The 10 Richest People in the World (2024)

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. The wealthiest among them is Elon Musk; CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and owner of X (formerly Twitter).

The individuals on this list belong to an even more exclusive club and wield still more power. Many are founders of technology giants, with much of their wealth still invested in the companies they started.

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. Multi-billionaires can also take advantage of a panoply of tax deductions to offset reported income, leaving some on this list paying no income tax in recent years.

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 Dec. 6, 2023.

1. Elon Musk

• Age: 52
• Residence: United States
• Co-founder and CEO: Tesla
• Net Worth: $222 billion
• Tesla Ownership Stake: 13% ($98.1 billion)
• X Ownership Stake: 79% ($9.32 billion)
• Other Assets: Space Exploration Technologies ($53.2 billion private asset), The Boring Company ($3.33 billion private asset)

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 (PYPL).

In 2004, Musk became a major funder of Tesla Motors (now Tesla), which led to his current position as CEO of the electric vehicle company. In addition to its line of electric automobiles, Tesla produces energy storage devices, automobile accessories, and, through its acquisition of SolarCity in 2016, solar power systems. Musk is also CEO and chief engineer of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), a developer of space launch rockets.

In July 2022, Musk decided to back out of the buyout. The company filed a lawsuit against Musk to force the buyout to go through. Musk countersued the company but then reversed course and declared he was willing to buy it after all. The deal officially closed in Oct. 2022, giving him a 79% stake in the company.

2. Jeff Bezos

• Age: 59
• Residence: United States
• Founder and Executive Chair: Amazon (AMZN)
• Net Worth: $171 billion
• Amazon Ownership Stake: 10% ($145 billion)
• Other Assets: Blue Origin ($11.2 billion private asset), The Washington Post ($250 million private asset), Koru ($500 million private asset), and $14 billion in cash

In 1994,Jeff BezosfoundedAmazon.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 bookstoreto his former boss David E. Shaw, who wasn’t interested.

Though Amazonoriginally started out selling books, it has since morphed into a one-stop shop for everything under the sun andis expected to overtake Walmart as the world’s largest retailer by 2024. Amazon's pattern of constant diversification is evident in some of itsunexpected expansions, which include acquiring Whole Foodsin 2017 and entering the pharmacy business the same year.

Bezos owned as much as 16% of Amazon in 2019 before transferring 4% to his former wife, MacKenzie Scott, as part of their divorce proceedings. In 2020, Amazon’s share price jumped 76% on the heightened demand for online shopping amid the COVID-19 pandemic. On July 5, 2021, Bezos stepped down as CEO of the e-commerce giant, becoming its executive chair.

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

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

In 2023, he paid $500 million for the superyacht, Koru.

3. Bernard Arnault

• Age: 74
• Residence: France
• CEO and Chair: LVMH (LVMUY)
• Net Worth: $169 billion
• Christian Dior Ownership Stake: 97.5% ($130 billion total)
• Other Assets: Moelis & Company equity ($26.1 billion public asset) and $13.1 billion in cash

French nationalBernard Arnaultis the chair and CEO of LVMH, the world’s largest luxury goods company. LVMH brands includeLouis Vuitton, Hennessey, Marc Jacobs, and Sephora.

Most of Arnault's wealth comes from his massive stake in Christian Dior SE, the holding company that controls 41.4% of LVMH. His shares in Christian Dior SE, plus an additional 6.2% in LVMH, are held through his family-owned holding company, Groupe Familial Arnault.

An engineer by training, Arnault first showed his business acumen while working for his father’s construction firm, Ferret-Savinel, taking charge of the company in 1971. He converted Ferret-Savinel to a real estate company named Férinel Inc. in 1979.

Arnaultremained Férinel's chair for another six years, until he acquired and reorganized luxury goods maker Financière Agachein 1984, eventually selling all its holdings other than Christian Dior and Le BonMarché. 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.

4. Bill Gates

• Age: 68
• Residence: United States
• Co-founder: Microsoft (MSFT)
• Net Worth: $134 billion
• Microsoft Ownership Stake: 1.4% ($24.1 billion)
• Other Assets: $64.1 billion in cash and billions over multiple other companies
  

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.

The largest software company in the world, Microsoft, also produces a line of personal computers, provides email services through its exchange server, and sells video game systems and associated game devices. It has recently invested heavily in cloud services.

Gates shifted from the company's CEO to the role of board chair in 2008. He joined Berkshire Hathaway’s board in 2004. He stepped down from both boards on March 13, 2020.

