Billionaires play an outsized role in shaping the global economy, politics, and philanthropy. The number of billionaires in the world at ~2,700 in 2023. The Forbes Billionaires Index is a ranking of the world’s richest people as April 5, 2023. Details about the calculations are provided in the net worth analysis on each billionaire’s profile page.
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.
Most people have a pretty good idea, even if they’re not an entrepreneur or interested in the subject at all, for that matter.
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.
TOP 50 World’s Richest People 2023
| № | NAME | WORTH | SOURCE |
| 1 | Bernard Arnault & family | $211B | LVMH |
| 2 | Elon Musk | $198B | Tesla, SpaceX |
| 3 | Jeff Bezos | $120B | Amazon |
| 4 | Larry Ellison | $112B | Oracle |
| 5 | Warren Buffett | $107B | Berkshire Hathaway |
| 6 | Bill Gates | $107B | Microsoft |
| 7 | Carlos Slim Helu & family | $91B | telecom |
| 8 | Mukesh Ambani | $86B | diversified |
| 9 | Steve Ballmer | $83B | Microsoft |
| 10 | Larry Page | $82B | |
| 11 | Francoise Bettencourt Meyers | $81B | L’Oréal |
| 12 | Sergey Brin | $79B | |
| 13 | Michael Bloomberg | $77B | Bloomberg |
| 14 | Amancio Ortega | $75B | Zara |
| 15 | Zhong Shanshan | $67B | beverages, pharma |
| 16 | Jim Walton | $62B | Walmart |
| 17 | Mark Zuckerberg | $62B | |
| 18 | Rob Walton | $61B | Walmart |
| 19 | Alice Walton | $60B | Walmart |
| 20 | Julia Koch & family | $59B | Koch Industries |
| 21 | Charles Koch | $59B | Koch Industries |
| 22 | David Thomson & family | $56B | media |
| 23 | Michael Dell | $52B | Dell Technologies |
| 24 | Zhang Yiming | $49B | TikTok |
| 25 | Phil Knight & family | $47B | Nike |
| 26 | Gautam Adani | $46B | infrastructure |
| 27 | Rodolphe Saadé & family | $41B | shipping |
| 28 | François Pinault & family | $40B | luxury goods |
| 29 | Li Ka-shing | $39B | diversified |
| 30 | Jacqueline Mars | $39B | candy, pet food |
| 31 | John Mars | $38B | candy, pet food |
| 32 | Ma Huateng | $38B | internet media |
| 33 | Klaus-Michael Kuehne | $37B | shipping |
| 34 | Giovanni Ferrero | $35B | Nutella, chocolates |
| 35 | Miriam Adelson & family | $35B | casinos |
| 36 | Robin Zeng | $34B | batteries |
| 37 | Gerard Wertheimer | $34B | Chanel |
| 38 | Alain Wertheimer | $34B | Chanel |
| 39 | Len Blavatnik | $34B | music, chemicals |
| 40 | Ken Griffin | $33B | hedge funds |
| 41 | Colin Zheng Huang | $33B | e-commerce |
| 42 | Tadashi Yanai & family | $31B | fashion retail |
| 43 | Jeff Yass | $30B | trading, investments |
| 44 | Gina Rinehart | $30B | mining |
| 45 | Lee Shau Kee | $30B | real estate |
| 46 | Stephen Schwarzman | $29B | investments |
| 47 | Jim Simons | $28B | hedge funds |
| 48 | William Lei Ding | $28B | online games |
| 49 | Susanne Klatten | $27B | BMW, pharma |
| 50 | Thomas Peterffy | $27B | brokerage |
TOP 25 World’s Billionaires List 2023
All the statistics given in this article in regard to individuals’ net worth estimates were originally sourced from Forbes.
There’s been a huge fluctuation in the net worth of these billionaires in the past year. But, you can find out more about that below.
