100 richest people. The richest people in the world: who they are and how they achieved success. The fortune of the richest man in the world and how he earned his capital

Illustration: Michael Witte

They account for 13% of the $2,208 billion owned by the top 100 billionaires. The minimum entry threshold for this elite club is $39 billion, up 28% from last year.

1. JEFF BEZOS
$112 billion, USA

The richest man on the planet, the head of Amazon, became the first billionaire with a net worth of over $100 billion. Shares of the e-commerce giant rose by 59% in 12 months, adding almost $39.2 billion to Bezos' fortune - a record increase. He also owns the Washington Post and the aerospace company Blue Origin.

2. BILL GATES
$90 billion, USA
Gates has lost first place in the ranking of the richest for only the sixth time in the past 22 years. Over the past year, the Microsoft co-founder's fortune has increased by $4 billion, but he is far from Bezos's epic leap.

3. WARREN BUFFET
$84 billion, USA
In January, the 87-year-old billionaire appointed two senior Berkshire Hathaway employees to vice chair positions, the first step in a plan to take over the company. For now, however, Buffett, who says he's feeling great, continues to manage Berkshire, whose shares are up 16% since the start of last year.

4. BERNARD ARNO
$72 billion, France
The record income of the empire of premium brands LVMH and the purchase of almost 100% of the fashion house Christian Dior allowed Arnault to increase his fortune by $ 30.5 billion.

5. MARK ZUCKERBERG
$71 billion, USA
The head of Facebook is now under scrutiny because of the role the world's largest social network played in meddling in the US election from Russia. Nevertheless, the value of the company's shares increased by 31%, which added $15 billion to Zuckerberg's fortune.

6. AMANCIO ORTEGA
$70 billion, Spain
Much of Ortega's fortune is tied to Inditex, which runs brands like Zara. The company's shares sank, reducing it by $1.3 billion.

7. CARLOS SLIM HELU
$67.1 billion, Mexico

Slim's net worth increased by $12.6 billion compared to last year, mainly due to the fact that the shares of his telecommunications company América Móvil rose by 39%.

8. CHARLES KOCH
$60 billion, USA
In November, Koch Industries, with a turnover of $ 100 billion, announced the launch of the venture arm of Koch Disruptive Technologies, led by Charles Koch's son Chase. The company has already become a lead investor in an Israeli medical device startup with a $150 million investment.

8. DAVID KOCH
$60 billion, USA
The executive vice president of Koch Industries and his brother Charles made all the headlines in November when their holding's investment arm invested $650 million to buy failing publisher Time magazine. The total amount of the transaction, where Meredith Corp. acted as the main investor, amounted to $2.8 billion.

10. Larry Ellison
$58.5 billion, USA
In the cloud computing market, Oracle competes with Salesforce and Amazon, but despite this, the company's shares rose by 13%. Ellison, who owns a quarter of the shares, is $6.3 billion richer.

11. MICHAEL BLOOMBERG
$50 billion, USA
The former mayor of New York continues to run his company, Bloomberg LP, which provides financial information and develops a media platform. He supports a pro-gun control organization that has launched new initiatives to protect students since the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

12. LARRY PAGE
$48.8 billion, USA
The Google co-founder and CEO of parent company Alphabet is said to be in talks with Saudi Arabia to build a technology hub in the kingdom. Page's fortune has increased by $8.1 billion over the past year.

13. SERGEY BRIN
$47.5 billion, USA

Page's Google partner is the richest immigrant in America. He is now president of Alphabet and reportedly uses the company's air fleet for both personal travel and the delivery of humanitarian aid to remote areas of the planet.

14. JIM WALTON
$46.4 billion, USA
The youngest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton was a member of the company's board of directors until 2016. He now manages the family bank Arvest.

15. Samuel Robson Walton
$46.2 billion, USA
Sam Walton's eldest son was chairman of Walmart for 23 years. Today, Samuel Robson is one of three family members still involved with the company. He and Stuart Walton, Jim Walton's son, are members of the board of directors, while his son-in-law, Gregory Penner, is chairman.

16. Alice Walton
$46 billion, USA
The only daughter of Sam Walton is not involved in the management of the family business, but she owns many shares of Walmart, which makes her the richest woman in the world.

17. MA HUATEN
$45.3 billion, China
Ma became Asia's richest man for the first time thanks in part to the success of his company Tencent's WeChat messenger, with almost 1 billion active users. Tencent also has stakes in Tesla, Snap (Snapchat's parent company) and streaming music service Spotify.

18. FRANCOISE BETANCOUR-MYERS
$42.2 billion, France

Her mother, L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, died in September 2017, leaving her fortune to Bettencourt-Myers and her family.

19. MUKESH AMBANI
$40.1 billion, India
The Indian mogul returned to the top 20 for the first time since 2012.

20. JACK MA
$39 billion, China
In 2017, Ma propelled e-commerce giant Alibaba to new heights by partnering with the Olympics for the first time and signing a streaming deal with Disney. Alibaba shares surged 76%, propelling Ma into the top 20 for the first time.

