Who is the top 10 richest man in 2023?

World Famous 10 Richest People

The influence of billionaires on world politics, philanthropy, and the economy is immense. According to Forbes, there will be 2,640 billionaires in the globe in 2023. Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla as well as the owner of X (previously Twitter), is the richest of them all.
The people on this list have even more influence and are members of an even more restricted club.

Many are the founders of massive technology companies, and a sizable portion of their fortune is still tied to the businesses they founded avoid selling shares, these billionaires can still borrow against their fortune, which postpones—or eliminates—their successors’ taxes on unrealized capital gains. Additionally, multibillionaires can deduct a wide range of expenses from their reported income, which puts some of them on this list.

1. Elon Musk

52 years old

Place of residence: USA

CEO and co-founder: Tesla

$229 billion is his net worth.

13% of Tesla’s total assets ($102 billion)

X Owns 79% of the Company ($9.32 billion)

Additional assets include The Boring Company ($3.33 billion private asset) and Space Exploration Technologies ($53.2 billion private asset).

The richest guy on the planet is Elon Musk. Born in South Africa, he first studied at a Canadian university before moving to the University of Pennsylvania to complete his bachelor’s degrees in economics and physics. Musk postponed attending Stanford University’s graduate physics program for two days in order to introduce Zip2, one of the first internet navigation systems. A part of the startup’s profits were reinvested by him to launch X.com, an online payment system that was eventually acquired by eBay (EBAY) and rebranded as PayPal Holdings (PYPL).
Musk started contributing significantly to Tesla Motors (now Tesla) in 2004, which helped him advance to the CEO role at the electric vehicle manufacturer. Apart from its range of electric vehicles, Tesla.

Elon Musk

Tesla became the largest company to be added to the S&P 500 in December 2020. Elon Musk then became the richest person in the world in January 2021, a title that has changed based on Tesla’s value.

Musk launched a campaign to take X private in April 2022, and it resulted in a $44 billion buyout. Musk intended to use $21 billion of his personal funds to finance the transaction. Prior to the announcement of the takeover, Musk sold 9.6 million Tesla shares, or about $8.5 billion in value.
Wall Street Journal. “Elon Musk Plans to Take Twitter Public a Few Years After Buyout.”

Musk made the decision to withdraw from the takeover in July 2022. To compel Musk to complete the takeover, the business sued him.

2. Bernard Arnault

74 years old

Place of residence: France

LVMH’s CEO and Chair: LVMUY

$179 billion is his net worth.

Ownership Stake in Christian Dior: 97.5% ($137 billion in total)

Other Assets: $14.8 billion in cash and shares in Moelis & Company ($27.4 billion in public assets).

The head of the world’s largest luxury goods company, LVMH, is French national Bernard Arnault. Louis Vuitton, Hennessey, Marc Jacobs, and Sephora are among the LVMH brands.

The majority of Arnault’s fortune stems from his enormous investment in Christian Dior SE, the holding company that owns 41.4% of LVMH. His stake in Christian Dior SE, as well as a 6.2% stake in LVMH, is held by his family-owned holding firm, Groupe Familial Arnault.

Bernard Arnault

Arnault, a trained engineer, first demonstrated his economic aptitude while working for his father’s construction firm, Ferret-Savinel, which he took over in 1971. In 1979, he changed the name of Ferret-Savinel to Férinel Inc., a real estate company.

Arnault stayed in charge of Férinel for another six years, until he bought and rebuilt the luxury goods company Financière Agache in 1984, finally selling all of its interests save Christian Dior and Le Bon Marché. He was encouraged to invest in LVMH in 1987 and two years later became the company’s majority stakeholder, chair of the board, and CEO.

3. Jeff Bezos

Age: 59

Residence: United States

Amazon (AMZN) is the founder and CEO of the company.

Net worth: $177 billion

Amazon’s ownership stake is 10% ($150 billion).

Other assets include Blue Origin ($11.2 billion private asset), The Washington Post ($250 million private asset), Koru ($500 million private asset), and $14.8 billion in cash.

Jeff Bezos launched Amazon.com in a Seattle garage in 1994, shortly after leaving the hedge fund titan D.E. Shaw. He first offered the notion of an online bookstore to his former boss, David E. Shaw, who was uninterested.

Though Amazon began by selling books, it has since evolved into a one-stop shop for everything under the sun, and it is anticipated to overtake Walmart as the world’s largest retailer by 2024. Amazon’s tendency of ongoing diversification is seen in some of its surprise expansions, such as acquiring Whole Foods in 2017 and entering the pharmacy market the same year.

In 2019, Bezos held up to 16% of Amazon before surrendering 4% to his ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, as part of their divorce procedures.              In 2020,Amazon’s stock price increased 76% due to increased demand for online purchasing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bezos will step down as CEO of Amazon on July 5, 2021, to become executive chair.