1. Bernard Arnault, LVMH — $211.1B
- Age: 74
- Residence: Paris, France
- Source of Wealth: LVMH
- LVMH Ownership Stake: 47%
- Other Assets: Art collection with works of Picasso, Yves Klein, Henry Moore, yacht Symphony
Bernard Jean Étienne Arnault is a French business magnate, investor, and art collector. He is the co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton SE, the world’s largest luxury goods company. Arnault has an estimated net worth of US$211 billion as 2023, according to Forbes, making him the richest person in the world. Ultimately, the company was formed by merging the two businesses. Louis Vuitton is a very successful luxury fashion brand, and Moet Hennessey is the merged champagne and cognac manufacturers.
2. Elon Musk, Tesla, SpaceX — $198.2 B
- Age: 51
- Residence: Austin, Texas
- Source of Wealth: Tesla, SpaceX
- Tesla and SpaceX Ownership Stake: 25% of Tesla, 44% of SpaceX
- Other Assets: 9.2% of Twitter, Neuralink, The Boring Company
Elon Musk FRS is a South-African-born, Canadian/American engineer, industrial designer, and tech entrepreneur. If you’re excited about the future of the world, you’ll probably have seen Musk everywhere. Musk founded PayPal and is also the founder of Tesla Inc, SpaceX, The Boring Company, and Neuralink. Two years ago, Musk first appeared on this list as the 24th richest person worldwide, and he’s now the 2nd.
3. Jeff Bezos, Amazon — $120.4 B
- Age: 59
- Residence: Seattle, Washington
- Source of Wealth: Amazon
- Amazon Ownership Stake: 10%
- Other Assets: The Washington Post, Blue Origin, Bezos Expeditions, Altos Labs
Jeff Bezos founded e-commerce giant Amazon in 1994 out of his garage in Seattle. He stepped down as CEO to become executive chairman in July 2021. He now owns a bit less than 10% of the company.
He and his wife MacKenzie divorced in 2019 after 25 years of marriage and he transferred a quarter of his then-16% Amazon stake to her.
Bezos has donated more than $400 million worth of stock to nonprofits in 2022, though it’s unclear which organizations received those shares. Bezos owns The Washington Post and Blue Origin, an aerospace company developing rockets; he briefly flew to space in one in July 2021.
5. Larry Ellison, Oracle — $112.3B
- Age: 79
- Residence: Lanai, Hawaii
- Source of Wealth: Oracle
- Oracle Ownership Stake: 35%
- Other Assets: 3 million shares of Tesla, $1 billion worth of real estate
Lawrence Joseph Ellison is an American business magnate and investor who is the co-founder, executive chairman, chief technology officer (CTO) and former chief executive officer (CEO) of the American computer technology company Oracle Corporation.
As of 13th January 2023, he was listed by Bloomberg Billionaires Index as the seventh-wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated fortune of $98.2 billion. Ellison is also known for his 98% ownership stake in Lanai, the sixth-largest island in the Hawaiian Archipelago
5. Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway — $107.3B
- Age: 92
- Residence: Omaha, Nebraska
- Source of Wealth: Berkshire Hathaway
- Berkshire Hathaway Ownership Stake: 30.71%
Warren Edward Buffett is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is currently the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is one of the most successful investors in the world and has a net worth of over $110 billion as of January 2023, making him the world’s fourth-wealthiest person.
Buffett has been the chairman and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway since 1970. He has been referred to as the “Oracle” or “Sage” of Omaha by global media. He is noted for his adherence to value investing, and his personal frugality despite his immense wealth.
6. Bill Gates, Microsoft — $107B
- Age: 67
- Residence: Medina, Washington
- Source of Wealth: Microsoft
- Microsoft Ownership Stake: 1%
- Other Assets: investments in Canadian National Railway, AutoNation, approximately 242,000 acres of farmland in the U.S.
William Henry Gates III is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), president and chief software architect, while also being the largest individual shareholder until May 2014.