Who are they - people whose names do not leave the pages of Forbes, and whose rapid career is admired by millions? Who this year promises to break records in terms of well-being and who should we, “mere mortals”, be equal to? We bring to your attention the TOP 10 richest people in the world 2018 of the year.

10 Michael Bloomberg

Opens the ranking of the richest people in the world in 2018, the former mayor of New York, American Michael Bloomberg with a fortune of 47.5 billion dollars. The main source of his income is the Bloomberg LP corporation, which provides information services. Like the vast majority of the world's richest people, Bloomberg is actively involved in charity work and donates funds to various causes.

9

The brother of a person who is one step higher in our rating. The amount of capital of a 76-year-old man is 48.3 billion dollars. The main source of profit is the same Koch Industries holding, established in 1940.
Both brothers are members of the Republican Party, which they actively sponsor. They do not spare money for education, in every possible way supporting gifted students who come from poor families.

8

The eighth place in the list of the richest people in the world in 2017 according to Forbes is the American Charles Koch, whose fortune was estimated at 48.3 billion. Together with his brother, this 81-year-old man owns Koch Industries, a diversified holding company that has grown into a tiny oil refinery founded by his father. In addition to business interests, the billionaire, despite his advanced age, is interested in politics and regularly donates funds to charity.

7 Larry Ellison

The 72-year-old American has multiplied his wealth by $13.3 billion over the past year, bringing his net worth to $61 billion.

Mr. Ellison is a well-known software developer who, despite his talent, never managed to graduate from university. He was made a billionaire by Oracle, which is now focused on improving cloud services.

Ellison's hobby is sailing, in which the richest man on the planet willingly invests money. He does not spare money for charity either: last year, the businessman promised the University of California $200 million to develop an effective cure for cancer.

6

Another representative of the ranking of the richest people in the world in 2017 is a Mexican billionaire with a capital of $65.1 billion. The main source of income for this 77-year-old man is Telecom. In addition, Mr. Slim invests in Mexican development, mining, and consumer goods. He also owns a 17 percent stake in The New York Times.

5 Mark Zuckerberg

One of the youngest billionaires in the world, whose net worth is $72.9 billion. The source of such an impressive amount is the world famous social network Facebook, which Mark created at the age of 19, almost 13 years ago.

Today, the billionaire is actively involved in the management of his offspring and oversees major acquisitions of other Internet giants. Not so long ago, the Zuckerberg couple became parents, in connection with which they promised to donate 99 percent of their wealth to charity.

4

The 80-year-old Spaniard boasts a fortune of $76.4 billion, which has increased by $4.3 billion in the last year alone. Retail has brought serious prosperity to this man, and he receives the lion's share of his capital thanks to his ownership of shares in Zara, which he, together with his late wife, established back in 1975.
From dividends alone, Ortega makes $400 million a year, successfully investing the money he earns in real estate.

3

The third position in the list of the richest people in the world in 2018, according to Forbes magazine, belongs to businessman Warren Buffett with a fortune of $ 85.6 billion. The source of the billions of the 86-year-old man is Berkshire Hathaway. Buffett Holding owns a certain percentage of the shares of more than 60 companies. The billionaire, who made his first investment at the age of 11, invests in companies such as IBM, Wells Fargo, Coca-Cola and others. Together with Bill Gates, the man founded the Giving Pledge company, to which he promised to donate 99 percent of his capital.

2

By the end of 2017, Bill Gates, for the first time in 4 years, lost the title of the richest man on the planet, taking second place in the Forbes ranking. His fortune is estimated at more than 90.8 billion dollars. The 61-year-old owner of the IT giant Microsoft created his offspring 40 years ago, and today he owns 3 percent of the shares of his native corporation. His other investments include the Canadian Railroad, a well-known American engineering company, Republic Services (a waste management company), and the famous car dealer AutoNation. However, Mr. Gates considers the work of a charitable foundation to improve the state of affairs in the healthcare system and help overcome hunger in third world countries as a priority for his activities.

1 Jeff Bezos

The fortune of this successful man is estimated at 98.6 billion dollars. He is the founder of Amazon, whose stock was the fastest growing last year. Due to the rapid rise in prices, the businessman's assets increased by 33.8 billion. Due to the large increase in the capital of the Internet retailer, Bezos rose in the ranking from third to first place, becoming the richest person in the world in 2017-2018.

The 53-year-old billionaire, among other things, owns a company that develops rockets. The man dreams in the future of launching the production of space shuttles that will be engaged in passenger transportation in space. Bezos's hobby is raising the wreckage of NASA spacecraft from the depths of the sea.

Forbes annually updates its list of the richest people in the world. 2018 turned out to be diverse for the rich: someone increased their fortune, but for someone it was not so sweet. Let's take a closer look at the Forbes 2018 list and find out who became the richest person in the world, where the richest Russian is located, and how many women made it to the Forbes list this year.

The list is topped by the same people as in 2017. First up is Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon. He managed to beat Bill Gates in 2017 thanks to a 60% increase in Amazon shares. Bezos is worth $112 billion. Old Bill is second with $91 billion. Warren Buffett is third with $77 billion. His Berkshare Hataway has changed its conservative investment policy a bit in recent years and is successfully multiplying the wealth of its shareholders.

