Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault and Jeff Bezos are the three wealthiest men
Tesla’s chief Elon Musk took the top spot in the Forbes 36th Annual World’s Billionaires List for the first time this year.
When Forbes “locked in” the net fortunes of the planet’s richest people in March, Musk was worth an estimated $219bn, having added $68bn to his fortune in the 12 months before “on the back of a 33% jump in the share price” of the electric vehicle maker.
The magazine’s real-time rankings show that his fortune has fluctuated and returned to $219bn as of today, while several of the other top ten have seen their wealth drop. “Investors are feeling the effects of new inflation data and hiked interest rates that hit US markets – and the richest people in the world are not immune,” said US magazine Entrepreneur.
The last few years have also been “a roller-coaster ride” for Bernard Arnault, the luxury goods tycoon, said Business Insider. The pandemic “sank” LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton stock, but “strong sales” in his fashion businesses and “an uptick in alcohol sales” have meant he has maintained a pole position in the rich list leaderboards.
Here The Week looks at the top ten richest people in the world, according to the Forbes real-time billionaires list.
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Elon Musk: $219bn
Elon Musk is the CEO of electric car giant Tesla and the founder and CEO of SpaceX. He divides his time between the two companies and projects like Hyperloop, a proposed ultra-high-speed train line.
In April 2022 it was announced that Musk had become Twitter’s single biggest shareholder after buying a 9.2% stake worth almost $3bn. A “months-long saga” has been underway since January, when Musk first began investing in Twitter, before offering to buy the company in April for $44bn, said ABC News. He attempted to pull out of the deal and then revived his plans again last week.
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Bernard Arnault and family: $146.2bn
“When it comes to the world of luxury goods, perhaps no one is more successful than Bernard Arnault,” said Business Insider.
The Frenchman – and wealthiest European on the rich list – oversees the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton empire of more than 70 brands, including Louis Vuitton, Moët & Chandon and TAG Heuer.
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Jeff Bezos: $136bn
Former hedge fund manager Jeff Bezos started Amazon in his garage in 1994. He has invested heavily in space technology too, having founded Blue Origin as a “pet project” back in 2000.
After stepping down as Amazon CEO he took on the new role of executive chair. He also owns The Washington Post newspaper.
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Gautam Adani & family $127.8bn
Gautam Adani has made his money through infrastructural investment.
The share price in his listed companies “in sectors ranging from ports to power stations” have risen sharply this year, and he “briefly” overtook Bezos to become the world’s second richest man in September, reported CNN Business. Now, “he may be too big to fail”.
5
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Bill Gates: $101.3bn
Microsoft founder Bill Gates has been a permanent fixture near the top of the rich list for the past 20 years, despite selling and then giving away much of his stake in the tech company.
He now owns just 1% and focuses predominantly on his philanthropic work.
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Warren Buffett: $96.1bn
Buffet was 11 years old when he first bought stock, according to Forbes. Now in his ninth decade, the Berkshire Hathaway chief executive, known as the “Oracle of Omaha”, is one of the most successful investors of all time.
Like Bill Gates, Buffett has pledged to give away more than 99% of his fortune to charity.
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Larry Ellison: $89.1bn
American business magnate Larry Ellison is co-founder, chairman and chief technology officer of Oracle. He owns around 35% of the software giant.
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Larry Page: $85.8bn
Internet entrepreneur Larry Page is one of the co-founders of Google. He stepped down as CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc in December 2019 but remains a board member.
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Subhankar Chakraborty/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
Mukesh Ambani: $84.9bn
Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani is founder and chairman of Reliance Industries. The company has interests in petrochemicals, oil and gas, telecom and retail.
10
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Sergey Brin: $82.4bn
Along with Larry Page, Sergey Brin was a co-founder of Google. Until December 2019, he was president of Alphabet Inc.