He was a major entrepreneur of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s. Gates founded Microsoft in 1975 with Paul Allen and has since become the largest PC software company worldwide. Gates has pursued many business and philanthropic endeavors. He is the founder and chairman of several companies, including BEN, Cascade Investment, bgC3, and TerraPower.
Gates led the company as chairman and CEO until stepping down as CEO in January 2000, succeeded by Steve Ballmer, but he remained chairman of the board of directors and became chief software architect. In June 2008, Gates transitioned to a part-time role at Microsoft and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the private charitable foundation he and his then-wife Melinda established in 2000. In March 2020, Gates left his board positions at Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway to focus on his philanthropic efforts on climate change, global health and development, and education.
7. Carlos Slim Helu, Grupo Carso — $90.7B
- Age: 83
- Residence: Mexico City, Mexico
- Source of Wealth: América Móvil
- América Móvil Ownership Stake: 57%
- Other Assets: 17% of The New York Times, 79% stake of Grupo Carso
Carlos Slim Helú is a Mexican business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. From 2010 to 2013, Slim was ranked as the richest person in the world by the Forbes business magazine. He derived his fortune from his extensive holdings in a considerable number of Mexican companies through his conglomerate, Grupo Carso.
Slim’s corporate conglomerate spans numerous industries across the Mexican economy, of which includes education, health care, industrial manufacturing, transportation, real estate, mass media, energy, hospitality, entertainment, high-technology, retail, sports and financial services. He accounts for 40% of the listings on the Mexican Stock Exchange, while his net worth is equivalent to about 6% of Mexico’s gross domestic product. As of 2016, he is the largest single shareholder of The New York Times Company.
8. Mukesh Ambani, Reliance Industries — $85.7B
- Age: 66
- Residence: Mumbai, India
- Source of Wealth: Reliance Industries Limited
- Reliance Industries Limited Ownership Stake: Ambani family holds around 49% of shares
Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani is an Indian billionaire businessman. He is the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), a Fortune Global 500 company and India’s most valuable company by market value. According to Forbes and Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Ambani’s net worth is estimated at US$93.8 billion as of 29 November 2022, making him the second richest person in Asia after Gautam Adani and the 8th richest in the world.
Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani was born on 19 April 1957 in the British Crown colony of Aden (present-day Yemen) into a Gujarati Hindu family to Dhirubhai Ambani and Kokilaben Ambani. He has a younger brother Anil Ambani and two sisters, Nina Bhadrashyam Kothari and Dipti Dattaraj Salgaonkar.
The family’s financial status slightly improved when they moved to India but Ambani still lived in a communal society, used public transportation, and never received an allowance.
9. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft — $83.1B
- Age: 67
- Residence: Hunts Point, Washington
- Source of Wealth: Microsoft
- Microsoft Ownership Stake: 4% (333 million shares)
- Other Assets: Los Angeles Clippers, Redmond
Steven Anthony Ballmer is an American business magnate and investor who served as the chief executive officer of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014. He is the current owner of the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). As of November 2022, Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates his personal wealth at around $79.7 billion, making him the tenth-richest person on Earth.
Ballmer was hired by Bill Gates at Microsoft in 1980, and subsequently left the MBA program at Stanford University. He eventually became president in 1998, and replaced Gates as CEO on January 13, 2000. On February 4, 2014, Ballmer retired as CEO and was replaced by Satya Nadella; Ballmer remained on Microsoft’s Board of Directors until August 19, 2014, when he left to prepare for teaching a new class.
His tenure and legacy as Microsoft CEO has received mixed reception, with the company tripling sales and doubling profits, but losing its market dominance and missing out on 21st-century technology trends such as the ascendance of smartphones in the form of iPhone and Android.
10. Larry Page, Google — $82B
- Age: 50
- Residence: Palo Alto, California
- Source of Wealth: Alphabet, Google
- Alphabet Ownership Stake: with a co-founder Sergey Brin, Page owns 51% of voting shares and less than 12% of total shares
Lawrence Edward Page is an American business magnate, computer scientist and internet entrepreneur. He is best known for co-founding Google with Sergey Brin.
