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The 50 Richest People According to Forbes

In following with the richest people in 2023 as outlined by Forbes, I witnessed a remarkable surge in the collective net worth of the world’s wealthiest individuals, soaring by an astounding $1.5 trillion to reach a staggering $13.5 trillion as compared to the previous year. This financial ascent occurred against the backdrop of the persistent COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing war in Ukraine, both of which injected economic uncertainty and volatility on a global scale. The diversity within this elite group of affluent individuals is striking, as their fortunes have been amassed across a spectrum of industries.

Some luminaries, such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, carved their financial empires in the realm of technology, while others, including Warren Buffett and Bernard Arnault, found their wealth in more conventional sectors like finance and luxury goods. Notably, the roster of the world’s wealthiest also boasts new entrants this year, among them Zhong Shanshan, the visionary founder of Nongfu Spring, a prominent Chinese company. Shanshan has swiftly ascended to become the 15th richest person globally, commanding a substantial net worth of $68 billion. Geographically dispersed, these rich individuals hail from 26 different countries, showcasing a truly global representation of wealth. I invite you to delve deeper into the profiles of these financial titans as we explore Forbes’ compilation of the 50 richest people worldwide.

1. Bernard Arnault – Net Worth: $211B

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Bernard Arnault oversees the LVMH empire of 75 fashion and cosmetics brands, including Louis Vuitton and Sephora. LVMH acquired American jeweller Tiffany & Co in 2021 for $15.8 billion, believed to be the biggest luxury brand acquisition ever. Arnault’s holding company Agache backs venture capital firm Aglaé Ventures, which has investments in businesses such as Netflix and TikTok parent company ByteDance.

His father made a small fortune in construction; Arnault got his start by putting up $15 million from that business to buy Christian Dior in 1984. Arnault’s five children all work at LVMH; in July 2022, he proposed a reorganization of his holding company Agache to give them equal stakes.

2. Elon Musk – Net Worth: $180B

Elon Musk cofounded six companies, including electric car maker Tesla, rocket producer SpaceX and tunnelling startup Boring Company. He owns about 21% of Tesla between stock and options but has pledged more than half his shares as collateral for personal loans of up to $3.5 billion. SpaceX, founded in 2002, is worth nearly $150 billion after a $750 million tender offer in June 2023; it nearly quintupled its value in four years.

Boring Company, which aims to defeat traffic, raised $675 million in April 2022 at a $5.7 billion valuation. Twitter’s board agreed to sell the company to Musk for $44 billion in April 2022, after he disclosed a 9.1% stake and threatened a hostile takeover. The deal closed in October 2022 after Musk tried to back out and Twitter sued. Musk owns an estimated 74% of the company, which is now called X.

3. Jeff Bezos – Networth: $114B

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Jeff Bezos founded e-commerce giant Amazon in 1994 out of his Seattle garage. Bezos stepped down as CEO to become executive chairman in 2021. He owns a bit less than 10% of the company. Bezos donated more than $400 million worth of stock to nonprofits in 2022, though it’s unclear which organizations received those shares.

He owns The Washington Post and Blue Origin, an aerospace company developing rockets; he briefly flew to space in one in July 2021. Bezos said in a November 2022 interview with CNN that he plans to give away the majority of his wealth in his lifetime, without disclosing specific details.

4. Larry Ellison – Net Worth: $107B

Larry Ellison is chairman, chief technology officer and co-founder of software giant Oracle, of which he owns just under 40%. He gave up the Oracle CEO role in 2014 after 37 years at the helm. Oracle has grown in part through steady acquisitions of software companies: the biggest was $28.3 billion for electronic health records company Cerner in 2021.

In 2020, Ellison moved permanently to the Hawaiian island Lanai, which he bought nearly all of in 2012 for $300 million. Ellison sat on Tesla’s board from December 2018 to August 2022. He still owns about 15 million shares in the electric carmaker.