Fourth was Bernard Arnault, owner of the LouisVuitton Moet Hennessey group of companies. Carlos Slim Elu, the richest Mexican, owner of AmericaMovil telecommunications holding, climbed to fifth place. Carlos pushed out Mark Zuckerberg from 5th place. The sixth was the founder and owner of the Zara fashion house chain Amancio Ortega. His fortune is estimated at $ 57 billion. Seventh - Larry Ellison, founder of Oraclec $ 52 billion.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has had a challenging year in 2018. In the work of the most popular social network, failures occurred more than once, leading to data leakage. It cost Zuckerberg billions and now he is in eighth place with $46 billion. In the top ten of the Forbes 2018 list, this is the most significant change.

Rounding out the top ten are Google owners Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They are in ninth and tenth place, respectively, with $46 billion and $45 billion.

The richest women in the Forbes 2018 list

There are significantly fewer female representatives among the richest people on the planet than men. Nevertheless, they are and it is worth paying attention to the representatives of the first hundred. The most successful of them was Francoise Betancourt Myers. The Frenchwoman owns a 33% stake in L'Oreal, which she inherited from her mother, Liliana Bettencourt (died in 2017). With a fortune of $ 44 billion, Bettencourt ranked 11th on the Forbes list. In 2018, she overtook her nearest competitor.

This is Alice Walton, heiress to the Walmart supermarket chain. She took 16th place with a fortune of $ 41 billion. Curiously, representatives of the Walmart empire Jim and Sam Walton also took 15th and 17th places.

In 32nd place is another woman - Jacqueline Mars. The owner of the company that makes those famous Mars bars is now 78 years old and the granddaughter of Frank Mars, the company's founder. Her fortune is $22 billion.

In 43rd place is Susanne Klatten, Germany's richest woman with $20 billion, who inherited a 19% stake in BMW. In addition to the German mark, Suzanne owns the pharmaceutical company Altana. At 53m is Yang Huiyan, China's richest woman with a net worth of $18 billion. At 60m is Lauren Powell Jobs, wife of the late Steve Jobs. In addition to Apple, Lauren owns Disney shares, her fortune is estimated at $ 17 billion. At 80m - Executive Director and owner of 23% of Heineken Charlene De Carvalho-Heineken with $ 13 billion. At 82m - Abigail Johnson, CEO and owner of 24.5% of Fidelity Investments with $ 12 billion

Closes the first hundred of the Forbes 2018 list is also a woman. Gina Rinehart is Australia's richest man and owner of the Hancock Prospecting iron ore company, which she inherited from her father. Gina's net worth is $12 billion.

Forbes magazine has calculated that there are 2,208 billionaires in the world in 2018, up from 2,043 billionaires in 2017. And the average wealth of these people is 4.1 billion dollars, which is equivalent to or even exceeds the GDP of some countries in the world. And combined, all the billionaires in the world are worth $9.1 trillion, up from $7.7 trillion in 2017.

According to the Forbes list, 67% (1490) of billionaires are the so-called "self-made man". That is, they did not inherit wealth, but earned it with their own labor.

Top 100 richest people in the world 2018 (Forbes)

We present you the top 10 richest businessmen of 2018 from the list.

10. Larry Ellison

Wealth: $58.5 billion

The rating is opened by the ex-CEO of Oracle, which ranks second after Microsoft in the software market. Ellison stepped down as CEO in 2014 after 38 years at the helm of the company. He is now the Chief Technology Officer.

His cloud strategy has given Oracle an 18% share gain over the past 12 months.

9. David Koch

The co-owner and executive vice president of the multinational corporation Koch controls the second largest private company in the United States. Charles and David Koch bought shares in their brothers Frederick and William to gain control of their father's company.

It is known that Koch is engaged in the creation of consumer products, chemical technologies, the production of fertilizers and polymers, owns oil refineries and pipelines. And this is not a complete list of her interests.

Twice David Koch happily escaped death. In 1991, he was the only survivor after the plane he was flying in crashed. In addition, he won the battle against prostate cancer. He is a generous donor who has donated over $1.2 billion to cancer research programs, educational programs, and other charitable causes.

8. Charles Koch

Wealth: $60 billion

The 82-year-old businessman is the CEO of Koch Corporation. It has over one hundred thousand employees.

7. Carlos Slim Elu

Owned: $67.1 billion

The richest man in Mexico controls America Movil, Latin America's largest mobile operator. In addition, Carlos Slim has stakes in mining, overseas telecommunications, construction, real estate, and a number of consumer goods companies. He also owns a 17% stake in The New York Times.

6. Amancio Ortega

Capital: $70 billion

The source of this Spanish billionaire's wealth is Zara Inditex, a Spanish fashion line. Ortega once worked as an errand boy at a local clothing store. And now he owns over 200 stores in 48 countries.

But even with all that money, Ortega maintains a frugal lifestyle. He dine in the same canteen where his employees eat.