Page was the CEO (chief executive officer) of Google from 1997 until August 2001 (stepping down in favor of Eric Schmidt) then from April 2011 until July 2015 when he moved to become CEO of Alphabet Inc. (created to deliver “major advancements” as Google’s parent company), a post he held until December 4, 2019. He remains an Alphabet board member, employee, and controlling shareholder.
Creating Google helped Page build a significant amount of wealth. He has also invested in flying car startups Kitty Hawk and Opener. Page is the co-creator and namesake of PageRank, a search ranking algorithm for Google. He received the Marconi Prize in 2004 with co-writer Brin.
11. Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, L’Oréal — $81B
- Age: 69
- Residence: Paris, France
- Source of Wealth: L’Oréal
- L’Oréal Ownership Stake: 33%
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers is a French businesswoman, philanthropist, writer, pianist and billionaire heiress, the richest woman in the world. She is the only child, heiress of Liliane Bettencourt and granddaughter of L’Oréal founder Eugène Schueller. Her mother died in September 2017, after which her fortune tripled with her investments through her family holding company, Tethys Invest, and the high valuation of L’Oréal shares on the stock exchange.
In 2008, she sued François-Marie Banier for taking money from her mother, and she started proceedings to have her mother declared mentally incompetent. In December 2010, Bettencourt Meyers announced that she had settled out of court with both her mother and Banier.
Her mother died in September 2017 when her net worth was about $39.5 billion, which makes Bettencourt Meyers among the top 20 richest people in the world.
12. Sergey Brin, Google — $78.6B
- Age: 49
- Residence: Los Altos, California
- Source of Wealth: Alphabet, Google
- Alphabet Ownership Stake: with a co-founder Larry Page, Brin owns 51% of voting shares and less than 12% of total shares
- Other Assets: shares in Tesla and 23andMe
Sergey Brin is an American business magnate, computer scientist, and internet entrepreneur, who co-founded Google with Larry Page. Brin was the president of Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., until stepping down from the role on December 3, 2019. He and Page remain at Alphabet as co-founders, controlling shareholders, board members, and employees.
Brin immigrated to the United States with his family from the Soviet Union at the age of six. He earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Maryland, College Park, following in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps by studying mathematics, as well as computer science. After graduation, he enrolled in Stanford University to acquire a PhD in computer science. There he met Page, with whom he built a web search engine. The program became popular at Stanford, and they suspended their PhD studies to start up Google in Susan Wojcicki’s garage in Menlo Park.
13. Michael Bloomberg, Bloomberg LP — $76.8B
- Age: 81
- Residence: New York, New York
- Source of Wealth: Bloomberg LP
- Bloomberg LP Ownership Stake: 88% ($10 Billion)
Michael Rubens Bloomberg is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a candidate for the 2020 Democratic nomination for President of the United States. He has served as chair of the Defense Innovation Board, an independent advisory board that provides recommendations on artificial intelligence, software, data and digital modernization to the United States Department of Defense, since June 2022.
Bloomberg grew up in Medford, Massachusetts, and graduated from Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Business School. He began his career at the securities brokerage Salomon Brothers before forming his own company in 1981. That company, Bloomberg L.P., is a financial information, software and media firm that is known for its Bloomberg Terminal. Bloomberg spent the next twenty years as its chairman and CEO.
14. Amancio Ortega, Zara — $75.4B
- Age: 87
- Residence: La Coruna, Spain
- Source of Wealth: Inditex
- Inditex Ownership Stake: 60%
- Other Assets: real estates in Madrid, London, Chicago, and New York, among others
Amancio Ortega Gaona is a Spanish billionaire businessman. He is the founder and former chairman of Inditex fashion group, best known for its chain of Zara and Bershka clothing and accessories shops. He is the head of the Ortega family and the second wealthiest retailer in the world.
