The 10 Richest People in the World

 

The 10 Richest People in the World

 Billionaires have a significant impact on global politics, philanthropy, and the economy. According to Forbes, there will be 2,668 billionaires worldwide in 2022. Bernard Arnault, co-founder, and CEO of LVMH is the wealthiest of them all. In 2022, he became the richest man in the world.

The people on this list hold even more power and are members of a club that is even more exclusive. Many of them are the founders of huge tech companies, and a lot of their wealth is still invested in those businesses.

However, these billionaires are still able to borrow against their wealth to avoid selling shares, and delaying (or eliminating for heirs) taxation on unrealized capital gains. Since multi-billionaires can offset their reported income with a variety of tax deductions, some on this list have avoided paying income tax in recent years.

The richest people's net worth can fluctuate with market valuations due to the large proportion of their wealth in publicly traded stocks. For instance, Tesla's share price increased in 2021, which resulted in a rise in Musk's net worth. In 2021, the shares of Tesla rose by nearly 50%. His net worth also fell in 2022 like a pendulum as a result of the falling share price of Tesla, which he owns 13% of. In addition, to fund his acquisition of Twitter, Musk had to sell a large number of Tesla shares. As a result, in December 2022, he became Bernard Arnault's second-richest person in the world.

Similarly, Mark Zuckerberg, founder, and CEO of Meta Platforms (META) dropped out of the top 10 in February 2022 when the share price of the company plummeted following a disappointing earnings report. In January 2023, it was reported that Zuckerberg had a net worth of $47.2 billion.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the following is a list of the ten richest people on the planet. Unless otherwise noted, all figures are current as of January 4, 2023.

Key Takeaways • With a net worth of $164 billion, Bernard Arnault, co-founder, chair, and CEO of LVMH, is the richest person in the world.1 Arnault is followed by Elon Musk, co-founder and CEO of Tesla.

• Other billionaires with some of the highest net worths include Gautam Adani of India, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, and Bill Gates of Microsoft.

• Technology was the source of wealth for six of the top 10 billionaires, with the exceptions of Arnault, Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway, Gautam Adani, the founder of the Adani Group, and Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries.

• In February 2022, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta fell out of the top ten.

1. Age: Bernard Arnault 73 • Where I Live: Paris • Chair and CEO: LVMH (LVMUY) • Assets: $164 billion • The stake of ownership for Christian Dior: 97.5% (totaling $130 billion) • Other Assets: Moelis & Company equity (a $24.5 billion public asset) and $10.2 billion in cash Bernard Arnault, a French national, serves as chair and CEO of LVMH, the largest luxury goods company in the world. Sephora, Louis Vuitton, Hennessey, and Marc Jacobs are among the LVMH brands.

• Arnault's massive stake in Christian Dior SE, the holding company that controls 41.2% of LVMH, accounts for the majority of his wealth. Through his family-owned holding company, Groupe Familial Arnault, he holds shares in Christian Dior SE in addition to an additional 6.2% stake in LVMH.

Arnault, an engineer by training, took over Ferret-Savinel, his father's construction company, in 1971, where he first demonstrated his business acumen. In 1979, he changed Ferret-Savinel into Férinel Inc., a real estate company.

Arnault held the position of Férinel for an additional six years before acquiring and reorganizing the luxury goods manufacturer Financière Agache in 1984, at which point he sold all of the company's holdings except Christian Dior and Le Bon Marché. In 1987, he was asked to invest in LVMH, and two years later, he became the majority shareholder, chair of the board, and CEO of the business.

2. Elon Musk is old: 51 • Address: Texas • CEO and co-founder: • Tesla's wealth: $128 billion • The stake for Tesla ownership: 13 percent ($38.6 billion) • Additional Assets: Elon Musk is the second-richest person in the world. His private assets include Space Exploration Technologies, which is worth $44.8 billion, The Boring Company, which is worth $3.33 billion, and Twitter, which is worth $20.7 billion. He was born in South Africa, attended a Canadian university, and then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania to earn bachelor's degrees in physics and economics. Musk withdrew from Stanford University two days after enrolling in a graduate physics program to launch Zip2, one of the earliest online navigation services. He reinvested a portion of this startup's profits in the development of X.com, the online payment system that was eventually acquired by PayPal Holdings (PYPL) after being sold to eBay (EBAY).

Musk rose to his current position as CEO of the electric vehicle manufacturer when he became a significant funder of Tesla Motors, which is now known as Tesla. Tesla manufactures energy storage devices, automobile accessories, and solar power systems in addition to its electric vehicle line. In 2016, Tesla acquired SolarCity. Space Launch Rockets are developed by Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), and Musk serves as CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX.

