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. Arnault remained Férinel’s chair for another six years, until he acquired and reorganized luxury goods maker Financière Agache in 1984, eventually selling all its holdings other than Christian Dior and Le Bon Marché. He was invited to invest in LVMH in 1987 and became the majority shareholder, chair of the board, and CEO of the company two years later. Three soldiers received treatment for non-life threatening injuries, an army spokesperson told BBC News.

• The family is usually in the top three of Forbes’ wealthiest people in the world lists.
• Below are the 10 wealthiest people on the planet, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
• These billionaires can, however, still borrow against that wealth to avoid selling stock, deferring (or eliminating for heirs) taxes on unrealized capital gains in the process.
• All five also founded companies which they either run as CEO or control as the largest shareholders.

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. Page was among early investors in Planetary Resources, a space exploration and asteroid-mining company.

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Gates has long since given up the reins at Microsoft and spends most of his time with his charitable foundation. In 2021, Gates also divorced his wife Melinda French Gates after 25 years of marriage. Ambani is the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, which is involved in multiple industries including petrochemicals and textiles.

If you want to learn more about other billionaires’ wealth and details, visit the Real-Time Billionaires List for the most updated information. François Pinault is the founder of the luxury group Kering, which owns several high-end fashion brands like Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. Charles Koch is the co-owner, chairman, and CEO of Koch Industries, America’s second-largest private company. The company has diverse operations in industries such as chemicals, energy, and manufacturing. Zhong Shanshan is a Chinese billionaire who made his fortune in the bottled water industry with his company, Nongfu Spring. Mukesh Ambani is the chairman and largest shareholder of Reliance Industries, a conglomerate with interests in petrochemicals, refining, oil, telecommunications, and retail.

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The global strife of the COVID-19 pandemic became another flashpoint for debate about income inequality. During that time period, many were stuck at home or faced unemployment as a result of the ensuing economic downturn, but others were enriching themselves at previously unprecedented levels. As the economy faltered, with businesses shuttering and unemployment soaring, the stock market boomed. As the major shareholders of the companies they founded, those like Musk and Bezos got richer despite a lagging economy. If the fortunes of the wealthiest individuals continue to grow at their current pace, the world could see its first trillionaire in the next 10 years, the report projects.

The 2024 list also broke records set in 2021, with 26 more billionaires on the list and their combined net worth up by $1.1 trillion. The only member of the top 10 under the age of 40, 37-year-old Zuckerberg’s wealth increased by $24 billion this year. Zuckerberg owns a 13% stake in Meta — the parent company of Facebook and Instagram of which he is CEO — which has grown in value by more than 20% this year. Bezos owns the Washington Post and also oversees Blue Origin, a space exploration company that seeks to lower the cost and increase the safety of spaceflight.

Bill Gates – Net Worth: $123.1 billion

An S&P 500 CEO earns 272 times more than the average worker, according to a separate report from labor union AFL-CIO. The CEO of Berkshire Hathaway earlier this year revealed that he is “halfway” toward his stated goal of giving away the vast majority of his fortune, but the performance of his company’s stock isn’t helping. This year, 91-year-old Oracle of Omaha added $21 billion to a fortune he has described as “an almost incomprehensible sum.” The former Microsoft CEO and owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers is $41 billion richer at the end of 2021 than he was at the start of the year.

A newly proposed tax would also hit America’s roughly 700 billionaires; these households would be subject to a new minimum tax of 20%, ensuring they don’t pay lower tax rates than many lower- and middle-income Americans. He now spends most of his time minding his Los Angeles basketball team. In April 2022, Ballmer’s Los Angeles landmark Forum Sports and Entertainment Arena in Inglewood got a new name, Kia Forum. Along with his family, Adani controls India’s largest port, in his home state of Gujarat, shown here. “These extremes cannot be accepted as the new norm, the world can’t afford another decade of division,” Oxfam interim CEO Aleema Shivji said in a statement accompanying the report.

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Here’s a countdown of the 20 richest people on the planet by net worth as of spring 2022, as well as a look at who was bounced from Forbes’ 2021 list. If you’re wondering how the richest people in the world built their fortune, you’ve come to the right place. Here 5 wealthiest people in the world are five of the world’s wealthiest and how they went from an average joe to a multi-billionaire. Bernard Arnault and his family are at number one, with a net worth of $233 billion. Arnault is head of LVMH, a luxury fashion and cosmetics conglomerate in France.