Oracle is the world’s second-largest software company, providing a wide variety of cloud computing programs as well as Java and Linux code and the Oracle Exadata computing platform. Oracle has acquired numerous large companies over its history, such as Sun Microsystems and Cerner. In 1977, Ellison founded Software Development Laboratories alongside Oates and Miner. Two years later, the company released Oracle, the first commercial relational database program to use Structured Query Language. The database program proved so popular that SDL changed its name to Oracle Systems Corporation in 1982.

Bernard Arnault: $169 billion

• Together the world’s 10 richest people, according to Forbes, are worth $1.47 trillion as of the strike of midnight on January 1—up from $1.44 trillion a month ago.
• Ellison co-founded Oracle Corporation, a software and database management giant, in 1977 and served as CEO until 2014.
• It’s easy to get started with one of the best brokers for beginners, and if you’re looking for strong investments, a financial advisor can also help you find those that meet your needs.
• But the ups and downs of tech stocks shuffled the ranks of others among the world’s top 10 richest, with Larry Ellison falling a notch while Bill Gates overtook the Google cofounders.
• Elon Musk, once the richest person in the world, is No. 2 on the list, with a net worth of $195 billion.

That gain moved him ahead of Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison to rank the Meta CEO as No. 4 richest in the world. He’s traded places with Ellison several times throughout the year so far. A record total of 1,426 people made the 2013 list, representing $5.4 trillion of assets.34 Of those, 442 billionaires hailed from the United States.32 The Asian-Pacific region had 386 billionaires and Europe 366. The list also featured a record number of newcomers, 210, representing 42 countries. 60 people from the 2012 list fell below a billion dollars of assets in 2013, and eight others from the 2012 list died. The Asia-Pacific region had the most drop-offs, with 29, followed by the United States with 16.

Net Worth: $128 Billion Age: 68 Country/Territory: United States Industry: Technology

Page’s fortune expanded by $11 billion in the past month, supported by a nearly 7% rise Google-parent Alphabet’s shares. There are potentially significant conflicts of interest at play, given Musk’s companies’ ties to the federal government, including SpaceX (a customer of the Department of Defense) and Tesla (regulated by the Department of Transportation). Musk’s fortune grew by $400 million in the past month—a rounding error for someone worth more than $400 billion. As of Feb. 3, 2025, the world’s richest man is Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. While attending Harvard University in 1975, Bill Gates went to work alongside his childhood friend Paul Allen to develop new software for the original microcomputers.

• Their combined worth equals $14.2 trillion — up by $2 trillion in 2023.
• Others, like Rupert Murdoch and Mukesh Ambani, had a bit more of a leg up early on by joining their family businesses, but expanded their fortunes greatly and went on to create empires in their respective industries.
• Largely due to the $59 billion he has donated to the Gates Foundation, including a $20 billion gift in July 2022, he was overtaken as the world’s richest person in 2018 by Jeff Bezos, but has remained one of the world’s richest people.
• China had 319 (not including Hong Kong, Taiwan or Macau), Germany had 114, and India had the fourth most with 101; India reached over 100 billionaires for its first time.
• In response, Google said in a statement that such a move would hurt consumers and America’s technological leadership.
• The 2013 list featured 138 women, of which 50 came from the United States.

Ray Dalio is the founder of the world’s biggest hedge fund firm, Bridgewater Associates, which manages $124 billion.

He now serves as a board member of Google’s parent Alphabet and continues to be a controlling shareholder. Bernard Arnault, CEO and chairman Legal E-Billing of luxury goods group LVMH, got $20 billion richer in the past month thanks to a nearly 12% increase in the price of the company shares. The group announced 2024 results on January 29; though revenue increased slightly, its profits fell 17% compared to the prior year. Shares fell on the news but still ended the month higher than when it started.

As Facebook began to be used at other universities, Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard to focus entirely on his growing business. Sergey Brin ($154 billion), the co-founder of Alphabet and seventh-richest man in the world, joined Musk, Bezos and others in being seated behind Trump during the swearing-in. At the age of 19, Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Meta Platforms, founded Facebook in 2004 while enrolled at Harvard University to study psychology and computer science. Facebook was first created to let students connect by matching their names with images. In 2006, it became accessible to everyone with a working email address who was at least 13 years old. In the category of wealthiest athlete, Michael Jordan and Vince McMahon have the highest net worth at over $3 billion each.

The 2013 list featured 138 women, of which 50 came from the United States. The U.S. had the most billionaires in the world, with a record of 565. China had 319 (not including Hong Kong, Taiwan or Macau), Germany had 114, and India had the fourth most with 101; India reached over 100 billionaires for its first time. Lifted by a post-presidential-inauguration surge in stocks, ledger account the world’s ten richest people got a collective $107 billion wealthier in the past month. As of July 1, 2024, the richest person in the world is Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

John Fredriksen’s empire includes oil tankers, dry bulkers, LNG carriers and deepwater drilling rigs.

One effort is to develop tools to help others cure, manage or prevent all disease; Zuckerberg and Chan spoke to Forbes earlier this year about their philanthropic efforts. And Zuckerberg talked to Forbes in September about Meta’s two biggest bets and more ahead of the company turning 20. He and his wife Priscilla Chan have pledged to direct 99% of their stock in the company toward measures that promote human potential. Arnault, the CEO and chairman of LVMH, has built the company into a behemoth with more than 70 brands, from Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior to Tiffany & Co. and Sephora.