5. Mark Zuckerberg

Wealth: $71 billion

This is not the first time that the founder and CEO of Facebook is among the top five richest billionaires. His already fantastic wealth has also grown by $15 billion in a year as Facebook stock prices soar and investors scramble to buy a stake in the popular social network.

With all his billions in capital, Mark Zuckerberg does not look like a classic “greedy capitalist”. He is in the top three. Together with his wife Priscilla, Mark donated $25 million to the fight against Ebola in 2015. In addition, the Zuckerbergs donated $100 million worth of stock to improve the New Jersey public school system.

4. Bernard Arnault

Total earned: $72 billion

Bernard is the founder of the LVMH luxury consortium. It includes more than seventy luxury brands. They are all controlled by the parent company Groupe Arnault.

3. Warren Buffett

Number of billions: $84 billion

Since Donald Trump became president, Warren Buffett has had one of the best times of his life. Thanks to Trump's tax reform, Buffett's investment fund Berkshire Hathaway has made a record profit of $44.9 billion. Of this amount, $29 billion was received after the US Congress approved one of the largest tax cuts in the history of the country in the federal budget.

Warren is the most successful investor of all time and proudly bears the title of "The Oracle of Omaha". At the age of eleven, he purchased three shares in the US stock market. They cost $38 each. Buffett later sold them for a $5 profit per share. A few days later, the price of these securities soared to $202. This first bad experience taught the future billionaire that it is not worth chasing short-term gains.

Now the 87-year-old businessman owns over 60 companies, including Dairy Queen, Duracell, Geico, and others.

2. Bill Gates

Wealth: $90 billion

The name of "dad" Microsoft is unlikely to disappear from the list of the richest entrepreneurs in the near future. Over the past 23 years, he has been named the King of the Billionaires 18 times. Today, the founder of Microsoft, the world's largest PC software company, owns $90 billion. This is more than 4.7 times the state.

And, like many rich people in the West, Gates does not forget about charitable needs. His Gates Foundation provided funds to improve the lives and health of children around the world.

1. Jeff Bezos

Wealth: $112 billion

Here he is, the richest man in the world according to Forbes. Bezos is the founder and CEO of Amazon, the largest player in the e-commerce market.

Take a place at the top of the global "monetary pyramid" Jeff Bezos allowed a sharp increase in the shares of his company. In a year, their price increased by 59%, which increased Bezos' fortune by $39.2 billion.

Billionaire best friends Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are the two richest people in the world.
The richest 30 people in the world control a huge part of the global economy: $1.23 trillion - more than the annual GDP of Spain, Mexico or Turkey.
This is in line with the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which recently relaunched and expanded online to include 500 billionaires worldwide. The ranking is updated daily to provide the latest data on the richest men and women in the world.
And so the 30 richest people in the world:

30. Ma Huateng


Net worth: $22.5 billion USA

Age: 45

Country: China

Industry: Technology

How He Got Rich: Tencent Holdings

Software engineer Ma Huateng (aka Pony Ma) founded China's largest Internet portal, Tencent Holdings, in 1998. He was 26 years old. Ma has a number of successful and widely used platforms, including QQ, its instant messaging service, which is one of the world's top 10 sites; mobile text service (WeChat) with over 800 million users; mobile commerce product (WeChat Wallet); and an online gaming community (Tencent Games), the largest in China.

Ma's wealth increased by $4.7 billion last year.

29. Phil Knight


Net worth: US$25 billion

Age: 78

Country: USA

How He Got Rich: Nike

He worked as an accountant for the Blue Ribbon Sports footwear company. Then he launched his own brand of sports shoes Nike.
Nike's success has been fueled by collaborations with famous athletes, from runner Steve Prefontaine in 1973 to one of the most successful shoe marketers of all time, Michael Jordan, whom Nike signed to a five-year contract in 1984 worth $500,000 a year. Today, the NBA's biggest star is still affiliated with Nike, and LeBron James signed a lifetime contract with the brand in 2015, reportedly worth over $1 billion.

28. George Soros


Net worth: $25.2 billion USA

Age: 86

Country: USA

Industry: Hedge funds

How He Got Rich: Managing the Soros Foundation

Born in Budapest, George Soros survived the Nazi occupation of Hungary during World War II before moving to the UK and then the US. He is called "the man who broke the Bank of England", he is best known for the hedge fund, which he created in 1973 under the management of the Soros Fund Management company. In 1992, he cut the British pound, a risky move that ended up making $1 billion in one day and cementing Soros' place in the financial world. The Quantum Fund is also generating over 30% annual returns under Soros' leadership, making it one of the most successful hedge funds of all time.

Today, Soros remains chairman of Soros Fund Management, which manages more than $25 billion in assets, including stakes in big-name companies like Amazon, Facebook and Netflix. He is also chairman of Open Society, an organization founded in 1979 that functions as a network of foundations and partners around the world that promotes the values ​​of an open society and human rights.

Over the past year, Soros' wealth has shrunk by $800 million.