Bill Gates has much of his net worth in Cascade Investment LLC. Cascade is a privately-held investment vehicle that owns a variety of stocks including Canadian National Railway (CNR), Deere (DE), and Republic Services (RSG), as well as private investments in real estate and energy.

5. Larry Ellison

• Age: 79
• Residence: United States
• Co-founder, Chair, and CTO: Oracle (ORCL)
• Net Worth: $129 billion
• Oracle Ownership Stake: 42%+ ($96.1 billion)
• Other Assets: Tesla equity ($10.7 billion public asset), $21.8 billion in cash

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.

In 1977, Ellison founded Software Development Laboratories alongside Oates and Miner. Two years later, the company released Oracle, the first commercial relational database program to use Structured Query Language. The database program proved so popular that SDL changed its name to Oracle Systems Corporation in 1982. Ellison gave up the CEO role at Oracle in 2014 after 37 years. He joined Tesla's board in Dec. 2018 and stepped down in June 2022.

Oracle is the world's second-largest software company, providing a wide variety of cloud computing programs as well as Java and Linux code and the Oracle Exadata computing platform. Oracle has acquired numerous large companies over its history, such as Sun Microsystems and Cerner.

Ellison has focused his philanthropy on medical research. In 2016, he gave $200 million to the University of Southern California for a new cancer research center. Ellison backed the Oracle Team USA sailing team, which won the America's Cup racing series in 2010 and 2013.

6. Steve Ballmer

• Age: 67
• Residence: United States
• Owner: Los Angeles Clippers
• Net Worth: $129 billion
• Microsoft Ownership Stake: 4% ($119 billion total)
• Other Assets: Los Angeles Clippers ($3.73 billion private asset), The Forum ($400 million private asset), Intuit Dome ($2 billion private asset), $3.48 billion in cash

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.

7. Warren Buffett

• Age: 93
• Residence: United States
• CEO: Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)
• Net Worth: $119 billion
• Berkshire Hathaway Ownership Stake: 15% ($118 billion)
• Other Assets: $1.28 billion in cash

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.

Widely known as the Oracle of Omaha, Buffett is a buy-and-hold investor who built his fortune by acquiring undervalued companies. More recently, Berkshire Hathaway has invested in large, well-known companies. Its portfolio of wholly owned subsidiaries includes interests in insurance, energy distribution, and railroads as well as consumer products.

Buffett is a notable Bitcoin skeptic.

Buffett has dedicated much of his wealth to philanthropy. Between 2006 and 2020, he gave away $41 billion—mostly to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and his children’s charities. Buffett launched the Giving Pledge alongside Bill Gates in 2010.

Now 93 years old, Buffett still serves as CEO, but in 2021 he stated that his likely successor would be Gregory Abel, head of Berkshire’s non-insurance operations.

8. Larry Page

• Age: 50
• Residence: United States
• Co-founder and Board Member: Alphabet (GOOG)
• Net Worth: $119 billion
• Alphabet Ownership Stake: 6% ($102.7 billion total)
• Other Assets: $16.3 billion in cash

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 ofimprovingInternet 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.

Google is the world's dominant Internet search engine, accounting for more than 92% of global search requests. In 2006, the company purchased YouTube, the top platform for user-submitted videos.

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

Page was among early investors in Planetary Resources, a space exploration and asteroid-mining company. Established in 2009, the company was acquired by blockchain firm ConsenSys in 2018 amid funding problems. He has also shown an interest in flying car companies, investing in both Kitty Hawk and Opener, although Kitty Hawk ceased operations in 2022.

9. Mark Zuckerberg

• Age: 39
• Residence: United States
• CEO and Chair: Meta Platforms (META)
• Net Worth: $115 billion
• Meta Platforms Ownership Stake: 13% ($111 billion total)
• Other Assets: $4.03 billion in cash

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.

10. Sergey Brin

• Age: 50
• Residence: United States
• Co-founder and Board Member: Alphabet (GOOG)
• Net Worth: $113 billion
• Alphabet Ownership Stake: 6% ($96.5 billion total)
• Other Assets: $16.4 billion in cash

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.

In addition to its dominant internet search engine, Google offers a suite of online tools and services known as Google Workspace, which includes Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Google Meet, Google Chat, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, and more. Google also offers a variety of electronic devices, including Pixel smartphones, computers, and tablets, Nest smart home devices, and the Stadia gaming platform.

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

The Bottom Line

If you want to get a little closer to making the richest billionaires rankings, you mightneed to become a technological innovator or luxury retail mastermind. Or you could keep it simple and focus on value investing.

It also wouldn’t hurt to have been born into wealth; however, the greatest fortunes on this list started as good ideas that people with creativity, drive, and connections used to build some of the world's largest companies.