In 2011, Ortega announced his imminent retirement from Inditex, parent company of the Zara chain, stating that he would ask Inditex vice-president and CEO Pablo Isla to take his place as head. In 2012 Ortega donated about €20 million to Caritas Internationalis, a Roman Catholic relief organisation. He purchased the Torre Picasso skyscraper in Madrid. He also purchased the Epic Residences and Hotel in Miami, Florida.
In July 2017, for its second edition of the AEF awards, the Spanish Association of Foundations awarded Amancio Ortega in the 2017 Philanthropic Initiative category. He also donated 300 million euros to fight cancer across Spain, which were invested in the purchase of 440 machines to detect the disease. Recently, news indicate that he has bought the Troy Block complex, known to the public as one of the buildings where Amazon Seattle has its headquarters.
It was revealed in July 2020 that Ortega’s property holdings, through his investment company Pontegadea, were worth $17.2 billion. Ortega is the executive chairman of Pontegadea, and real estate assets in his portfolio include Manhattan’s Haughwout Building and Southeast Financial Center. In 2019, the company completed a $72.5 million deal for a downtown Chicago hotel, which followed purchases of a building in Washington’s central business district and two Seattle office buildings.
15. Zhong Shanshan, Nongfu Spring — $66.6B
- Age: 67
- Residence: Hangzhou, China
- Source of Wealth: Nongfu Spring
- Nongfu Spring Ownership Stake: 84%
- Other Assets: Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy
Zhong Shanshan is a Chinese billionaire businessman. He is the founder and chairperson of the Nongfu Spring beverage company, and the majority owner of Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise. As of 2022, he is the wealthiest Chinese citizen with a net worth of $62.3 billion. His source of wealth is mainly beverages and pharmaceuticals.
In 1996, Zhong founded a bottled water company in Hangzhou, which later became Nongfu Spring. In 1999, Nongfu Spring stopped removing natural minerals from its water. Under Zhong’s leadership, the company grew to be the largest bottled water maker in China, as well as one of the largest beverage companies in the world. The company beat out behemoths in the industry such as Coca-Cola, Watsons, and Pepsi to become the best-selling package beverage brand. Zhong took advantage of new technologies such as cloud computing and big data in order to gain a key advantage in understanding Nongfu Spring’s customer base.
Nongfu Spring’s initial public offering in September 2020 massively increased Zhong’s wealth. It expanded his fortune from 18.9 billion dollars to over 50 billion dollars. As of January 2021, he owned 84.4% of Nongfu Spring and was the company’s chairperson.
16. Jim Walton, Walmart — $62.4B
- Age: 75
- Residence: Bentonville, Arkansas
- Source of Wealth: Walmart
- Walmart Ownership Stake: Walton family owns 50% of the Walmart shares
- Other Assets: CEO of Waltons’ Arvest Bank Group, Inc.
James Carr Walton is an American businessman, currently the heir to the fortune of Walmart, the world’s largest retailer. He is the youngest son of Sam Walton.
In 1972, he joined Walmart and was involved in its real-estate dealings. After serving for four years, he moved to the family owned Walton Enterprises as president in 1975. On September 28, 2005, Walton replaced his deceased brother, John, on the Wal-Mart Board of Directors. He is currently on the Strategic Planning and Finance committees.
He was CEO of his family owned Arvest Bank, until becoming Chairman of Arvest Bank, and Chairman of newspaper firm Community Publishers Inc. owned by Jim Walton himself (but founded by his father Sam Walton after acquiring the local newspaper the Benton County Daily Record, both operating in Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. He has pledged about $2 billion to the Walton Family Foundation along with his siblings from 2008 to 2013. In September 2016, Walton was reported to own over 152 million of Walmart shares worth over $11 billion (US).
17. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook — $62.1B
- Age: 39
- Residence: Palo Alto, California
- Source of Wealth: Facebook / Meta
- Facebook Ownership Stake: 12%
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg is an American business magnate, internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is known for co-founding the social media website Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook, Inc.), of which he is the chairman, chief executive officer, and controlling shareholder.