Tesla shares rose 740 percent in 2020, propelling Musk's wealth up the rankings. Tesla became the largest company to join the S&P 500 in December 2020. Musk became the richest person in the world in January 2021. He held that title until December 2022, when the share price of Tesla fell, reducing his wealth.

On November 6, 2021, Musk asked his Twitter followers if he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock. He framed the question as a response to criticism that unrealized capital gains can be used to avoid taxes. He then sold $16.4 billion worth of shares throughout the remainder of 2021.

To support the implementation of a wealth tax, Massachusetts Democrat U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren cited a media report that Musk did not pay any income taxes in 2018. And Musk responded via Twitter, "And if you opened your eyes for two seconds, you would realize I will pay more taxes this year than any American in history."

Musk's position as the wealthiest person in the world has continued to rise as a result of private transactions that increased SpaceX's reported valuation and the rise in Tesla shares in 2021. In November 2021, his net worth reached a peak of $340 billion.

Musk launched a campaign to privatize Twitter in April 2022, which resulted in a $44 billion acquisition. The deal would be financed by $21 billion of Musk's own money. Before the buyout was announced, Musk sold 9.6 million shares of Tesla, which were worth about $8.5 billion.

Musk decided to withdraw from the Twitter buyout in July 2022. To prevent the buyout from taking place, Twitter filed a lawsuit against Musk. After suing the company back, Musk changed his mind and stated that he would still be willing to acquire Twitter. He received a nearly 80 percent stake in the business when the deal was finalized in October 2022.

3. Age: Gautam Adani 60 • Where I Live: India's Gurgaon • Founder and Chair: Adani Group's wealth: $119 billion • Adani Transmissions, Adani Enterprises, and Adani Power Ownership stakes: 75 percent each (68.91 billion dollars) • Other Assets: In March 2022, Gautam Adani, the founder of Adani Group, overtook Mukesh Ambani as the richest person in Asia. He owns 66% of Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone, which is a public asset worth $11.3 billion, 61% of Adani Green Energy, which is a public asset worth 21 billion, and 37% of Adani Total Gas, which is a public asset worth 17.9 billion. Adani owns significant stakes in six important Indian businesses through his ownership of the Adani Group. These include a 75% stake in Adani Enterprises, a 66% stake in Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone, a 61% stake in Adani Green Energy, and a 37% stake in Adani Total Gas.

With Adani Power, Adani made its debut in the 2009 market for power generation. In 1988, Adani started Adani Enterprises to import and export goods. His company received approval in 1994 to construct a harbor facility at Mundra Port, which is now India's largest private port.

Adani worked in the diamond industry before dropping out of college. Adani is currently India's largest port operator, thermal coal producer, and coal trader. He bought a 74% stake in India's second-busiest airport, Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, in 2020.

In 1997, the billionaire was kidnapped and held against his will. During the terrorist attack in Mumbai in 2008, Adani was also in the Taj hotel.

4. Age: Bill Gates 67 • Where I Live: • Co-founder: Washington Microsoft (MSFT) has a lot of money: $109 billion • Microsoft's stake in ownership: 1.4 percent (or $24.7 billion) • Other Assets: Bill Gates went to work with his childhood friend Paul Allen to develop new software for the original microcomputers while he was attending Harvard University in 1975. Together, they earned $55 billion in cash and billions across multiple other businesses. Gates dropped out of Harvard during his junior year to co-found Microsoft with Allen following the project's success.

Microsoft, the world's largest software company, also makes a line of personal computers, sells video game systems and related game devices, and offers email services through its exchange server. It has recently made significant investments in cloud services.

In 2008, Gates made the transition from CEO to board chair. In 2004, he joined the board of Berkshire Hathaway. On March 13, 2020, he stepped down from both boards.

Cascade Investment LLC holds a significant portion of Bill Gates' wealth. Cascade is a privately held investment vehicle that owns a variety of stocks, including Republic Services (RSG), Canadian National Railway (CNR), and Deere (DE). It also owns private investments in energy and real estate.

5. Age: Jeff Bezos 58 • Household: Washington • Founder and Chairman of the Board: • Wealth: Amazon (AMZN) $109 billion • The stake of Amazon ownership: 10% (or $85.2 billion) • Additional Assets: Blue Origin ($9.15 billion private asset), The Washington Post ($250 million private asset), and $14.2 billion in cash36 Jeff Bezos started Amazon.com in a Seattle garage in 1994, shortly after he quit his job at D.E. Shaw, a major hedge fund. David E. Shaw, his former boss, had initially rejected his proposal to start an online bookstore.