5. Warren Buffet – Net Worth: $106B

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Warren Buffett is one of the most successful investors of all time. Buffett runs Berkshire Hathaway, which owns dozens of companies, including insurer Geico, battery maker Duracell and restaurant chain Dairy Queen. The son of a U.S. congressman, he first bought stock at age 11 and first filed taxes at age 13.

He has promised to donate over 99% of his wealth. So far he has given some $55 billion, mostly through the Gates Foundation and his kids’ foundations. In 2010, he and Bill Gates launched the Giving Pledge, asking other billionaires to commit to donating at least half of their fortune to charitable causes.

6. Bill Gates – Net Worth: $104B

Bill Gates turned his fortune from software firm Microsoft into diversified holdings including investments in zero-carbon energy companies. In May 2021, Bill and Melinda Gates announced on Twitter they were ending their marriage after 27 years. They still co-chair the charitable Gates Foundation. Gates, who co-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975, transferred at least $6 billion worth of shares in public companies to Melinda as part of the divorce settlement.

As of March 2020, when Gates stepped down from the Microsoft board, he owned about 1.3% of the software and computing company’s shares. He has invested in dozens of companies including Republic Services and Deere & Co., and is one of the largest owners of farmland in the U.S. To date, Gates has donated more than $59 billion to the Gates Foundation, including a $20 billion gift announced in July 2022. Most of his early donations were gifts of Microsoft stock.

7. Michael Bloomberg – Net Worth: $94.5B

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Michael Bloomberg cofounded the financial information and media company Bloomberg LP in 1981. He put in the seed funding for the company and now owns 88% of the business, which has estimated revenues north of $12 billion. Bloomberg got his start on Wall Street in 1966 with an entry-level job at investment bank Salomon Brothers. He was fired 15 years later.

A major philanthropist, he has donated more than $14.4 billion to gun control, climate change and other causes. He has committed to donating his stake in Bloomberg LP to Bloomberg Philanthropies when he dies, if not sooner. Bloomberg served as mayor of New York City for 12 years, from 2002 to 2013, and launched an unsuccessful bid for president in the 2020 race.

8. Carlos Slim Helu & family – Net Worth: $93B

Mexico’s richest person, Carlos Slim Helú and his family control América Móvil, Latin America’s biggest mobile telecom firm. With foreign telecom partners, Slim bought a stake in Telmex, Mexico’s only phone company, in 1990. Telmex is now part of América Móvil.

He also owns stakes in Mexican construction, consumer goods, mining and real estate companies. He previously held a 17% stake in The New York Times. His son-in-law Fernando Romero designed the Soumaya Museum in Mexico City, home to Slim’s extensive, eclectic art collection. Slim and his family own 79% of Grupo Carso, one of Latin America’s largest conglomerates.

9. Mukesh Ambani – Net Worth: $83.4B

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Mukesh Ambani chairs and runs $110 billion Reliance Industries, which has interests in petrochemicals, oil and gas, telecom, retail and financial services. Reliance was founded by his late father Dhirubhai Ambani, a yarn trader, in 1966 as a small textile manufacturer. After his father died in 2002, Ambani and his younger sibling Anil divvied up the family empire. Reliance’s telecom and broadband service Jio has close to 450 million subscribers. In August 2023, Reliance listed its finance arm, Jio Financial Services.

Ambani is pivoting Reliance on green energy. The company will be investing $80 billion over the next 10-15 years in renewable energy and building a new complex next to its refinery. Ambani’s three children joined the board of Reliance in August 2023. Son Akash heads Jio; daughter Isha oversees retail and financial services; and younger son Anant is in the energy business.

10. Steve Ballmer – Net Worth: $80.7B

Steve Ballmer is the former CEO of Microsoft, who led the company from 2000 to 2014. He joined Microsoft in 1980 as an employee after dropping out of Stanford’s MBA program. Ballmer ran Microsoft as CEO after the first dot-com crash and through efforts to catch up to Google in search capabilities and Apple in mobile phones. In 2014, the year he retired from Microsoft, he bought the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion; Forbes now values the team at $4.65 billion.

