The 10 Richest Man in the World
Billionaires play an outsized role in shaping the global economy, politics, and philanthropy. Forbes puts the number of billionaires in the world at 2,640 in 2023.
With so much of their wealth in publicly traded stocks, the net worth of the richest fluctuates along with the market valuations of the companies they own. Below are the 10 wealthiest people on the planet, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. All figures are current as of April 1, 2024.
1. Bernard Arnault
French national Bernard Arnault is the chair and CEO of LVMH, the world’s largest luxury goods company. LVMH brands include Louis Vuitton, Hennessey, Marc Jacobs, and Sephora.
Details in short
Age: 75
Residence: France
CEO and Chair: LVMH (LVMUY)
Net Worth: $231 billion
Moelis & Company Ownership Stake: 48% ($216 billion total)
Other Assets: $16 billion in cash
2. Jeff Bezos
In 1994, Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com in a garage in Seattle, shortly after he resigned from the hedge fund giant D.E. Shaw. He had originally pitched the idea of an online bookstore to his former boss David E. Shaw, who wasn’t interested.
Details in short
Age: 60
Residence: United States
Founder and Executive Chair: Amazon (AMZN)
Net Worth: $203 billion
Amazon Ownership Stake: 9% ($169 billion)
Other Assets: Blue Origin ($15 billion private asset), The Washington Post ($250 million private asset), Koru ($500 million private asset), and $18.2 billion in cash.
3. Elon Musk
Elon Musk is the richest man in the world. He was born in South Africa and attended a university in Canada before transferring to the 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 (EBAY) and ultimately became PayPal Holdings
Details in short
Age: 52
Residence: United States
Co-founder and CEO: Tesla
Net Worth: $189 billion
Tesla Ownership Stake: 13% ($72.3 billion)
X Ownership Stake: 79% ($7.52 billion)
Other Assets: Space Exploration Technologies ($71.2 billion private asset), The Boring Company ($3.33 billion private asset), Neuralink ($2.07 billion private asset)
4. Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg first developed Facebook (now Meta) alongside fellow students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes 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.
Details in short
Age: 39
Residence: United States
CEO and Chair: Meta Platforms (META)
Net Worth: $173 billion
Meta Platforms Ownership Stake: 13% ($168 billion total)
Other Assets: $4.90 billion in cash
5. Bill Gates
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. Following this project’s success, Gates dropped out of Harvard during his junior year and founded Microsoft with Allen.
Details in short
Age: 68
Residence: United States
Co-founder: Microsoft (MSFT)
Net Worth: $154 billion
Microsoft Ownership Stake: 1.4% ($27.2 billion)
Other Assets: $73.5 billion in cash and billions over multiple other companies
6. Steve Ballmer
Steve Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980 after Bill Gates convinced him to drop out of Stanford University’s MBA program. He was Microsoft’s 30th employee. Ballmer went on to succeed Gates as Microsoft CEO in 2000. He held the position until stepping down in 2014. Ballmer oversaw Microsoft’s 2011 purchase of Skype for $8.5 billion.
Details in short
Age: 68
Residence: United States
Owner: Los Angeles Clippers
Net Worth: $145 billion
Microsoft Ownership Stake: 4% ($134 billion total)
Other Assets: Los Angeles Clippers ($4.56 billion private asset), The Forum ($400 million private asset), Intuit Dome ($2 billion private asset), $4.18 billion in cash
7. Warren Buffett
The most famous living value investor, Warren Buffett filed his first tax return in 1944 at age 14, declaring earnings from his boyhood paper route. He first bought shares in a textile company called Berkshire Hathaway in 1962, becoming the majority shareholder by 1965. Buffett expanded the company’s holdings to insurance and other investments in 1967.
Details in short
Age: 93
Residence: United States
CEO: Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)
Net Worth: $137 billion
Berkshire Hathaway Ownership Stake: 15% ($134 billion)
Other Assets: $1.45 billion in cash
8. Larry Ellison
Larry Ellison was born in New York City to a 19-year-old single mother. After dropping out of the University of Chicago in 1966, 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. Three years later, Ellison moved to Precision Instruments, serving as the company’s vice president of research and development.
Details in short
Age: 79
Residence: United States
Co-founder, Chair, and CTO: Oracle (ORCL)
Net Worth: $139 billion
Oracle Ownership Stake: 42%+ ($105 billion)
Other Assets: Tesla equity ($7.91 billion public asset), $25 billion in cash
9. Larry Page
Like several of the tech billionaires on this list, Larry Page embarked on his path to fame and fortune in a college dorm room. While attending Stanford University in 1995, Page and his friend Sergey Brin came up with the idea of improving Internet data extraction.
The duo devised a new search engine technology they dubbed Backrub after its ability to assess links to a page.From there, Page and Brin went on to found Google in 1998, with Page serving as CEO of the company until 2001, and again between 2011 and 2019.
Details in short
Age: 51
Residence: United States
Co-founder and Board Member: Alphabet (GOOG)
Net Worth: $137 billion
Alphabet Ownership Stake: 6% ($118.1 billion total)
Other Assets: $18.5 billion in cash
10. Sergey Brin
Sergey Brin was born in Moscow, Russia, moving to the U.S. with his family when he was six in 1979. After co-founding Google with Larry Page in 1998, Brin became Google’s president of technology when Eric Schmidt took over as CEO in 2001. He held the same post at the Alphabet holding company after it was established in 2015, stepping down in 2019 when Sundar Pichai took over as CEO.
Details in short
Age: 50
Residence: United States
Co-founder and Board Member: Alphabet (GOOG)
Net Worth: $130 billion
Alphabet Ownership Stake: 6% ($111.2 billion total)
Other Assets: $18.6 billion in cash