Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, took the company public in 2012 and still owns about 13% of it. Here are the 10 richest people on earth as of December 1, 2024 at 12 a.m. Stock prices fluctuate routinely, so these net worths may change on a daily basis. Forbes tracks the daily changes on our Real Time list of billionaires. Elon Musk, once the richest person in the world, is No. 2 on the list, with a net worth of $195 billion.
In 2000, he merged an online bank he cofounded, X.com with a similar outfit cofounded by Peter Thiel to form PayPal, which eBay bought in 2002 for $1.4 billion. In 2004 he joined Tesla as an investor and chairman, a year after it was founded; he was later granted the cofounder title. Musk, who became CEO of Tesla in 2008, took the company public in 2010.
- He owns 23% of Tesla between stock and options, but has pledged some of his stock as collateral for loans.
- Gautam Adani of India fell from third richest in the world on January 24, 2023.
- The CEO of electric carmaker Tesla, Musk also owns stakes in privately held rocket firm SpaceX and social media company X, formerly known as Twitter.
- Their combined worth equals $14.2 trillion — up by $2 trillion in 2023.
#9 Sergey Brin
Many billionaires hold much of their net worth in the stock of the company they founded. Forbes has been keeping track of the world’s billionaires since 1987. The U.A.E. is home to the highest number of billionaires on the list as well as cumulative wealth, with a total net worth of $55.1 billion. Knight, who cofounded Nike in 1964 with just $500, is still reaping hefty dividends—$400 million (pretax) worth over the past year—thanks to a 25% stake in the shoe and apparel company. Supply chain difficulties and Covid restrictions in China nudged Nike’s shares down 3%.
He ranked No. 13 on Forbes’ lists of the World’s Billionaires in both 2023 and 2024. An uptick in Inditex shares in September landed Ortega back among the top ten richest for the first time in years. In the past month, he fell from No. 9 to No. 10 as shares of Inditex declined; his fortune shrank by an estimated $3.8 billion. He bought X, then known as Twitter, for $44 billion in October 2022 and owns an estimated 74% of the social media company, which is now worth less than half what he paid for it. It’s been a year like no other, and we aren’t talking about the pandemic.
#5 Warren Buffett
To tally their wealth, Forbes used stock prices and exchange rates from March 8, 2024. The 2024 list also broke records set in 2021, with 26 more billionaires on the list and their combined net worth up by $1.1 trillion. Bill Gates’ rise with Microsoft in the 1980s marked a turning point. From 1995 to 2017, he held the top spot for a staggering 18 years, becoming synonymous with immense wealth during the tech boom.
Arnault was the world’s richest person for most of the first half of 2023; he fell to No. 2 on June 8, 2023. As of January 1, 2024 Arnault is worth $9.4 billion more than a month ago, per Forbes’ estimates, following a rise in the the price of LVMH shares. As of January 1, 2024, the richest person in the world is Elon Musk, the CEO of electric car company Tesla; he’s worth an estimated $251 billion.
He owns 23% of Tesla between stock and options, and has pledged some of his stock as collateral for loans. He owns 23% of Tesla between stock and options, but has pledged some of his stock as collateral for loans. The fast fashion pioneer cofounded Inditex, known for its Zara chain of stores, in 1975 with his ex-wife, Rosalia Mera (d. 2013). Ortega ranked No. 6 richest in the world in 2020, with a $55 billion fortune.
As of October 1, 2023, she is worth an estimated $83.4 billion and is the 15th in the list of richest people. For eight days in June 2023, Ellison overtook Jeff Bezos as the third richest person top 100 richest person in world in the world following a rise in Oracle’s share price. His fortune has declined by about $16.5 billion between September 1 and October 1, 2023. Arnault still clocks in at No. 2 richest, but he’s worth about $22 billion less than a month ago, as a result of a nearly 11% drop in the price of luxury goods group LVMH’s share price. Egyptian billionaire Nassef Sawiris is still the richest Arab in the world and ranked second in the Middle East after Durov, with a net worth of $8.8 billion.
Jeff Bezos Net Worth
Ambani is the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, which is involved in multiple industries including petrochemicals and textiles. Next time you Google anything, remember Page, who is one of its co-founders. The U.S. still tops all countries with the most billionaires at 735, followed by China’s 607.
Their fortunes collectively rose by $30 billion during December—a much smaller jump than the $115 billion rise during November 2023. One of the biggest gainers —Mark Zuckerberg—leaped into the No. 5 spot, up from No. 7 richest in the world on December 1. Bloomberg notes it’s the “biggest daily increase” of wealth it’s seen since the index began in 2012,. Over the years Oracle has made a series of large acquisitions, buying Sun Microsystems in 2010. The Dell chairman and CEO is $5 billion poorer this year after a 27% drop in Dell Technologies’ stock price. His family office, however, has grown into a large investment and advisory firm.