The top 10 richest billionaires in the world introduced in this article belong to the Ranking 2022 compiled and voted by Forbes, and announced annually.
War and pandemic make billionaires list poor
Wars, pandemics and sluggish markets affect the world’s billionaires this year. There are 2,668 of them in Forbes’ 36th annual ranking of the world’s richest people – 87 fewer than a year ago. They’re worth a combined $12.7 trillion — $400 billion less than in 2021. The most dramatic drop has occurred in Russia, which has 34 fewer billionaires than it did last year after the war. in Ukraine; and China, where a government squeeze on technology companies has resulted in fewer than 87 Chinese billionaires on the list.
However, Forbes found more than 1,000 billionaires richer than they were a year ago. And 236 new people have become billionaires in the past year – including the first from Barbados, Bulgaria, Estonia and Uruguay.
The US still leads the world, with 735 billionaires worth $4.7 trillion, including Elon Musk, who topped the list of World’s Billionaires for the first time. China (including Macau and Hong Kong) remains second, with 607 billionaires totaling $2.3 trillion. Forbes used stock prices and exchange rates from March 11, 2022 to calculate net worth.
Top 10 richest billionaires in the world
2. Elon Musk – $219 billion
I work on the physical approach to analysis. You boil things down to first principles or basic truths in a particular field and then you deduce from that.
- Elon Musk is working to revolutionize transportation both on Earth, through electric car maker Tesla — and in space, through rocket maker SpaceX.
- He owns 21% of Tesla but has mortgaged more than half of his shares as collateral for loans; Forbes discounted Elon Musk’s shares taking into account loans.
- Twitter’s board of directors agreed to sell the company to Musk for $44 billion on April 25, 2022 after he disclosed a 9.1% stake and threatened a hostile takeover.
- SpaceX, Musk’s rocket company, was valued at $100 billion after a funding round in December 2021.
- Elon Musk grew up in South Africa, then immigrated to Canada at the age of 17. He came to the US as a transfer student to the University of Pennsylvania.
1. Jeff Bezos – $171 billion
I don’t think I’ll regret trying and failing. And I suspect that I will always be haunted by a decision not to try at all.
- Jeff Bezos founded e-commerce giant Amazon in 1994 from his garage in Seattle. He stepped down as CEO to become Executive Chairman in July 2021.
- Bezos sold his $8.8 billion worth of Amazon stock in 2021 and also donated some stock; He currently owns less than 10%.
- Amazon has faced criticism from US senators and the public for its treatment of warehouse workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
- Jeff Bezos and his wife MacKenzie divorced in 2019 after 25 years of marriage, and he transferred a quarter of his 16% Amazon stock then to her.
- Bezos owns The Washington Post and Blue Origin, an aerospace company developing rockets; Jeff Bezos briefly flew into space in July 2021.
3. Bernard Arnault – $158 billion
I see myself as an ambassador of French heritage and French culture. What we create is the icon. It is associated with Versailles, with Marie Antoinette.
- Bernard Arnault oversees the LVMH empire of some 70 fashion and cosmetics brands, including Louis Vuitton and Sephora.
- In January 2021, LVMH acquired American jeweler Tiffany & Co for $15.8 billion, arguably the largest luxury brand acquisition ever.
- LVMH spent $3.2 billion in 2019 on luxury hotel group Belmond, which owns or manages 46 hotels, trains and river cruises.
- His father made a small fortune in construction; Arnault started by shelling out $15 million from that business to buy Christian Dior in 1985.
- Four of Arnault’s five children worked in the corners of the LVMH empire: Frédéric, Delphine, Antoine and Alexandre.
4. Bill Gates – 129 billion USD
Money is of no use to me beyond certain points. Its utility is purely in building an organization and giving resources to the poorest people in the world.
- Bill Gates has turned his fortune from software company Microsoft into a diversified asset that includes investments in zero-carbon energy.
- In May 2021, Bill and Melinda announced on Twitter that they would end their marriage after 27 years. They are still co-chairs of the philanthropic Gates Foundation.
- Gates, who co-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen (died 2018) in 1975, has transferred at least $5.7 billion of shares in public companies to Melinda.
- As of March 2020, when Gates stepped down from the Microsoft board, he owned about 1% of the computer and software company.
