In a capitalistic world that is highly influenced and controlled by people with money and resources, there are a few people who stick out amongst the others for their wealth and impact on the world.
In this article, we will look at a few details about these individuals and their contributions to their companies and the wider society.
It is to be noted that many of these individuals that we are about to mention have been the founders, board members, or owners of some of the biggest and most influential corporations in the world.
Now without further ado let us take a look at who tops the list of the richest people in the world.
Given below is the list and ranking of the world’s richest people according to Forbes as of 2024.
| Rank | Name | Net Worth(in USD) | Source | County |
| 1 | Elon Musk | $213.1 | Tesla, SpaceX | United States |
| 2 | Jeff Bezos | $206.3 | Amazon | United States |
| 3 | Bernard Arnault & family | $195.0 | LVMH | France |
| 4 | Mark Zuckerberg | $173.5 | United States | |
| 5 | Larry Ellison | $172.6 | Oracle | United States |
| 6 | Larry Page | $148.1 | United States | |
| 7 | Sergey Brin | $141.8 | United States | |
| 8 | Warren Buffett | $134.3 | Berkshire Hathaway | United States |
| 9 | Bill Gates | $133.7 | Microsoft | United States |
| 10 | Steve Ballmer | $131.4 | Microsoft | United States |
Now let us look get a bit of details about these ten individuals and their main source of wealth.
1. Elon Musk
Topping the list of richest people in the world is the South African-born American businessman Elon Musk. Elon Musk is famous for his revolutionary business ventures which include SpaceX, Tesla Inc., The Boring Company, Neuralink, and so on.
He is currently one of the wealthiest individuals in the world boasting a net worth of over $213 billion as of 2024. His shares in Tesla amount to almost 23% making it one of the largest sources for his net worth.
He is also the current owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, after acquiring the platform in April 2022 for $44 billion and has been featured at the top ranks in the Times magazine’s 2023 feature cover amongst the most influential individuals in the world.
2. Jeff Bezos
Jeffrey Preston Bezos more commonly known as Jeff Bezos is an American business tycoon who founded, owned, and operated multiple multibillion companies. The most famous of his founded ventures is the e-commerce site Amazon.
Amazon is at present the largest online sales company in the world. It is also the largest internet company by revenue and the world’s largest provider of web service infrastructure and cloud computing services provider.
The Amazon web service has about 31% market share among all other cloud service providers and is one of the biggest revenue generators for Amazon Corporation.
Jeff Bezos got most of his net worth figures from the shareholding he held at Amazon. As of November 2023, he had cut down his holdings to 9.53% while still maintaining his position in board groups.
Bezos, in recent years, has been reported to focus his attention on his aerospace manufacturing and sub-orbital spaceflight service company called Blue Origin which he launched in 2000.
He also made headlines for his recent space voyage in which he was joined by his brother Mark Bezos, American aviator Wally Funk, Dutch aircraft pilot Oliver Daement, and the later revealed space flight auction winner and Cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun.
3. Bernard Arnault & Family
Bernard Jean Etienne Arnault is a French businessman, investor, and art enthusiast. He is the founder, chairman, and working chief executive officer of the luxury goods company LVMH which includes the famous luxury brand Louis Vuitton.
His long list of ownership portfolios of over 70 companies comprises names like Christian Dior, Moet & Chandon, and Sephora.
Arnault has in many instances topped the list of richest people in the world and has managed to remain in the top 3 positions for a long amount of time.
He is also the only person on this list who is not an American-based businessman.
He was nicknamed the Terminator for his aggressive business strategies which got him into the list of the top richest people in the world.
4. Mark Zuckerberg
The well-known American billionaire businessman and co-founder of the famous social media service Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms (Formerly Facebook, Inc.).
He launched the beta version of Facebook in 2004 when he was just 19 years old and later became one of the world’s youngest self-made billionaires by the age of 23.
He has also become popular among Jiu-Jitsu fans for his recent win at a Jiu-Jitsu tournament.
His current net worth is $173.5 billion placing him as the 4th richest person in the group.
5. Larry Ellison
Larry Ellison was the co-founder of the software company Oracle Corporation in 1977 and was its CEO till the year 2014.
His company Oracle Corporation offers a list of fully integrated cloud applications and cloud platform services.