He has ramped up his philanthropy since 2014, putting over $2 billion into a donor-advised fund, with a focus on economic mobility; to date, the Ballmers have given away nearly $3.5 billion. In 2022, he and his wife Connie donated some $425 million to the University of Oregon to create an institute aimed at the behavioral and mental health needs of children in the state.

11. Francoise Bettencourt Meyers & family – Net Worth: $80.5B

Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, the granddaughter of the founder of L’Oreal, is the richest woman in the world. Bettencourt Meyers and her family own around 33% of L’Oreal stock. She has served on L’Oreal’s board since 1997 and is chairwoman of the family holding company. She became France’s reigning L’Oreal heiress in 2017 when her mother Liliane Bettencourt, then the world’s richest woman, died at age 94.

Bettencourt Meyers also serves as the president of her family’s philanthropic foundation, which encourages French progress in the sciences and arts. Together, L’Oreal and the Bettencourt Meyers family agreed to donate $226 million to repair Notre Dame Cathedral following the April 2019 fire.

12. Larry Page – Net Worth: $79.2B

Larry Page stepped down as CEO of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, in 2019 but remains a board member and a controlling shareholder. He cofounded Google in 1998 with Sergey Brin.

With Brin, Page invented Google’s PageRank algorithm, which powers the search engine. Page was CEO until 2001, when Eric Schmidt took over, and then from 2011 until 2015 when he became CEO of Google’s new parent firm Alphabet.

13. Amancio Ortega – Net Worth: $77.3B

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Amancio Ortega of Spain is one of the wealthiest clothing retailers in the world. A pioneer in fast fashion, he cofounded Inditex, known for its Zara fashion chain, with his ex-wife Rosalia Mera in 1975. He owns about 60% of Madrid-listed Inditex, which has eight brands, including Massimo Dutti and Pull & Bear, and 7,500 stores around the world.

Ortega typically earns more than $400 million in dividends a year. In November 2021, Inditex announced that his daughter Marta Ortega Pérez will become chairperson in April 2022. He has invested his dividends primarily into real estate in Madrid, Barcelona, London, Chicago, Miami and New York.

14. Sergey Brin – Net Worth: $76B

Sergey Brin stepped down as president of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, in December 2019 but remains a board member and a controlling shareholder. Brin moved to the U.S. from Russia when he was 6 years old in the wake of anti-Semitism against his family.

He cofounded Google with Larry Page in 1998 after the two met at Stanford University while studying for advanced degrees in computer science. Google went public in 2004 and began trading as Alphabet, a newly created parent company, in 2015. Brin is reportedly funding a high-tech airship project.

15. Zhong Shanshan – Net Worth: $68B

Zhong Shanshan is the founder and chairman of Nongfu Spring, a bottled water company that listed its shares in Hong Kong in September 2020. Hangzhou-born Zhong dropped out of elementary school during China’s chaotic Cultural Revolution. He later had jobs as a construction worker, a newspaper reporter and a beverage sales agent before starting his own business.

Zhong also controls Wantai Biological, which makes rapid diagnostic tests for infectious diseases including COVID-19. His son Zhong Shu Zi is Nongfu Spring’s non-executive director.

16. Mark Zuckerberg – Net Worth: $64.4B

Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook at Harvard in 2004 at the age of 19 for students to match names with photos of classmates. He took Facebook public in May 2012; he now owns about 13% of the company’s stock.

Facebook changed its name to Meta Platforms in November 2021 in a sign it was shifting the company’s focus to the metaverse. In December 2015, Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, pledged to give away 99% of their Meta stake over their lifetimes.

17. Charles Koch & family – Net Worth: $59B

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Charles Koch has been chairman and CEO of Koch Industries, America’s second-largest private company by revenue, since 1967. The diversified company has some $125 billion in revenues from businesses including pipelines, chemicals, software, automotive components and Dixie cups.