Zuckerberg attended Harvard University, where he launched Facebook in February 2004 with his roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. Originally launched to select college campuses, the site expanded rapidly and eventually beyond colleges, reaching one billion users by 2012. Zuckerberg took the company public in May 2012 with majority shares. In 2007, at age 23, he became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire. He has used his funds to organize multiple philanthropic endeavors, including the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
Zuckerberg’s prominence in the technology industry has prompted political and legal attention. The founding of Facebook involved Zuckerberg in multiple lawsuits regarding the creation and ownership of the website. In 2013, he co-founded the pro-immigration lobbying group FWD.us. On April 10 and 11, 2018, Zuckerberg testified before the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation regarding the usage of personal data by Facebook in relation to the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data breach.
18. Rob Walton, Walmart — $61.1B
- Age: 78
- Residence: Bentonville, Arkansas
- Source of Wealth: Walmart
- Walmart Ownership Stake: Walton family owns 50% of the Walmart shares
- Other Assets: Denver Broncos
Samuel Robson “Rob” Walton is an American billionaire heir to the fortune of Walmart, the world’s largest retailer. He is the eldest son of Helen Walton and Sam Walton, and was chairman of Walmart from 1992 to 2015. He is also the principal owner of the National Football League (NFL)’s Denver Broncos.
In 1978, he left Tulsa to join Walmart as a senior vice president, and in 1982, he was appointed vice chairman. He was named chairman of the board of directors on April 7, 1992, two days after his father’s death. Along with his siblings, he has pledged about $2 billion to the Walton Family Foundation from 2008 to 2013.
On June 7, 2022, an ownership group led by Walton entered into an agreement to purchase the Denver Broncos from the estate of Pat Bowlen for $4.65 billion, which set the record for the most expensive sale of a sports franchise in history, subject to approval from the NFL’s finance committee and a 3/4 majority of the full NFL ownership group. Walton delegated most day-to-day authority to his son-in-law, Walmart chairman Greg Penner, who took over as CEO of the franchise and the public face of the ownership group.
19. Alice Walton, Walmart — $60.2B
- Age: 74
- Residence: Fort Worth, Texas
- Source of Wealth: Walmart
- Walmart Ownership Stake: Walton family owns 50% of the Walmart shares
- Other Assets: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Alice Louise Walton is an American heiress to the fortune of Walmart. In September 2016, she owned over US$11 billion in Walmart shares.
Walton was the first person to chair the Northwest Arkansas Council and played a major role in the development of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, which opened in 1998. At the time, the business and civic leaders of Northwest Arkansas Council found a need for the $109 million regional airport in their corner of the state. Walton provided $15 million in initial funding for construction. Her company, Llama Company, underwrote a $79.5 million bond. The Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport Authority recognized Walton’s contributions to the creation of the airport and named the terminal the Alice L. Walton Terminal Building.
In the late 1990s, Llama Co. closed, and in 1998, Walton moved to a ranch in Millsap, Texas, named Walton’s Rocking W Ranch. An avid horse-lover, she was known for having an eye for determining which 2-month-olds would grow to be champion cutters. Walton listed the farm for sale in 2015 and moved to Fort Worth, Texas, citing the need to focus on the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Bentonville, Arkansas, art museum she founded that opened in 2011.
20. Julia Koch, Koch Industries — $59.3B
- Age: 61
- Residence: New York, New York
- Source of Wealth: Koch Industries
- Koch Industries Ownership Stake: 42%
Julia Margaret Flesher Koch is an American socialite and philanthropist who is one of the richest women in the world. She inherited her fortune from her husband, David Koch, who died in 2019.
David Koch died in August 2019, and Julia Koch and their three children (David Jr., Mary Julia, and John Mark) inherited 42% of Koch Industries. As a result, she was listed by Bloomberg as the richest woman in the world and was included on Forbes’ list of the richest women in the world in 2023.