Jeff Bezos

Bezos took Amazon public in 1997 and went on to become the first guy with a net worth of more than $100 billion since Bill Gates in 1999. Bezos’ other initiatives include the aerospace company Blue Origin, The Washington Post (which he purchased in 2013), and the 10,000-year clock, commonly known as the Long Now.

On July 20, 2021, Bezos, his brother Mark, aviation pioneer Wally Funk, and Dutch student Oliver Daemen accomplished Blue Origin’s first successful crewed flight, reaching an altitude of more than 66 miles before landing safely. Bezos’ fortune peaked at $213 billion in the same month.

He spent $500 million on the superyacht Koru in 2023.

4. Bill Gates

Age: 68

United States of America

Microsoft (MSFT) is a co-founder.

Worth: $141 billion

Microsoft owns 1.4% of the company ($24.3 billion).

Other assets include $67.6 billion in cash and billions in other enterprises.

Bill Gates started to work alongside his childhood buddy Paul Allen to build new software for the early microcomputers while attending Harvard University in 1975. Following the success of this experiment, Gates dropped out of Harvard during his junior year to co-found Microsoft with Allen.

Microsoft, the world’s largest software firm, also manufactures personal computers, offers email services via its exchange server, and sells video game consoles and associated game devices. It has recently made significant investments in cloud services.

Bill Gates

In 2008, Gates stepped down as CEO and became board chair. In 2004, he was appointed to the board of directors of Berkshire Hathaway. On March 13, 2020, he stepped down from both boards.

Cascade Investment LLC has a significant portion of Bill Gates’ net fortune. Cascade is a privately held investment entity that owns stocks such as Canadian National Railway (CNR), Deere (DE), and Republic Services (RSG), as well as private assets in real estate and energy.

5. Steve Ballmer

Age: 67

Residence: United States

Los Angeles Clippers

Net worth: $131 billion

Microsoft owns 4% of the company ($120 billion overall).

Other assets include the Los Angeles Clippers ($4.56 billion private asset), The Forum ($400 million private asset), the Intuit Dome ($2 billion private asset), and $3.75 billion in cash.

Steve Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980 after Bill Gates persuaded him to leave Stanford University’s MBA program. He was Microsoft’s 30th employee. Ballmer succeeded Gates as CEO of Microsoft in 2000. He maintained the role until 2014, when he stepped down. Ballmer led Microsoft’s $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype in 2011.

Steve Ballmer

Ballmer owns an estimated 4% of Microsoft, making him the software company’s greatest individual shareholder. Ballmer paid $2 billion for the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team in 2014, shortly after standing down as Microsoft CEO.

While attending Harvard University, Ballmer shared a dorm room and a floor with Bill Gates. During his term as CEO, Ballmer began pushing the tech corporation into hardware, including as the Surface tablet and the Windows mobile phone, which strained their fraternal connection.

6. Mark Zuckerberg

Age: 39

United States of America

Meta Platforms (META) CEO and Chair

Worth: $128 billion

Meta Platforms owns 13% of the company ($124 billion overall).

Other assets include $4.20 billion in cash.

While attending Harvard University in 2004, Mark Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook (now Meta) with fellow students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. As Facebook became more widely used at other campuses, Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard to devote his whole attention to his expanding firm. Zuckerberg is now the CEO and chairman of Meta, which had 3 billion monthly active users as of the second quarter of 2023.

Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook is the world’s most popular social networking site. Because the website is free to use, advertising accounts for the majority of the company’s revenue.

Meta also houses several other brands, including photo-sharing app Instagram, which it acquired in 2012; cross-platform mobile messaging service WhatsApp and virtual-reality headset producer Oculus, both acquired in 2014; Workplace, its enterprise-connectivity platform; and Portal, its line of video-calling devices.

In 2015, Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, co-founded the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, with each serving as co-CEO. Their nonprofit aims to use technology to address societal issues such as enhancing educational access and quality, overhauling both the criminal justice and immigration systems in the United States, increasing housing affordability, and finally curing all diseases.

7. Larry Page

Age: 50

Residence: United States

Alphabet (GOOG) co-founder and board member

Net worth: $126 billion

Alphabet owns 6% of the company ($109.3 billion overall).

Other assets: $17.1 billion in cash

Larry Page, like many of the other tech billionaires on our list, began his journey to fame and money in a college dorm room. Page and his friend Sergey Brin came up with the notion of better Internet data extraction while attending Stanford University in 1995. The pair created Backrub, a new search engine technology named after its capacity to evaluate links to a page.

Page and Brin went on to co-found Google in 1998, with Page acting as CEO until 2001, and again from 2011 to 2019.

Larry Page

Google is the world’s most popular Internet search engine, accounting for more than 92% of all global search requests. In 2006, the business purchased YouTube, the leading platform for user-submitted videos.

After acquiring Android in 2005, Google debuted the Android mobile phone operating system in 2008. Google reorganized in 2015, becoming a subsidiary of Alphabet, a holding company.