The Kansas native owns a 42% stake in the firm, as did his brother David, who died in August 2019. In 1983 Charles and David bought their two other brothers’ stakes in Koch Industries, reportedly for nearly $800 million. His son Chase heads the company’s venture capital arm, which has invested in AI-based neurological diagnosis firm NeuraLight and smart supply chain firm Arkestro.

18. Julia Koch & family – Net Worth: $59B

Julia Koch and her three children inherited a 42% stake in Koch Industries from her husband, David, who died in August 2019 at age 79. An Iowa native, Koch moved to New York City in the 1980s and worked as an assistant to fashion designer Adolfo.

She worked with many of his high-profile clients, including First Lady Nancy Reagan. Julia met David via a blind date in 1991; they ran into each other again six months later, began dating and got married in 1996. With her late husband, she donated $10 million to Mount Sinai Medical Center and $10 million to Stanford Children’s Hospital to study food allergies.

19. Jim Walton – Net Worth: $58.8B

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Jim Walton is the youngest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton. He is chairman of the family’s Arvest Bank, which boasts assets of more than $20 billion. Jim sat on Walmart’s board for more than a decade before yielding the seat to his son, Steuart, in June 2016.

Collectively, he and other heirs of Sam Walton own about half of Walmart’s stock. Jim and sister Alice are spearheading a program that will issue $300 million in bonds to help charter schools invest in facilities.

20. Rob Walton & family – Net Worth: $57.6B

Rob Walton is the eldest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton. Walton took over as chairman upon his father’s death in 1992. He retired as chairman in June 2015 and was replaced by his son-in-law, Greg Penner. Penner still sits on Walmart’s board.

He and other heirs of Sam Walton collectively own about half of Walmart’s stock. In June 2022, a group led by Walton agreed to buy the NFL’s Denver Broncos for $4.7 billion–a record for a sports franchise.

21. Alice Walton – Net Worth: $56.7B

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Alice Walton is the only daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton. She has focused on curating art, rather than working for Walmart like her siblings, Rob and Jim. In 2011, she opened the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in her hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas.

Crystal Bridges features works from the likes of Andy Warhol, Norman Rockwell and Mark Rothko. In 2022, the holistic health institute Walton founded in Bentonville a year earlier was renamed the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine.

22. David Thomson & family – Net Worth: $54.4B

David Thomson and his family control a media and publishing empire founded by his grandfather Roy Thomson. The family’s biggest holding: more than 320 million shares of Thomson Reuters, where Thomson serves as chairman.

In 2018, Thomson Reuters announced it was selling a controlling stake in Refinitiv, a financial data provider, to Blackstone for $17 billion. The family also holds a stake in telecom giant Bell Canada and owns the Toronto-based Globe and Mail newspaper.

23. Michael Dell – Net Worth: $50.1B

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Michael Dell is chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies, which was formed in 2016 via Dell’s $60 billion merger with computer storage giant EMC. In late 2018 Dell Technologies returned to public markets through a complicated financial restructuring.

Dell’s cloud software arm, VMware, spun off in 2021; Microchip firm Broadcom is now in a $61 billion deal to buy it, pending regulatory approval. Much of Dell’s fortune lies in his private investment firm DFO Management, which has stakes in hotels and invests in liquid corporate credit. In 2017, Dell donated $1 billion to his foundation, which focuses on child poverty; it makes both impact investments and charitable donations.

24. Gautam Adani – Net Worth: $47.2B

Gautam Adani is chairman of the $32 billion Adani Group, with interests in ports, airports, power generation and transmission, and green energy, among others. The Adani Group, which began in 1988 as a commodities trading firm, expanded through acquisitions and with the support of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Adani is India’s biggest airport operator and also controls Mundra Port, India’s largest, in his home state of Gujarat. Adani became India’s second-largest cement producer in 2022, after acquiring Swiss firm Holcim’s Indian assets for $10.5 billion.