In 2022, Koch put the apartment at 740 Park Avenue on the market; a spokesperson said that she wanted to sell it because she was spending more time at houses in Southampton and Palm Beach. Koch is on the board of directors of Koch Industries. She tends not to seek public attention.
21. Charles Koch, Koch Industries — $59.3B
- Age: 87
- Residence: Wichita, Kansas
- Source of Wealth: Koch Industries
- Koch Industries Ownership Stake: 42%
Charles Koch has been chairman and CEO of Koch Industries, America’s second largest private company by revenue, since 1967. The diversified company has some $125 billion in revenues from businesses including pipelines, chemicals, software, automotive components and Dixie cups.
His father, Fred Koch, improved a method of refining heavy oil into gasoline in 1927 and started the family business in 1940. The Kansas native owns a 42% stake in the firm, as did his brother David, who died in August 2019. In 1983 Charles and David bought their two other brothers’ stakes in Koch Industries, reportedly for nearly $800 million. His son Chase heads the company’s venture capital arm, which has invested in AI-based neurological diagnosis firm NeuraLight and smart supply chain firm Arkestro.
22. David Thomson, Thomson Reuters — $55.5B
- Age: 66
- Residence: Toronto, Canada
- Source of Wealth: Thomson Reuters
- Thomson Reuters Ownership Stake: Thomson family owns more than 320 million shares of Thomson Reuters
- Other Assets: Thomson family has stakes in Bell Canada, as well as owns the Globe and Mail newspaper
David Kenneth Roy Thomson, 3rd Baron Thomson of Fleet is a Canadian/British hereditary peer and media magnate. Upon the death of his father in 2006, Thomson became the chairman of Thomson Corporation and also inherited his father’s British title, Baron Thomson of Fleet. After the acquisition of Reuters in 2008, Thomson became the chairman of the merged entity, Thomson Reuters.
According to a plan devised decades ago by Thomson Corporation founder Roy Thomson, when Kenneth Thomson died (in June 2006), control of the family fortune passed on to David.
23. Michael Dell, Dell Technologies — $52B
- Age: 58
- Residence: Austin, Texas
- Source of Wealth: Dell Technologies
- Dell Technologies Ownership Stake: 52% ($40 Billion)
- Other Assets: MSD Capital, VMware
Michael Saul Dell is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Dell Technologies, one of the world’s largest technology infrastructure companies.
In 2011, his 243.35 million shares of Dell stock were worth $3.5 billion, giving him 12% ownership of the company. His remaining wealth of roughly $10 billion is invested in other companies and is managed by MSD Capital, which incorporates his initials. In January 2013 it was announced that he had bid to take Dell Inc. private for $24.4 billion in the biggest management buyout since the Great Recession. Dell Inc. officially went private in October 2013. The company once again went public in December 2018.
In 1998, Dell founded MSD Capital L.P. to manage his family’s investments. Investment activities include publicly traded securities, private equity activities, and real estate. The firm employs 80 people and has offices in New York, Santa Monica and London. Dell himself is not involved in day-to-day operations. On March 4, 2004, Dell stepped down as CEO, but stayed as chairman of Dell Inc.’s board, while Kevin Rollins, then president and COO, became president and CEO. On January 31, 2007, Dell returned as CEO at the request of the board, succeeding Rollins.
In 2013, Michael Dell with the help of Silver Lake Partners, Microsoft, and a consortium of lenders took Dell, Inc. private. The deal was reportedly worth $25 billion and faced difficulties during its execution. Notable resistance came from Carl Icahn, but after several months he stepped aside. Michael Dell received a 75% stake in the private company.
On October 12, 2015, Dell Inc. announced its intent to acquire the enterprise software and storage company EMC Corporation. At $67 billion, it has been labeled the “highest-valued tech acquisition in history”. The acquisition was finalized September 7, 2016.