Page was an early investor in Planetary Resources, a corporation focused on space exploration and asteroid mining. The company was founded in 2009 and was acquired by blockchain developer ConsenSys in 2018 due to funding issues. He has also demonstrated an interest in flying car firms, investing in both Kitty Hawk and Opener, albeit Kitty Hawk is no longer in existence.

8. Larry Ellison

Age: 79

United States of America

Oracle (ORCL) is a co-founder, chairman, and chief technology officer.

Worth: $123 billion

Oracle owns 42% or more of the company ($88.4 billion).

Other assets include Tesla stock ($11.2 billion public asset) and $22.8 billion in cash.

Larry Ellison was born to a 19-year-old single mother in New York City. Ellison traveled to California and worked as a computer programmer after leaving the University of Chicago in 1966. He joined the electronics firm Ampex in 1973, where he met future partners Ed Oates and Bob Miner. Three years later, Ellison joined Precision Instruments as vice president of research and development.

Along with Oates and Miner, Ellison co-founded Software Development Laboratories in 1977. Two years later, Oracle, the first commercial relational database program to use Structured Query Language, was published. Because of the success of the database program, SDL changed its name to Oracle Systems Corporation in 1982. After 37 years as CEO of Oracle, Ellison retired in 2014. He joined Tesla’s board of directors in December 2018 and will step down in June 2022.

Larry Ellison

Oracle is the world’s second-largest software corporation, offering a wide range of cloud computing applications, Java and Linux code, and the Oracle Exadata processing platform. Oracle has acquired a number of big enterprises throughout the years, including Sun Microsystems and Cerner.

Ellison’s charitable contributions have primarily benefited medical research. In 2016, he donated $200 million to the University of Southern California for the establishment of a new cancer research center. Ellison provided financial support to the Oracle Team USA sailing team, which won the America’s Cup racing series in 2010 and 2013.

9. Sergey Brin

Age: 50

United States of America

Alphabet (GOOG) Co-Founder and Board Member

Worth: $120 billion

Alphabet owns 6% of the company ($102.8 billion in total).

Other assets include $17.2 billion in cash.

Sergey Brin was born in Moscow, Russia, and moved to the United States with his family when he was six years old, in 1979. Brin became Google’s president of technology after Eric Schmidt took over as CEO in 2001, after co-founding Google with Larry Page in 1998. He held the same position at Alphabet since its inception in 2015, stepping aside in 2019 when Sundar Pichai took over as CEO.

Sergey Brin

Google Workspace is a suite of online tools and services that includes Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Google Meet, Google Chat, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, and more. Google also sells a wide range of electrical gadgets, such as Pixel smartphones, desktops, and tablets, Nest smart home devices, and the Stadia gaming platform.

Brin, in collaboration with The Michael J. Fox Foundation, has donated millions of dollars to Parkinson’s disease research.

10. Warren Buffett

Age: 93

United States of America

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) CEO

Worth: $120 billion

Berkshire Hathaway owns 15% of the company ($118 billion).

Other assets include $1.35 billion in cash.

Warren Buffett, the most famous living value investor, filed his first tax return in 1944, at the age of 14, declaring revenues from his paper route. In 1962, he purchased his first shares in Berkshire Hathaway, a textile company, and by 1965, he had become the dominant stakeholder. In 1967, Buffett expanded the company’s assets to include insurance and other investments.

Buffett, often known as the Oracle of Omaha, is a buy-and-hold investor who made his wealth by acquiring undervalued firms. Berkshire Hathaway has recently made investments in significant, well-known corporations. Its fully owned subsidiaries include interests in insurance, energy distribution, railroads, and consumer items.

Buffett is a well-known Bitcoin skeptic.

Warren Buffett

Buffett has given up a large portion of his fortune to charity. Between 2006 and 2020, he donated $41 billion, the majority of which went to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and his children’s organizations. In 2010, Buffett and Bill Gates co-launched the Giving Pledge.

Buffett is still CEO at the age of 93, but he suggested in 2021 that his likely successor would be Gregory Abel, head of Berkshire’s non-insurance divisions.

Who Are the World’s Richest 10?

The top ten richest people in the world as of January 2, 2024 are:

1. Elon Musk
2. Bernard Arnault
3. Jeff Bezos
4. Bill Gates
5. Steve Ballmer
6. Mark Zuckerberg
7. Larry Page
8. Larry Ellison
9. Sergey Brin
10. Warren Buffett

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Who Will Be the World’s Richest Man in 2024?

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is the world’s richest man as of January 2, 2024.

Who Is the World’s Richest Woman?

Francoise Bettencourt Meyers is the world’s richest woman. Her net worth is $99.7 billion as of January 2, 2024. Her fortune stems from her stake in L’Oréal, the world’s largest cosmetics company.

The Bottom Line

You might need to become a technological pioneer or a luxury retail maestro if you want to move a little closer to making the list of the richest billionaires. You might also keep it simple and concentrate on value investing.

It also helps to be born into riches; yet, the greatest fortunes on this list began with solid ideas that people with creativity, determination, and connections utilized to develop some of the world’s largest corporations.

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