25. Phil Knight & family – Net Worth: $45.1B

Phil Knight, cofounder of shoe giant Nike, retired as chairman in June 2016 after 52 years at the company. Knight ran track at the University of Oregon and created Nike shoes with his former track coach, Bill Bowerman.

In 1964, they each put up $500 to start what would become Nike, then called Blue Ribbon Sports. Today Nike’s revenues are nearly $45 billion. Knight has pledged over $500 million in donations to each of the University of Oregon and Stanford University, his alma mater.

26. Zhang Yiming – Net Worth: $45B

Zhang Yiming is the main founder of Chinese tech giant ByteDance, best known for its insanely popular app TikTok, which has more than 1 billion users worldwide. Zhang stepped down as chairman of ByteDance in November 2021 after resigning as CEO in May that year, reportedly under pressure from the Chinese government.

ByteDance’s valuation has taken a hit lately amid speculation that TikTok may be banned in the U.S. market. It also has interests in everything from news and education to video gaming. Zhang started ByteDance in 2012 in a four-bedroom Beijing apartment and launched the news-aggregation app Toutiao months later. He was a member of the 2013 Forbes China 30 Under 30 List.

27. Dieter Schwarz – Net Worth: $42.9B

Dieter Schwarz’s Schwarz Group, with revenue of over $140 billion, is comprised of the Kaufland and Lidl discount supermarkets. Schwarz inherited the company from his father, Josef, who became a partner in Suedfruechte Grosshandel Lidl & Co., a fruit wholesaler, in 1930.

Dieter opened the first Lidl store in 1973, became CEO in 1977 when Josef died, and built Schwarz Group into Europe’s largest retail empire, with 500,000 employees. Lidl entered the U.S. in 2017, promising to convince consumers to Rethink Grocery. Its stores are mostly in Virginia and North and South Carolina. Schwarz Group is owned by a foundation, technically a limited liability company, but Dieter maintains full control and is the effective owner.

28. Francois Pinault & family – Net Worth: $40.1B

François Pinault is the honorary chairman of the luxury group Kering, which owns fashion brands Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen and Gucci. Pinault founded Kering, which started as a wood and building materials company, in 1963. In 1999, Pinault changed the direction of the business toward luxury goods when he bought a controlling stake in Gucci Group.

Pinault and his family own the iconic auction house Christie’s, plus a 3,000-piece art collection with works by Picasso, Mondrian and Koons. The Pinault Collection is on display in the 18th-century Bourse de Commerce building in Paris, which he helped restore.

29. Klaus-Michael Kuehne – Net Worth: $39.1B

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Klaus-Michael Kuehne is the honorary chairman of Kuehne + Nagel International AG, based in ‎Schindellegi‎, Switzerland. He joined the company, cofounded by his grandfather, in 1958, eventually taking over as CEO in 1966. In 2016, his Kuehne Holding AG acquired 20% of VTG, a rail logistics company. Two years later, it sold the stake to Morgan Stanley Infrastructure.

He owns roughly 30% of the shipping and logistics company Hapag-Lloyd, a holding he has steadily increased in recent years. Throughout the course of 2022, he acquired 17.5% of Lufthansa, the German airline carrier, and became its largest single investor.

30. Giovanni Ferrero – Net Worth: $38.9B

Giovanni Ferrero is the executive chairman of his family’s namesake confections business, which posted $15 billion in sales in 2022. The firm is best known for its iconic Nutella chocolate-hazelnut spread, Kinder chocolates and Tic Tac mints.

Giovanni served as co-CEO with his brother, Pietro, who died of a heart attack in 2011. In 2017 he stepped down as CEO but stayed on as executive chairman to focus on corporate strategy. Ferrero acquired Nestle’s entire U.S. confections business in 2018 for $2.8 billion.

31. Jacqueline Mars – Net Worth: $38.3B

Jacqueline Mars owns an estimated one-third of Mars, the candy, food and pet care firm founded by her grandfather. She worked for the company for nearly 20 years and served on the board until 2016.