24. Zhang Yiming, TikTok — $49.5B
- Age: 39
- Residence: China
- Source of Wealth: Founding and leading ByteDance, creating Douyin/TikTok
Zhang Yiming is a Chinese internet entrepreneur. He founded ByteDance in 2012 and developed the news aggregator Toutiao and the video sharing platform TikTok (Douyin, formerly known as Musica). Zhang’s personal wealth was estimated at US$55 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index (US $49.5 billion, according to Forbes), making him the second-richest person in China, after Zhong Shanshan. On November 4, 2021, Zhang stepped down as CEO of ByteDance, completing a leadership handover announced in May 2021.
In February 2006, Zhang became the fifth employee and the first engineer at the travel website Kuxun, and he was promoted to technical director a year later. In 2008, Zhang left Kuxun to work for Microsoft, but felt stifled by its corporate rules. He soon left Microsoft to join the startup Fanfou, which eventually failed. In 2009, when Expedia was about to acquire Kuxun, Zhang took over Kuxun’s real estate search business and started 99fang.com, his first company.
25. Phil Knight, Nike — $47.4B
- Age: 85
- Residence: United States
- Source of Wealth: founder of shoe giant Nike, retired as chairman in June 2016 after 52 years at the company
Philip Hampson Knight is an American billionaire businessman. He is the co-founder and chairman emeritus of Nike, Inc., and was previously chairman and CEO of the company. He is also the owner of the stop motion film production company Laika. Knight is a graduate of the University of Oregon and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He was in track and field club under coach Bill Bowerman at the University of Oregon, with whom he would co-found Nike.
Following mainstream success in the late 1990s, Will Vinton Studios animation company sought external investors due to rapid growth. Knight assumed a 15% stake in the company in 1998, and his son Travis—who had graduated from Portland State following an unsuccessful attempt at a rap music career—went to work at the studio as an animator.
Knight has pledged over $500 million in donations to both the University of Oregon and Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, his alma maters.
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Billioners: The Biggest Losers
Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires
Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires rankings tracks the daily ups and downs of the world’s richest people. The wealth-tracking platform provides ongoing updates on the net worth and ranking of each individual confirmed by Forbes to be a billionaire.
Individuals whose fortunes are significantly tied to private companies will have their net worths updated once a day. In cases where an individual owns a stake in a private company that accounts for 20% or more of his or her net worth, the value of the company will be adjusted according to an industry- or region-specific market index provided by our partners at FactSet Research Systems when available.
A rotating cast of the five biggest winners and losers throughout the day is featured at the top of the page, followed by the complete list of billionaires ranked in order of net worth.
How many billionaires in the world?
The world’s billionaires—only 3,311 individuals—represent almost $11.8 trillion in wealth. The global billionaire population continued to grow in 2023, increasing by 3%.
Who Are the Top 10 Richest People in the World?
The top 10 richest people in the world are:
- Bernard Arnault
- Elon Musk
- Jeff Bezos
- Larry Ellison
- Warren Buffett
- Bill Gates
- Carlos Slim Helu
- Mukesh Ambani
- Steve Ballmer
- Larry Page
Who Is the World’s Richest Man in 2023?
As of March 2023, the world’s richest man is Bernard Arnault.
Who Is the Richest Woman in the World?
The richest woman in the world is Francoise Bettencourt Meyers. As of March 2023, her net worth is $70.5 billion. Her net worth is derived from her holdings in L’Oreal, the world’s largest cosmetics company.
Who is the youngest billionaire 2023?
Here are the World’s Billionaires list who are 30 and under, ranked from oldest to youngest:
- Katharina Andresen
- Wang Zelong
- Alexandra Andresen
- Luca Del Vecchio
- Kim Jung-min.
- Kevin David Lehmann
- Kim Jung-min
- Clemente Del Vecchio
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by 
Oleg Parashchak – CEO Finance Media & Editor-in-Chief at Beinsure Media and Insurance TOP Ratings (22+ years of professional experience in Rankings, Insurance & Media), by Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires Data [as April 5, 2023]
