Most of Brad Jacobs’ fortune comes from XPO Logistics, a commercial trucking company that delivers goods to warehouses and distribution centers. Wei Jianjun is the chairman of Great Wall Motor, one of China’s largest SUV manufacturers, which sells to over 170 countries and regions. Shahid Khan is the owner of auto parts supplier Flex-N-Gate and the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars.
Net Worth: $10.8 Billion Age: 42 Country/Territory: Colombia Industry: Finance & Investments
This company, BYD, is now so successful that its sales of battery-powered cars rivals Tesla. Over the years, this company, Midea, has expanded into an international company selling various electrical home appliances. At age 22, Dan Gilbert was a co-founder of Quicken Loans, which became a leader in the online mortgage lending business.
Industry: Sports
Ambani holds a 42% stake in Reliance, which also owns a 4G wireless network in India. Ambani and his brother divided the family business when their father died in 2002. Ambani also is the owner of a professional cricket team, the Mumbai Indians. The wealthiest woman in Latin America, Iris Fontbona took control of her husband Andrónico Luksic Abaroa’s businesses when he died in 2005.
Net Worth: $11.5 Billion Age: 51 Country/Territory: United States Industry: Fashion & Retail
- The younger Wertheimer runs the luxury company’s watch division from his home in Geneva.
- The 38th annual Forbes list of the world’s billionaires found a record 2,781 billionaires with a total net wealth of $14.2 trillion.
- They married five years later, by which time, he had purchased the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, and built The Venetian, a casino and resort hotel.
- The late Frank Mars founded Mars Inc. in 1911, and today his grandson John Mars holds one-third of the candy giant.
“And so you can see a lot of pushback and backlash against that. But it also depends on what side of the coin you’re sort of looking at.” Peterson-Withorn said public attitudes have shifted, noting the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011 that followed the 2008 Great Recession. There’s also the right-wing populism that helped President Trump, a billionaire himself, win two terms.
#19 Jim Walton
Currently positioned at 10th, Huang boasts a net worth of $118 billion, primarily attributed to his significant stake in Nvidia. The company’s shares surged by 171 per cent in 2024, culminating in a market capitalization of $3.28 trillion, making it more valuable than Microsoft but still behind Apple. Huang has surpassed Spain’s Amancio Ortega, founder of Zara, whose fortune has weakened due to recent stock performance declines. Elon Musk has started 2025 as the world’s richest person, with a net worth of $433.9 billion, according to Forbes’ latest rankings.
Brin remains one of the largest single shareholders in the search engine’s parent company Alphabet. Zhang Yiming founded ByteDance, the software company that developed TikTok and also owns a number of social networking apps within China. Zhang himself loves to make TikTok videos and requires his management team to not only make them as well but to also achieve a set number of “likes.” After starting to trade stocks when he was in college, Ken Griffin founded Citadel, an investment firm, in 1990. This firm is now considered among the most successful firms in the world that specialize in investments beyond stocks and bonds, such as precious metals and specialized financial instruments. Griffin is also a philanthropist and has donated to support cultural institutions, improve public spaces, reduce violent crime, expand education access, and more.
Veteran Mumbai investor Radhakishan Damani became India’s retail king after the 2017 IPO of his supermarket chain Avenue Supermarts. Lin Bin is vice chairman of Xiaomi, one of the world’s most popular smartphone brands. Pavel Durov is the founder and owner of messaging app Telegram, which has more than 700 million monthly active users worldwide. Eric Li, also known as Li Shufu, is the chairman of Geely Automobile Holdings, one of China’s largest automakers and one of the few not controlled by the state. Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, the granddaughter of the founder of L’Oreal, is the richest woman in the world. Michael Dell is chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies, which formed in 2016 via Dell’s $60 billion merger with computer storage giant EMC.
The Boston-based company was founded by her grandfather, Edward Johnson II, in 1946. Among the top 100 richest, a noticeable number made their fortunes in China, via commercial real estate, cutting-edge pharmaceuticals, e-commerce, vats of soy sauce, or pig breeding. The 38th annual Forbes list of the world’s billionaires found a record 2,781 billionaires with a total net wealth of $14.2 trillion. This is an increase of 141 members and $2 trillion from 2023, which held the previous record for the highest net worth gain on the list, surpassing the $900 billion record set in 2022. Two-thirds of the list members are wealthier compared to the previous year, including Mark Zuckerberg, whose net worth increased by $112.6 billion.