Mars serves on the board of the National Archives and was formerly on the board of the Washington National Opera. Her brother John owns an estimated third of Mars; her late brother Forrest Jr.’s four daughters own the rest.

32. John Mars – Net Worth: $38.3B

John and his siblings Jacqueline and Forrest Jr. inherited stakes in the candy, food and pet care firm Mars when their father died in 1999. He and Jacqueline each own an estimated one-third of the company. His late brother Forrest Jr.’s four daughters own the rest.

The $47 billion candy, pet care and food company was founded by John’s grandfather, Frank, in 1911. Mars is also a big name in pet care, with brands including Pedigree and Whiskas, as well as food like Ben’s Original rice.

33. Li Ka-shing – Net Worth: $38B

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Nicknamed Superman, Li Ka-shing is revered as one of the most influential businessmen in Asia. Li retired as chairman of CK Hutchison Holdings and CK Asset Holdings in May 2018 but remains a senior advisor.

At his retirement announcement, Li joked that he’d been working for a long time, too long. His son Victor now heads the conglomerate, which has more than 300,000 employees and operates in more than 50 nations. Li started Cheung Kong Plastics, named after the Yangtze River, in 1950 at age 21 with $6,500 in savings and loans from relatives. His Li Ka Shing Foundation has donated more than $3.8 billion; over 80% has gone to Greater China.

34. Ma Huateng – Net Worth: $35.3B

Ma Huateng chairs Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings. Tencent’s popular social messaging app WeChat has 1.3 billion users. Tencent, which owns a stake in U.S. videogame company Epic Games, is one of the largest videogame publishers in the world.

It has stakes in electric car maker Tesla and music-streaming service Spotify, which in turn has a stake in its Tencent Music. Ma led the research and development of Internet paging system development at China Motion Telecom Development before starting Tencent in 1998.

35. Miriam Adelson & family – Net Worth: $35B

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Miriam Adelson is the widow of Sheldon Adelson, the former CEO and chairman of casino company Las Vegas Sands, who died at 87 in 2021. She and her family now own more than half of the New York Stock Exchange-listed gambling empire, which has casinos in Singapore and Macao.

As GOP megadonors, Miriam and Sheldon Adelson donated $180 million to Republican campaigns and political action committees in 2020. Born in Israel, she became a medical doctor focusing on addiction. In February 2022, Las Vegas Sands sold its assets on the Vegas Strip, the Venetian Resort and the Sands Expo and Convention Center, to Apollo Global and VICI Properties for $6.25 billion.

36. Ken Griffin – Net Worth: $35B

Ken Griffin founded and runs Citadel, a Miami-based hedge fund firm that manages more than $60 billion in assets. Griffin founded Citadel in 1990 but first began trading from his Harvard dorm in 1987. He put a satellite dish on the roof to get real-time stock quotes.

Citadel Securities, one of Wall Street’s biggest market-making firms, is responsible for one of every five stock trades in the U.S. During the pandemic, Griffin funded the State Department’s rescue of 800 U.S. citizens from Wuhan and donated $45 million to community initiatives in cities like Chicago and Miami. Griffin has given some $1.9 billion to philanthropic causes, including $300 million to Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences in April 2023; the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences bears his name.

37. Mark Mateschitz – Net Worth: $34.7B

Mark Mateschitz is the only child of the late Austrian billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz, who cofounded energy drink firm Red Bull in 1987. He inherited his father’s 49% stake in Red Bull after the elder Mateschitz died in October 2022 at the age of 78. Dietrich Mateschitz cofounded Red Bull with Thai businessman Chaleo Yoovidhya Yoovidhya’s son Chalerm is a billionaire today.

Red Bull sold 11.6 billion cans worldwide in 2022, enough to caffeinate every person on the planet. After his father’s death, Mark Mateschitz stepped down from his role as Head of Organics at the $10 billion company to concentrate on his role as a shareholder.