Although it initially began by selling books, Amazon has since evolved into a one-stop shop for everything and is expected to surpass Walmart as the largest retailer worldwide by 2024. Some of Amazon's unexpected expansions, such as acquiring Whole Foods in 2017 and entering the pharmacy industry simultaneously, demonstrate the company's pattern of constant diversification.

Before transferring 4% of Amazon to his ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, as part of their divorce, Bezos owned as much as 16% of the company in 2019. Due to the increased demand for online shopping amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon's share price rose 76% in 2020. Bezos became executive chair of the e-commerce giant on July 5, 2021, when he resigned as CEO.

Bezos became the first person since Bill Gates in 1999 to have a net worth of more than $100 billion when he took Amazon public in 1997. The aerospace company Blue Origin, The Washington Post, which he bought in 2013, and the 10,000-year clock, also known as the Long Now, are Bezos' other projects.

Bezos, his brother Mark, aviation pioneer Wally Funk, and Dutch student Oliver Daemen completed the first successful crewed flight of Blue Origin on July 20, 2021. They reached an altitude of more than 66 miles before landing safely. In the same month, Bezos' wealth reached its peak of $211 billion.

6. Age of Warren Buffett: 92 • Home Address: Nebraska's CEO is • Worth: Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) $108 billion • Berkshire Hathaway's stake in the company: 107 billion dollars) • Other Assets: $1.10 billion in cash Warren Buffett, the most famous living value investor, declared earnings from his paper route on his first tax return in 1944 when he was 14 years old. In 1962, he bought shares in a textile company called Berkshire Hathaway for the first time. By 1965, he was the majority shareholder. In 1967, Buffett linked the company's holdings to investments and insurance.

Buffett, better known as the "Oracle of Omaha," is a buy-and-hold investor who made his money by buying undervalued businesses. Berkshire Hathaway has recently made investments in significant, well-known businesses. Insurance, energy distribution, railroad interests, and consumer goods are all included in its portfolio of wholly-owned subsidiaries.

Buffett is known to be skeptical of Bitcoin.

A significant portion of Buffett's wealth has been donated to charity. He gave away $41 billion between 2006 and 2020, most of it to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and charities for his children. In 2010, Buffett and Bill Gates introduced the Giving Pledge.

Buffett, who is now 92 years old, continues to be CEO, but in 2021, he suggested that Gregory Abel, who is in charge of Berkshire's non-insurance operations, might take over.

7. Larry Ellison is 78 • Household: Hawaii • Chair, co-founder, and CTO: Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) $92.9 billion • Stake in Oracle Ownership: More than 40% (or $70.2 billion) • Other Assets: Larry Ellison was born in New York City to a 19-year-old single mother who owned Tesla equity, a 4.87 billion dollar public asset, and $17.2 billion in cash. Ellison left the University of Chicago in 1966 and worked as a computer programmer in California. He joined the electronics company Ampex in 1973, where he met Ed Oates and Bob Miner, his future business partners. Ellison moved to Precision Instruments three years later and became vice president of research and development there.

Together with Oates and Miner, Ellison established Software Development Laboratories in 1977. The company released Oracle, the first commercial relational database application to employ Structured Query Language, two years later. In 1982, SDL changed its name to Oracle Systems Corporation after the database program gained so much traction. After 37 years, Ellison left Oracle as CEO in 2014. He joined the board of Tesla in December 2018 and left in June 2022.

The Oracle Exadata computing platform, Java and Linux code, and a wide range of cloud computing programs are all offered by Oracle, the second-largest software company in the world.

Oracle has acquired numerous large businesses, including PeopleSoft, a provider of human resources management systems, in 2005, Siebel, a provider of customer relationship management applications, in 2006, BEA Systems, a provider of enterprise infrastructure software, in 2008, and Sun Microsystems, a developer of hardware and software, in 2009. Oracle agreed to acquire Cerner (CERN), a provider of software for medical records, for $28.3 billion in cash in December 2021.

A significant portion of Buffett's wealth has been donated to charity. He gave away $41 billion between 2006 and 2020, most of it to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and charities for his children. In 2010, Buffett and Bill Gates introduced the Giving Pledge.

Buffett, who is now 92 years old, continues to be CEO, but in 2021, he suggested that Gregory Abel, who is in charge of Berkshire's non-insurance operations, might take over.