27. Mukesh Ambani


Net worth: $26.3 billion USA

Age: 59

Country: India

Industry: Petrochemicals, oil and gas

Source of wealth: Inheritance; Industries

Mukesh Ambani became chairman of Reliance Industries when his father, the founder of the company, passed away in 2002. Huge industrial conglomerate in energy, petrochemicals, textiles, natural resources, retail and, more recently, telecommunications.

Ambani is the richest man in India and owns a 27-storey Mumbai mansion worth $1 billion.

26. Wang Wei
(photo not available)

Net worth: $26.5 billion USA

Age: 46

Country: China

Industry: Transport

How He Got Rich: SF Holding

Wang Wei founded China's largest package delivery company, SF Express. He recently made his debut on the stock exchange, and for the first time made it to the list of the richest people. Over the past year, his fortune has increased by almost $22.7 billion. USA.

According to Bloomberg, the son of a Russian translator for the People's Liberation Army Air Force, Wang, grew up in Hong Kong and then returned to his birthplace in China in the 1990s to start a delivery service. At the time, his business was considered part of the "black shipping" market, and he risked being caught and fined by the country's postal officers.

25. Steve Ballmer


Net Worth: US$27 billion

Age: 60

Country: USA

Industry: Technology

Source of wealth: ; Microsoft

Steve Ballmer left Stanford Business School in 1980 to join Harvard friend Bill Gates at Microsoft as the company's first business manager, earning a $50,000 salary and a stake in the company. Ballmer has served as vice president of marketing, vice president of systems software, and executive vice president of sales and support, and was often referred to as the "numbers guy".

He became the company's CEO in 2000 after Gates stepped down, and he remained in charge of the software giant until Satya Nadella replaced him in 2014. Under Microsoft's management, the company's revenue grew by 294% and profit by 181% - although its market share was surpassed by Google and Apple in the same period.

After he took over as CEO, Ballmer fulfilled his dream of owning an NBA franchise by paying $2 billion in a deal to buy the Los Angeles Clippers, now his main business.

Ballmer's net worth increased by $4.8 billion last year.

24. Sheldon Adelson


Net Worth: US$28 billion

Age: 83

Country: USA

Industry: Real estate

How He Got Rich: Las Vegas Casinos

"King of Las Vegas" hit the jackpot for the first time in 1995, when he was 61 years old, and also at the Computer Dealers' Exhibition (COMDEX), one of the largest exhibitions in Las Vegas. This year, Adelson sold the company to the Japanese Softbank for $860 million and used the money to finance the purchase of Sands Casino.He quickly demolished it and built the Venetian Casino Resort and Sands Expo convention center in its place.After further expansion, he took his gaming conglomerate, Las Vegas Sands, open in 2004 .

Adelson, a former reporter and mortgage broker and son of Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants, hit hard during the financial crisis in 2008, reportedly lost $25 billion and needed to boost his company's balance sheet with $1 billion in cash. Even though the casino had a tough 2015 - shares fell 25% during the year - its fortunes have recovered from the dark days of 2008. Net worth rose by $3.2 billion last year. He still runs the casino and is the CEO of China Sands, a subsidiary that opened its fifth casino in Macau last year.

In late 2015, he bought Nevada's largest newspaper for $140 million.

23. Jorge Lehmann


Net worth: $28.8 billion USA

Age: 76

Country: Brazil

How He Got Rich: 3G Capital

After being called "the most interesting billionaire in the world" by Bloomberg, Jorge Lehmann was previously a journalist and professional tennis champion before moving into funding in 1971 with the purchase of a small Brazilian brokerage firm. He later went on to co-investment company 3G Capital in 2004, which made Lehmann best known for the Warren Buffett deals.

In late 2014, Lehmann created a fast food giant with the help of Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, pairing Burger King with Canadian brand Tim Horton in a series of deals worth more than $11 billion. In 2015, 3G and Berkshire Hathaway teamed up again to invest $10 billion in the Kraft and Heinz mega-germ, which created the fifth largest food and beverage company in the world.

In November 2015, 3G's Anheuser-Busch InBev made a mammoth $108 billion deal to take over SABMiller, becoming the world's most dominant beer maker. Earlier this year, he initiated a takeover deal - Unilever - a deal that was worth about $250 billion.

Over the past year, his net worth has increased by $2.9 billion. USA.

22. Li Ka-shing


Net worth: $30.6 billion USA

Age: 88

Country: Hong Kong

Industry: Diversified investments

How He Got Rich: CK Hutchison Holdings

Despite humble beginnings, business tycoon Li Ka-shing became the richest man in Hong Kong. After his father died of tuberculosis, Li dropped out of school at 16 to support his family by working in a plastic flower factory. Six years later, he opened his own factory, the predecessor of which is today known as CK Hutchison Holdings, a sprawling trading empire with interests in real estate, manufacturing, energy, telecommunications and technology.

Savvy investor Lee and his venture fund Horizon Ventures have backed companies like Facebook, Skype, Spotify and the launch of Hampton Creek egg replacement products.
Lee's net worth is up $4.1 billion. USA for the last year.