38. Robin Zeng – Net Worth: $33.4B

Robin Zeng is the founder and chairman of Contemporary Amperex Technology, one of the world’s largest suppliers of batteries for electric vehicles. CATL, which was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2018, supplies batteries to such automakers as BMW, Volkswagen and Geely.

Zeng holds a PhD from the Institute of Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. CATL is headquartered in Zeng’s hometown of Ningde in Fujian Province. Ford in 2023 announced plans to cooperate with CATL on a $3.5 billion factory in Michigan that will employ 2,500 people to start.

39. Tadashi Yanai & family – Net Worth: $32.6B

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Tadashi Yanai built and runs the Tokyo-listed retail clothing empire Fast Retailing, the parent of the Uniqlo chain. Fast Retailing’s other brands include Theory, Helmut Lang, J Brand and GU. The company reported a net profit of $1.2 billion on revenue of $17 billion for the fiscal year ended August 2022.

Flagship brand Uniqlo has more than 2,400 stores across 25 countries.  Yanai wants his company to become the world’s largest retailer, which means it would have to surpass H&M and Inditex, the parent of Zara.

40. Len Blavatnik – Net Worth: $32.1B

Born in Ukraine, and raised north of Moscow, Len Blavatnik immigrated to the U.S. in 1978 with his family. He made an early fortune from Russian oil company TNK-BP, including billions in dividends paid by the joint venture and the sale of his stake in 2013 for $7 billion.

After purchasing Warner Music in 2011 for $3.3 billion, he took the company public in June 2020 at quadruple the value. His investment firm Access Industries holds stakes in chemicals firm LyondellBasell, energy conglomerate Calpine and house flipping website Opendoor. Blavatnik says he has given or pledged over $1 billion to philanthropy, mostly to universities, including Oxford, Stanford and Harvard. The Blavatniks have given to both political parties in the U.S., from Trump’s inaugural committee to Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign.

41. Alain Wertheimer – Net Worth: $31.6B

Alain Wertheimer is the chairman of Chanel, the French luxury brand. He owns the company with his brother Gerard, who oversees the watch division.

His grandfather Pierre Wertheimer founded it with Gabrielle Coco Chanel, the company’s namesake. Karl Lagerfeld, the public face of Chanel, died in February 2019 at the age of 85. He had been the company’s creative director for over 35 years

42. Gerard Wertheimer – Net Worth: $31.6B

Gerard Wertheimer and his brother Alain own the French luxury brand Chanel. Gerard heads the company’s watch division and lives in Switzerland.

His grandfather, Pierre, partnered with Gabrielle Coco Chanel, the company’s namesake, in the 1920s. Gerard and his brother own vineyards in France and Napa Valley, California.

43. Gianluigi Aponte – Net Worth: $31.2B

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Gianluigi Aponte and his wife Rafaela each own a 50% stake in MSC, the world’s largest shipping line. They entered the shipping industry together in 1970 when they purchased a ship with a $200,000 loan.

MSC also operates in holiday cruises MSC Cruises, inland logistics Medlog and port operations Terminal Investment Limited. Gianluigi is MSC’s executive chairman; Rafaela is responsible for decorating ships for MSC Cruises and their son, Diego, is MSC’s president.

44. Rafaela Aponte-Diamant – Net Worth: $31.2B

Rafaela Aponte-Diamant and her husband Gianluigi each own a 50% stake in MSC, the world’s largest shipping line. Rafaela first met Gianluigi on a trip to the Italian island of Capri in the 1960s, when Gianluigi was a ship captain.

They entered the shipping industry together in 1970 when they purchased a ship with a $200,000 loan. MSC also operates in holiday cruises MSC Cruises, inland logistics Medlog and port operations Terminal Investment Limited. Rafaela is responsible for decorating ships for MSC Cruises; Gianluigi is MSC’s executive chairman and their son, Diego, is MSC’s president.