7. Larry Ellison is 78 • Household: Hawaii • Chair, co-founder, and CTO: Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) $92.9 billion • Stake in Oracle Ownership: More than 40% (or $70.2 billion) • Other Assets: Larry Ellison was born in New York City to a 19-year-old single mother who owned Tesla equity, a 4.87 billion dollar public asset, and $17.2 billion in cash. Ellison left the University of Chicago in 1966 and worked as a computer programmer in California. He joined the electronics company Ampex in 1973, where he met Ed Oates and Bob Miner, his future business partners. Ellison moved to Precision Instruments three years later and became vice president of research and development there. In 1977, he and Oates and Miner founded Software Development Laboratories. The company released Oracle, the first commercial relational database application to employ Structured Query Language, two years later. In 1982, SDL changed its name to Oracle Systems Corporation after the database program gained so much traction. After 37 years, Ellison left Oracle as CEO in 2014. He joined the board of Tesla in December 2018 and left in June 2022.

The Oracle Exadata computing platform, Java and Linux code, and a wide range of cloud computing programs are all offered by Oracle, the second-largest software company in the world.

Oracle has acquired numerous large businesses, including PeopleSoft, a provider of human resources management systems, in 2005, Siebel, a provider of customer relationship management applications, in 2006, BEA Systems, a provider of enterprise infrastructure software, in 2008, and Sun Microsystems, a developer of hardware and software, in 2009. Oracle agreed to acquire Cerner (CERN), a provider of software for medical records, for $28.3 billion in cash in December 2021.

Ambani's stake in Reliance, which represents 42% of the publicly traded company, accounts for approximately half of his wealth. He owns Antilia, a Mumbai-based $410 million real estate complex. In addition, Ambani owns the professional cricket team Mumbai Indians. In 2016, he launched a 4G phone network in India that attracted more than 420 million subscribers and plans to launch 5G services.

9. Age: Steve Ballmer 66 • Home Address: Owner: Washington Net worth of Los Angeles Clippers: $85.8 billion • Microsoft's stake in ownership: 4% (totaling $76.5 billion) • Other Assets: Steve Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980 after Bill Gates persuaded him to drop out of Stanford University's MBA program. Los Angeles Clippers: $3.73 billion private asset; $5.58 billion cash He worked for Microsoft for the 30th time. In 2000, Ballmer took over for Gates as CEO of Microsoft. Up until his resignation in 2014, he held the position. Ballmer was in charge of Microsoft's $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype in 2011.

Ballmer is Microsoft's largest individual shareholder, with an estimated 4 percent stake. Ballmer made the $2 billion purchase of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team in 2014, shortly after stepping down as Microsoft CEO.

While both Ballmer and Bill Gates attended Harvard University, they shared a dorm and a floor. When Ballmer started pushing the tech company into hardware, such as the Surface tablet and the Windows mobile phone, during his tenure as CEO, the brotherly relationship between the two became strained.

10. Age: Larry Page 49 • Address: California • Member of the Board and co-founder: Alphabet (GOOG) • Assets: $83.7 billion • Stake in Alphabet Ownership: 6 percent (69.7 billion in all) • Other Assets: $14 billion in cash Larry Page, like many of the tech billionaires on this list, got his start in a college dorm room. In 1995, Page and his friend Sergey Brin came up with the idea to improve Internet data extraction while they were attending Stanford University. Due to its capacity to evaluate links to a page, the duo developed a brand-new technology for search engines that they dubbed Backrub.

After that, Page and Brin founded Google in 1998, with Page serving as CEO until 2001 and then again from 2011 to 2019.

With over 92% of all global search requests coming from Google, it is the most popular Internet search engine. The company acquired YouTube, the leading platform for user-submitted videos, in 2006.

In 2008, Google released the Android mobile phone operating system after acquiring Android in 2005. In 2015, Google underwent a reorganization and became a holding company subsidiary of Alphabet.

Space exploration and asteroid mining company Planetary Resources had Page as one of its early investors. The company, which was founded in 2009, was acquired by the blockchain company ConsenSys in 2018 due to funding issues. Additionally, he has invested in both Kitty Hawk and Opener, demonstrating an interest in flying car companies.

In 2021, Page and Brin rose to the top of the billionaire list thanks to a nearly 50 percent increase in Google shares. Page's net worth increased to $86.9 billion in March 2020 from just under $52 billion at the time.

Who are the world's top ten richest people?

The following are the world's top ten richest people:

1.     Arnault Bernard 2. Elon Musk 3. Steve Ballmer  4. Gautam Adani 5. Bill Gates 6. Jeff Bezos   7. Warren Buffett     8. Larry Ellison 9. Mukesh Ambani

10.   Page, Larry