- He has invested in dozens of companies including Canadian National Railways and AutoNation, and is one of the largest farmland owners in the United States.
- To date, Gates has donated about $35.8 billion worth of Microsoft stock to the Gates Foundation.
5. Warren Buffett – $118 billion
Rational people don’t risk what they have and need for what they don’t have and don’t need.
- Known as the “Oracle of Omaha,” Warren Buffett is one of the most successful investors of all time.
- Buffett runs Berkshire Hathaway, which owns more than 60 companies, including insurance company Geico, battery maker Duracell and the Dairy Queen restaurant chain.
- The son of a U.S. congressman, he first bought stocks at age 11 and filed his first taxes at 13.
- Buffett has promised to donate more than 99% of his fortune. To date, he has donated more than $45 billion, mainly to the Gates Foundation and his children’s foundations.
- In 2010, he and Bill Gates launched the Giving Pledge, which asks billionaires to pledge to donate at least half of their wealth to philanthropic causes.
6. Larry Page – $111 billion
You never lose a dream; it’s just cherished as a hobby.
- Larry Page resigns as CEO of Alphabetthe parent company of Google, in December 2019 but remains a board member and controlling shareholder.
- He co-founded Google in 1998 with fellow Stanford graduate student 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 to 2015, when he became CEO of Google’s new parent company Alphabet.
- He is a founding investor in space exploration company Planetary Resources and is also funding “flying car” startups Kitty Hawk and Opener.
7. Sergey Brin – 107 billion USD
Obviously everyone wants to be successful, but I want to be seen as a very innovative, very reliable and ethical person; and ultimately make a big difference in the world.
- Sergey Brin stepped down as chairman of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, in December 2019 but remains a controlling shareholder and a board member.
- He co-founded Google with Larry Page in 1998 after the two met at Stanford University while pursuing advanced degrees in computer science.
- Google went public in 2004 and changed its name to Alphabet in 2015.
- Brin was absent from Alphabet’s public events for much of 2019; he spent his time in Alphabet’s X moon lab.
- Brin is said to be funding a high-tech balloon project.
8. Larry Ellison – $106 billion
When people start telling you you’re crazy, you may be having the most important innovation in your life.
- Larry Ellison is the chairman, chief technology officer and co-founder of software giant Oracle, of which he owns about 35%.
- He stepped down as Oracle CEO in 2014 after 37 years at the helm.
- Oracle has grown in part thanks to a steady stream of acquisitions of software companies, the largest of which was $9.3 billion for NetSuite in 2016.
- In May 2016, Ellison pledged $200 million in funding to the University of Southern California to build a cancer treatment center.
- In 2012, Ellison spent $300 million to buy almost the entire Hawaiian island of Lanai; To date, he has built a hydroponic farm and a luxury spa there.
- Ellison joined Tesla’s board in December 2018, after buying 3 million Tesla shares earlier that year.
9. Steve Ballmer – $91.4 billion
Computer science is the operating system for all innovation.
- Steve Ballmer is a former Microsoft CEO who led the company from 2000 to 2014.
- He joined Microsoft in 1980 as the 30th employee after dropping out of Stanford’s MBA program.
- Ballmer oversaw Microsoft after the first dot-com crash and through its efforts to catch up with Google on search and Apple on mobile.
- The same year he retired from Microsoft, he bought the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion.
- Steve Ballmer has ramped up his philanthropy since 2014, putting more than $2 billion into a fund advised by donors, with a focus on lifting Americans out of poverty.
- In 2018, he invested $59 million in Social Solutions, which makes software for nonprofits and government agencies.
10. Mukesh Ambani – $90.7 billion
Anything and everything that can become digital becomes digital. India cannot be left behind.
- Mukesh Ambani chairs and runs the $74 billion Reliance Industries (revenue), with specializations in petrochemicals, oil and gas, telecommunications, and retail.
- Reliance was founded by late father Dhirubhai Ambani, a yarn trader, in 1966 as a small textile manufacturer.
- After his father’s death in 2002, Ambani and his sister Anil split the family empire.
- Reliance sparked a telecom price war with the launch of 4G phones and Jio broadband service in 2016. Today, investors in Jio include Google and Facebook.
- Ambani is converting Reliance into green energy. The company will invest $80 billion over the next 10-15 years in renewable energy and build a new complex next to its refinery.
According to Forbes