The Oracle corporation is however not considered a service-based company because of the software sales-oriented approach rather than the service offering model.
Larry Ellison has often become under the radar of pop culture for his impulsive and lavish spending habits which included the $160 million he spent on his superyacht, the $300 million he paid to purchase the Hawaiian island of Lanai and his later maxing out of his credit card limit of $1 billion.
He is ranked 5th on this list with a net worth of $172.6 billion, and most of it comes from his ownership of Oracle Corporation.
6. Larry Page
Larry Page is by academic qualifications a computer scientist. He later went on to become an internet entrepreneur through his co-founding of Google along with Sergey Brin.
Page worked as the executive officer of Google until 2001 and then again from April 2011 till July 2015 when he was appointed CEO of the newly formed parent company of Google “Alphabet Inc”.
Page is also the co-creator of PageRank, a widely used search ranking algorithm for Google. Later in his life, he was honored with the Marconi Prize in 2004 for the contributions he made to the advancement of technology.
His main source of income comes from the shares held by him on Google and their parent company Alphabet.Inc. placing him on the 6th rank in the list.
7. Sergey Brin
Sergey Brin is an American businessman who is the second founding partner of Google along with Larry Page. Sergey Brin, originally from Russia held the position of technology president at Google before transitioning to oversee other projects in the company.
He later became the president of Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., and continued until December 3, 2019.
Both Sergey and his partner Larry remain as one of the major shareholders and continue as the board of directors for the company.
His current net worth stands at about $141.8 billion as of 2024 and he is ranked 7th on the list of richest people in the world.
8. Warren Buffett
The well-regarded businessman, investor, and philanthropist Warren Buffett is currently the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.
He has been one of the board members of the Berkshire Hathaway group along with his close friend and business partner Charlie Munger starting in 1965.
Buffett is widely regarded as one of the best investors in the world with many giving him the description of “Oracle of Omaha”.
Buffett started his business career by operating a vending machine when he was young. He said that he made enough money from his small venture and later bought his first stock when he was only 11 years old.
His recent investment style has shifted from his previous method of investing in penny stocks of newer companies to acquiring fairly priced stocks of other more established business ventures.
Looking at his philanthropic contributions list he has donated over $51 billion over the years and has signed a pledge to donate almost 99% of all his worth after his death.
He is worth $134.3 billion as of 2024 and is the one among the two people in this list apart from Bernard Arnault who has earned his fortune without direct relation to the tech industry.
9. Bill Gates
For every kid born in the 2000s, It was probably the image of Bill Gates that popped into our mind when we talked about a rich person.
Bill Gates was known for being the co-founder of the software company Microsoft along with his childhood friend Paul Allen.
Gates was the CEO and chairman of the company until January 2000 when he stepped down to be replaced by Steve Ballmer.
He is widely regarded for his various philanthropic contributions that he carried out through his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Microsoft is one of the most popular companies that currently exists in the world and has a Market capitalization of $3.352 trillion as of now and Bill Gates holds about 1.3% of its total stake.
His shares at Microsoft along with his investment history in successful companies have propped up his worth close to $133.7 billion and given him the rank of the 9th richest person in the world.
10. Steve Ballmer
Steve Ballmer succeeded Bill Gates to become the CEO of Microsoft from the years 2000 to 2014. He was a person who climbed the corporate ladder from an assistant at the company to later becoming its CEO.
The credit for most of his wealth has to be given to the 4% of the Microsoft stake which he holds along with the revenue from his Basketball team Los Angeles Clippers, which he bought with a staggering $2 billion after he left Microsoft.
He has also committed to doing acts of charity through the philanthropic company which he co-founded and named Ballmer Group.
He takes the place in the list as the 10th richest person in the world with a net worth of $131.4 billion at the time of writing this article.
Also, Read: 10 Richest People In Britain: Money Magnates!
Final Thoughts
A repeated pattern we see while looking at these hyper-successful and wealthy individuals is that each of them has their own perks and qualities that set them apart from each other whether it be their outward method of action or their attitude towards each problem that was presented in front of them.
To conclude, we saw most of the people on the list come from industries linked majorly to technology and fashion with a rare exception here and there; however, one thing that seems to be common among all these individuals is their perspicacity, independent thinking, and hard work which has set them apart from everyone else.