21. Wang Jianlin


Net worth: $31.6 billion USA

Age: 62

Country: China

Industry: Real estate

How He Got Rich: Dalian Wanda Group

Real estate tycoon Wang Jianlin, who served in the Chinese military from 1970 to 1986, controls dozens of sectors and hundreds of companies before going into business. Some of Wang's largest investments abroad, including high-end property development projects in Sydney and Madrid. Since this time last year, his wealth has grown by $4.8 billion.

From 2014 to 2015, his net worth more than doubled from $13.2 billion to $30 billion.

19 and 20 John and Jacqueline Mars


John Mars owns the Mars candy world along with siblings Forrest and Jacqueline.
Net worth: $32.4 billion USA each

Age: 77 and 81

Country: USA

Industry: Candy

Source of wealth: Inheritance; Mars Inc.

Siblings Jacqueline and John Mars inherited a stake in the iconic Candymaker Mars Inc. when their father, Forrest Sr., died in 1999.
In 2008, Mars expanded, now producing not only candy, but also chewing gum, pet food.

Over the past year, their combined net worth has grown by $2.6 billion.

18. Alice Walton


Net worth: $34 billion USA

Age: 67

Country: USA

Industry: retail

The daughter of the late Walmart founder Sam Walton, Alice Walton is a major figure in the company, making her the richest woman on earth. Although she never took an active part in the management of the supermarket.

Instead of spending time at Walmart, Walton became a patron of the arts. In 2011, she opened the $50 million Crystal Bridge Museum in Arkansas, which displays a number of her famous paintings.

In 2015, Walton donated 3.7 million of his Walmart shares to the family's non-profit organization and put her Texas ranches—one working horse ranch and the other a luxury vacation spot—on the market for a total of $48 million.

Over the past year, her net worth has grown by $2.3 billion.

17. Jim Walton


Net worth: $35.1 billion USA

Age: 68

Country: USA

Industry: retail

Source of wealth: Inheritance; walmart

James "Jim" Walton's parents, Helen and Sam Walton, acquired a majority stake in Arkansas Bank in Bentonville a year before the first Walmart store opened in Rogers, Arkansas in 1962, when Jim was only 14 years old. Within five years, the family owned 24 retail stores. In 1975, after working in Walmart's real estate department for several years, Jim joined his parent bank, later renamed Arvest Bank Group. He is now Chairman and CEO of the Regional Community Bank, which has $15 billion in assets. Over the past year, Walton has grown by $2.7 billion.

16. Rob Walton


Net worth: $35.4 billion USA

Age: 72

Country: USA

Industry: retail

Source of wealth: Inheritance; walmart

Samuel Robson "Rob" Walton is the eldest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton. In 1969, he began working for the iconic trading giant, holding positions from senior vice president to chairman general counsel, from which he retired as of June 2015 after 23 years. His son-in-law succeeded him.

On New Year's Eve, Walton and his brother donated 1.5 million shares to charity, while their sister Alice gave away 3.7 million shares, totaling $407 million. This is an incredible amount!

Last year, his wealth increased by $3.3 billion.

15. Jack Ma


Net worth: $35.7 billion USA

Age: 52

Country: China

Industry: Technology

How He Got Rich: Alibaba

China's richest man, Alibaba founder and executive chairman Jack Ma, reportedly started China's first internet company in 1988: China Yellowpages. He handed over control of the company to a state-owned telecommunications company in 1996 and launched Alibaba three years later for just $60,000. Fifteen years after its creation, the company became the largest in the world.
But the company's shares fell 22% in 2015, most likely due to a slowdown in the Chinese economy and problems with counterfeiters using the company's platform. Ma didn't care. He acknowledged that 2016 will be a difficult year for the Chinese economy, but remained confident in Alibaba's long-term success.

Over the past year, Ma's wealth has increased by $8.4 billion. USA.

14. Liliana Bettencourt


Net worth: $36.8 billion USA

Age: 94

Country: France

Industry: Cosmetics

Source of wealth: Inheritance; Group L "Oreal

The heiress of the L "Oreal cosmetics fortune and the company's largest shareholder, Liliane Betancourt is the richest woman in the world, with a net worth of $36.8 billion, an increase of $3 billion last year alone. She no longer has a hand in business operations, but L" Oreal and the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, founded by her and her late husband, continue to thrive. She is an art collector who owns works by Picasso, Matisse and Munch.

In recent years, Bettencourt has been forced to take legal action in May 2015 when eight people, including trusted friends and financial advisers, were convicted of using the heiress' capital.

In late 2015, charges were filed against her former butler and five journalists for recording meetings with the billionaire and thus violating her right to privacy. The butler, Pascal Bonnefoy, claimed to have taken the notes to show Betancourt's fragile condition - all six were acquitted in January 2016.

13. Bernard Arnault


Net worth: US$40 billion

Age: 67

Country: France

Industry: Luxury goods

How He Got Rich: LVMH

Bernard Arnault's LVMH has 70 luxury brands from Louis Vuitton to Hennessy to Dom Perignon, controlled by the family company Groupe Arnault. By the 1980s and 90s, Arnault, having started working as a civil engineer, took over the family business and proceeded to buy the high-end fashion house Christian Dior, resurrecting it from the brink of bankruptcy. Like most LVMH brands today, Dior is thriving.