45. Colin Huang – Net Worth: $30.2B

Colin Huang is the founder of PDD Holdings, the Chinese e-commerce company that changed its name from Pinduoduo in February 2023. Huang, who stepped down as chairman of the company in March 2021, is still a major shareholder of PDD.

PDD launched the budget shopping site Temu in September 2022 to compete with Shein, led by fellow Chinese billionaire Sky Xu. A serial entrepreneur, Huang earlier founded the online games company Xinyoudi and the e-commerce platform Ouku.com. Huang, who has a master’s in computer science from U. of Wisconsin, interned at Microsoft in both Beijing and Seattle before starting his career at Google in the U.S. in 2004.

46. Reinhold Wuerth & family – Net Worth: $29.7B

Reinhold Wuerth entered his father’s wholesale screw business in 1949, at age 14, as the company’s second employee and first apprentice. He took the reins in 1954 and honed a competitive advantage by delivering goods directly to customers on construction sites and in mechanical shops.

Today, with annual sales of over $16 billion, the Wuerth Group has more than 400 companies and 83,000 employees around the world. Reinhold retired in 1994, but he still serves as chairman of the supervisory board of the Wuerth Group’s family trusts.

47. Lee Shau Kee – Net Worth: $28.5B

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Lee Shau Kee cofounded property developer Sun Hung Kai with Kwok Tak-Seng, the late father of Hong Kong’s billionaire Kwok brothers. He started Henderson Land Development in 1976; the property giant now makes up the bulk of his wealth.

In 2019, he stepped down as chairman of Henderson Land and appointed his sons, Martin and Peter, as co-chairmen. A dedicated philanthropist, he’s donated more than $400 million toward education over the years. Lee grew up in a poor family that could afford to eat fish or meat only twice a month.

48. Jeff Yass – Net Worth: $28.5B

Yass is a cofounder of Susquehanna International Group, one of Wall Street’s largest and most successful trading firms. He went to SUNY Binghamton, became a pro gambler, and then began trading on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange in 1981 backed by billionaire Israel Englander.

In 1987, he cofounded Susquehanna with a handful of partners; it’s now a giant in options trading and making markets, with 2,000 employees worldwide. It recruits and trains traders using poker tournaments to sharpen decision-making skills; its traders have won 3 World Series of Poker bracelets. Susquehanna has invested in hundreds of private companies globally, including TikTok parent ByteDance, its most valuable holding based on Forbes reporting.

49. Jim Simons – Net Worth: $28.1B

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Jim Simons is the founder of Renaissance Technologies, an esteemed quantitative trading hedge fund firm that manages about $50 billion. He founded Renaissance Technologies in 1982 and retired in 2010, but he still plays a role at Renaissance and benefits from its funds.

Renaissance Technologies is famous for its Medallion Fund, a $10 billion black-box strategy that is only open to Renaissance’s owners and employees. Simons has given $4 billion to philanthropic causes. His foundation is the primary funder of Math For America. He also supports autism research.

50. Stephen Schwarzman – Net Worth: $27.8B

The son of a dry goods store owner, Stephen Schwarzman founded private equity firm Blackstone with fellow billionaire Peter Peterson in 1985. Initially a boutique merger-and-acquisition advisory business, Blackstone grew into the world’s largest buyout firm, with $991 billion in assets.

While Peter Peterson retired shortly after Blackstone’s 2007 IPO, Schwarzman still presides over the business as chairman and CEO. Schwarzman got his start on Wall Street at Lehman Brothers; he writes in his 2019 memoir about mistakes by management at that firm. He started his first business, a lawn-mowing operation, at age 14, employing his younger twin brothers to mow while he brought in the clients.

As outlined in the article, the 50 richest people come from a variety of industries, including technology, retail, finance, and luxury goods. The rise of the world’s richest people is a testament to the power of innovation and entrepreneurship. The world’s richest people are constantly changing, as fortunes rise and fall. However, the people on this list are all sure to make headlines for years to come.