Qi Shi is the chairman of Shenzhen-listed East Money Information, which operates one of the country’s most popular financial and stock information websites. Most of Ludwig Merckle’s wealth is from HeidelbergCement; he owns 27% after having sold nearly half the company following the 2008 financial crisis. It’s an iron ore giant which is now transforming itself into a green energy powerhouse. Mikhail Fridman, cofounder of Alfa Bank, Russia’s largest non-state bank, was hit with sanctions after Russia invaded Ukraine. Idan Ofer is one of two sons of shipping magnate Sammy Ofer, who died in 2011 and was once Israel’s richest man. Vladimir Potanin acquired a stake in Norilsk Nickel during Russia’s privatization in 1995; today he owns just over a third of the company.
Net Worth: $99.5 Billion Age: 70 Country/Territory: France Industry: Fashion & Retail
- Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft, the biggest software business in the world.
- Mexico’s Germán Larrea Mota Velasco owns the controlling share of the country’s biggest copper mining company, Grupo México.
- As of Monday, Zuckerberg’s net worth increased by over 4 per cent to $217.7 billion, while Ellison’s wealth slightly declined to $209 billion.
- Colin Huang is the founder of PDD Holdings, the Chinese e-commerce company that changed its name from Pinduoduo in 2023.
- Larry Ellison co-founded Oracle Software in 1977 and today has extensive real estate holdings, including a Hawaiian island and dozens of properties in Malibu and Lake Tahoe.
Gautam Adani is chairman of the Ahmedabad-headquartered Adani Group, with interests in ports, airports, power generation and transmission, and green energy, among others. A digital trading pioneer, Thomas Peterffy chairs Interactive Brokers, which markets its specialized trading platform to sophisticated investors. Changpeng Zhao, who goes by CZ, is the founder and former CEO of Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. Michael Dell is chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies, which formed in 2016 via Dell’s $60 billion merger with computer storage giant EMC. Jensen Huang cofounded graphics-chip maker Nvidia in 1993 and has served as its CEO and president ever since. From 1995 to 2017, he held the top spot for a staggering 18 years, becoming synonymous with immense wealth during the tech boom.
Giovanni Ferrero is executive chairman of his family’s namesake confections business, which posted $18 billion sales in 2023. Charles Koch has been chairman of Koch, Inc., America’s second largest private company by revenue, since 1967. Joseph Tsai is a cofounder of Alibaba Group and ranks as its second-largest individual shareholder after Jack Ma. He owns Kuok group, which has interests in hotels, real estate and commodities.
#81 Thomas Frist Jr & family
She built up her late father’s company Hancock Prospecting after she became executive chairman in 1992. She also is the country’s second largest producer of cattle, with a portfolio of ranches and cattle stations across the country. Shiv Nadar is a co-founder of HCL Technologies, which started in 1976 and is now a global technology giant that offers software products, platforms, and services to business and industry. The company is known for hiring high school graduates and giving them on-the-job training. In July 2020, Nadar turned over the position of HCL chairman to his daughter.
PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel remains a general partner of venture capital firm Founders Fund, where he is involved in firm strategy and weighs in on its large investments. Sherry Brydson is one of six billionaire heirs to the media and publishing empire founded by her grandfather Roy Thomson (d. 1976). Zhang Zhidong, also known as Tony Zhang, cofounded top 100 richest person in world internet giant Tencent with fellow billionaire Pony Ma in 1998. Over five decades, Philip Anschutz has built fortunes in oil, railroads, telecom, real estate and entertainment. Andreas “Andy” von Bechtolsheim is cofounder and chief architect of network switching company Arista Networks. Fracking pioneer Harold Hamm founded and chairs Continental Resources, one of the nation’s biggest independent oil companies.
Using math and data, Simons designed analytical models to detect market fluctuations and trends and algorithms to make trading decisions. Dieter Schwarz inherited the Schwarz Group, the largest food retailer in Europe, from his father, who got his start in the wholesale fruit business in 1930. Schwarz Group consists of the supermarket chain Lidl and the discount chain Kaufland. Schwarz, an extremely private person with few details of his life known publicly, stepped down from the group’s management in 1999. Vladimir Potanin originally bought shares in Norilsk Nickel and now owns more than one-third of the metals giant.
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