Arno's wealth grew by $6.8 billion last year. USA.

12. Sergey Brin


Net worth: $41.6 billion USA

Age: 43

Country: USA

Industry: Technology

Source of wealth: Google

Along with co-founder Larry Page, Sergey Brin helped orchestrate Google's massive restructuring that the company announced in 2015. The move brought Google under the umbrella of Alphabet, a holding company with Brin as president and Page as CEO. Other Google ventures such as Nest and Google X are separate companies also under Alphabet.

The restructuring allowed Brin to focus on exploring new projects and moonshot ideas. With top-notch talent and an abundance of resources, Alphabet has already made automatic homes and self-driving cars a reality.

Brin, who emigrated from Moscow to the US as a child, was linked to Page in 1995 at Stanford, where they were each doing PhDs. Three years later, they founded Google, now one of the most powerful companies on the planet.

Over the past year, Brin's wealth has increased by $4.1 billion.

11. Larry Page


Net worth: $42.5 billion USA

Age: 43

Country: USA

Industry: Technology

Source of wealth: Google

As a student at Stanford University in 1998, Larry Page teamed up with fellow student Sergey Brin to create BackRub, an early search engine. The project eventually turned into Google - now called Alphabet - one of the largest companies in the world, worth over $581 billion. Over the past year, the company's personal net worth increased by $4.3 billion.

10. Ingvar Kamprad


Net worth: $43 billion USA

Age: 90

Country: Sweden

Industry: retail

How He Got Rich: IKEA

At 17, Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA, now the world's largest furniture store with nearly 34.2 billion euros ($36 billion) in revenue. Kamprad's plan from the start was to create "eternal life" for IKEA, which meant keeping it on the stock market and securing it in a complex corporate structure involving philanthropic work and trading and franchising, collectively known as the Stichting INGKA Foundation. The Swedish business mogul no longer participates in day-to-day decision-making processes, he still attends meetings as a senior advisor to the supervisory board.

Among his peers, the 90-year-old founder is incredibly humble despite his vast fortune. He reportedly flies economy, stays in cheap hotels and drives the same Volvo for more than two decades. He also infamously moved IKEA and his family out of Sweden in the 1970s to avoid its onerous tax rates. He returned to live in his native country in 2013 after a long spell in Switzerland.

Kamprad has donated $300 million to a lifetime charity.

Last year, Kamprad's personal wealth increased by $2.6 billion.

9. Larry Ellison


Net worth: $45.3 billion USA

Age: 72

Country: USA

Industry: Technology

How He Got Rich: Oracle Corp.

In 1977, Larry Ellison teamed up with two colleagues from an electronics company to start his own programming firm, which soon signed a contract to build a relational database management system for the CIA under Project Oracle Code. The project grew to what is today known as Oracle Corp., which generated $37 billion last year. In 2010, Ellison cut his annual salary from $1 million to $1, but he still receives over $60 million in compensation through generous stock awards. Ellison stepped down as CEO in 2014 after 38 years and assumed the role of Chief Technical Officer.

The tech mogul is also a generous philanthropist, donating money to nature conservation and medical research.

Ellison's wealth increased by $5.2 billion last year.

7. TIE: David Koch

Age: 76

Country: USA

Industry: Diversified investments

Along with his brother Charles, David Koch runs Koch Industries and is an executive vice president. The second largest private company, $100 billion (in sales) Koch Industries makes everything from fertilizer and Dixie cups to asphalt and biodiesel. Last year, David's personal wealth fell by $1.2 billion.

Celebrated conservatives, the brothers also maintain huge political influence and regularly spend hundreds of millions on political campaigns with their huge donor network.

David had two encounters with death. He survived the 1991 plane crash that killed everyone else in first class, and also won the battle against prostate cancer. He has become one of the world's most generous benefactors since then, donating more than $1.2 billion to medicine.

7. TIE: Charles Koch


Net worth: $47.9 billion USA

Age: 81

Country: USA

Industry: Diversified investments

How He Got Rich: Koch Industries

Charles Koch is the chairman and CEO of the diversified conglomerate Koch Industries, the second largest private company in America. His younger brother David is the executive vice president. The company employs 120,000 people and generates $100 billion in annual revenue from its diverse holdings that do everything from petrochemicals and Dixie cups to clothing materials.

The Koch brothers, with a total net worth of $95.8 billion. The United States advocates a world of conservative politics and public policy, favors smaller government, and regularly funds political campaigns.

6. Carlos Slim Helu


Net worth: $50.7 billion USA

Age: 77

Gender: Male

Industry: Telecom

How He Got Rich: Grupo Carso

The richest man in Mexico owns over 200 companies in his country through a conglomerate called Grupo Carso - also known as Slimlandia. The son of Lebanese-Mexican entrepreneurs, Carlos Slim Helu, gained control of his father's retail and real estate businesses after his death. After earning a degree in civil engineering, Slim built a diversified portfolio during the 1960s, 70s and 80s that now dominates the Mexican economy.

Grupo Carso has acquired the state-owned telephone company Telmex, which now owns 80% of telephone lines in Mexico. In 2008, Slim bought a 6.4% stake in The New York Times for $127 million. He has since increased his ownership to 17%, worth about $391 million thanks to the revival of The Times.

Slim still has aspirations to grow his empire, which includes interests in the financial, industrial, telecommunications and media sectors, especially in his home country, where he invested $4 billion in 2015. However, over the past year, his capital has decreased by $1 billion.

5. Mark Zuckerberg


Net worth: $58.5 billion USA

Age: 32

Country: USA

Industry: Technology

Source of wealth: facebook

In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg, a 19-year-old sophomore at Harvard, launched TheFacebook.com, a rudimentary version of the now ubiquitous social network known as Facebook. Zuckerberg left college to work full-time as the CEO of Facebook, and the site quickly took off. Today, it attracts over a billion users daily and is worth nearly $400 billion. At 32, Zuckerberg is the youngest of the 50 richest people in the world. His wealth increased by $11.1 billion. USA last year.

In December 2015, Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan pledged to give away 99% of their wealth over the course of their lives through an organization called the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, although some critics noted that the organization itself is not a non-profit charity.

But this isn't the couple's first foray into philanthropy. They donated $25 million to the fight against Ebola in 2015, and they gave $100 million worth of Facebook shares to improve New Jersey's public school system.

4. Amancio Ortega


Net worth: $68.5 billion USA

Age: 80

Country: Spain

Industry: retail

How He Got Rich: Inditex

Amancio Ortega is the fourth richest person in the world thanks to his control of the Spanish fashion giant Inditex, which Ortega started working as a delivery boy for a local clothing store at 14 and has grown from a small town clothing store to one of the biggest fashion empires. on the planet. However, Ortega's wealth fell by $800 million last year.

Despite Ortega's vast wealth, he lives modestly. The billionaire still eats lunch with his employees at the company canteen, and although he is the richest man in the fashion industry, he sticks to the simple uniform of a white shirt and blue blazer.

3. Jeff Bezos


Net worth: $73.1 billion USA

Age: 53

Country: USA

Industry: Technology

Source of wealth: amazon.com

Jeff Bezos made his huge fortune introducing e-commerce to the world. After spending time in Wall Street Finance, Bezos founded Amazon.com in the garage of his Seattle home in 1994 and sold books exclusively. The company went public three years later and has since traded everything from furniture to food to Amazon's own electronics, which generated $136 billion in revenue in 2016.

Bezos also has interests outside of Amazon, including investments in private space company Blue Origin, which successfully launched its first spacecraft in 2015, and The Washington Post, a newspaper he bought in 2013.

Bezos' wealth increased by $21.9 billion last year.

2. Warren Buffett


Net worth: $77.2 billion USA

Age: 86

Country: USA

Industry: Diversified investments

How He Got Rich: Berkshire Hathaway

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett began his amazing investing career at a young age. As a child, he delivered newspapers on his bike, and by the age of 11, the Nebraska native bought his first shares on the stock market—Cities Service Preferred at $38 a share—and sold them for a $5 profit. He was not accepted into Harvard Business School, so Buffett went to Columbia Business School and studied there. Buffett worked as a securities analyst in the early 1950s before starting his own investment firm. He bought the Berkshire Hathaway textile company in 1969, turning it into a holding company.
The investments that made him rich may seem random - he has bet on companies: Coca-Cola, American Express, Geico, Fruit of the Loom, Dairy Queen and General Motors, all of which generate cash that has long-term value. Last year, his net worth increased by $13.1 billion. USA.

A modest man with a love for junk food, Buffett has donated more than $25 billion to charitable causes. He is intimately familiar with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, with whom he partnered to create The Pledge Maker, the promise of billionaires to give at least half of their wealth to charity.

1. Bill Gates


Bill Gates and Warren Buffett speak to journalist Charlie Rose at an event hosted by Columbia Business School on January 27, 2017 in New York City.
Net worth: $85.2 billion USA

Age: 61

Country: USA

Industry: Technology

How He Got Rich: Microsoft

In just 20 years, Bill Gates founded Microsoft with his childhood friend Paul Allen. In the months leading up to his 31st birthday, the company took off, making Gates a billionaire. He was the CEO of Software until 2000 and was its chairman and largest shareholder until 2014. Although still with the company, Gates is no longer actively involved with Microsoft.

Gates is not only the richest man in the world - his net worth increased by $10.6 billion in the last year alone - but he is also the most generous. Since 1999, Gates and his wife have led the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the most influential philanthropic foundations in the world. The fund, which oversees over $40 billion, aims to lift millions of people out of poverty, with a focus on eliminating HIV, malaria and other infectious diseases. The pair are also working on a plan to mobilize mobile banking for the 2 billion adults who don't have a bank account.

He is also the co-founder of the Giving Pledge, which he started in 2010 with good friend and fellow billionaire Warren Buffett as a pledge to donate 50% or more of his fortunes. Currently, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are among the 156 members of the Giving Pledge.