Forbes ranking: 10 richest people of 2024
The popular Forbes magazine publishes the list of the richest people every year. The publication did not betray the tradition this time either and at the beginning of the year offered readers a ranking of the richest people on the planet.
According to Forbes, in January 2024, the total capital of the 10 richest people amounted to 1.44 trillion dollars. It should be noted that the income of businessmen increased especially at the end of last year, when the prices of Tesla and Alphabet shares increased significantly. "Forbes billionaires" have capital invested in the shares of their own companies, so it is the price of the shares that determines their income.
10 richest people on the planet
In the first half of 2023, Bernard Arnault, the founder and CEO of the LVMH company, topped the list of the richest people, but in June the French tycoon Elon Musk took the top spot. The fourth position in the rating was retained by Larry Ellison, who was a few billions behind the creator of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, and the former general directors of Microsoft, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, only occupied the sixth and eighth positions.
1. Elon Musk (age 52, $250.4 billion)
The richest man in the world is the owner and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. Tesla works on the production of electric cars and solar panels, and SpaceX specializes in the creation of space rockets. It is true that in 2022, Musk bought the social network Twitter, which later changed its name to X, for $44 billion, but at least two-thirds of its capital is provided by the automobile company.
Musk, who has a phenomenal memory and can easily remember a huge amount of material, has been distinguished by rare intelligence and insight since childhood. Ilon received his first computer as a gift at the age of 10. The teenager quickly picked up programming, and at the age of 12 he created the first computer game program, which he sold for $500, and during his student days, when he often didn't even have money for a sandwich, he paid rent by organizing a night club and paid parties in his home. The businessman showed exceptional dexterity even at the end of 2008, when his companies were threatened with bankruptcy, although Musk was able to receive $ 20 million from investors an hour before declaring bankruptcy, and two days later, his SpaceX signed a $ 1.6 billion contract with NASA.
2. Bernard Arnault (age 74, $203.2 billion)
The richest man in Europe, Bernard Arnault, is the general director of LVMH, the largest company producing luxury and premium goods. In 2021, LVMH, which includes about 70 fashion and cosmetics brands - including Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Moet & Chandon and Sephora, bought the jewelry company Tiffany & Co for 15.8 billion. in dollars.
In 1971, after graduating with an engineering degree from École Polytechnique, the most prestigious French university, Arnaud joined his father's construction company Ferret-Savinel, which he took over 7 years later. Boussac. Arno gave up all the brands in the company except Christian Dior, and after the merger of Moёt Hennessy and Louis Vuitton into LVMH, he first became its largest investor, and then the owner and main shareholder.
3. Jeff Bezos (age 60, $174.4 billion)
True, in 2021, Bezos left the post of CEO of the e-commerce giant Amazon, but he still retained the position of chairman of the company's board of directors.
In July 2021, Bezos traveled into space aboard the New Shepard rocket built by his own aerospace company, Blue Origin. The businessman was accompanied by his brother Mark, 82-year-old professional pilot Mrs. Wally Funk, and 18-year-old Oliver, the son of Dutch billionaire Jos Damman. The "star crew" set three records at the same time, because not only the richest man on the planet at that time, but also the youngest and oldest astronauts flew into space. Although the space mission lasted only 10 minutes, the capsule with the crew was still able to develop a speed of 3595 km/h and overcome an altitude of 107 km.
4. Larry Ellison (age 79, $133.8 billion)
Until 2014, Ellison led the software company Oracle, which he founded in 1977, as CEO. Today, the businessman is the technical director of the company and the chairman of the management board. Oracle has made several major acquisitions in recent years, including Sun Microsystems, and has boosted revenue by a factor of two. In 2018, Ellison became one of the major investors in the automobile company Tesla and joined the board of directors, although he left the company of his own accord in 2022. According to rumors, Ellison, who never shies away from harsh words, had a falling out with Elon Musk himself.
Ellison, who lives on one of his Hawaiian islands, has made a name for himself primarily with luxury cars and yachts, and his love of a life of luxury. The year 1976 turned out to be a turning point for the future billionaire, when, after working in various fields, he ended up in the company Ampex completely by accident, where he worked on the creation of Oracle, a database management system for the American intelligence agency. After completing the first serious project, Alison left Ampex with his colleagues and founded his own company, which he named Oracle in honor of the first successful project.
5. Warren Buffett (age 93, $119.3 billion)
Known as the "Oracle of Omaha," Buffett is one of the most successful investors of all time. It is he who manages the investment conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, which includes several dozen companies, including the insurance Geico, the producer of accumulators and batteries Duracell and the restaurant chain Dairy Queen.
The son of American Congressman Howard Buffett bought his first shares at the age of 11, and he filled out his tax return for the first time at the age of 13. In 2010, together with Bill and Melinda Gates, Buffett launched the "Pledge of Trust" philanthropic campaign and offered his fellow billionaires to share their responsibilities by donating at least half of their wealth to charitable foundations. Buffett himself donated 99 percent of his capital to charity, when he donated $51.5 billion to the foundations of Bill Gates, his own children, and earned the status of the most generous billionaire on the planet.
6. Bill Gates (age 68, $118.8 billion)
Computer programming captivated Gates as a child, but in 1975, the future billionaire refused to continue his studies at Harvard University and together with his school friend Paul Allen, created the computer security firm Microsoft, which made a real revolution in the development of the personal computer industry.
Gates led Microsoft for 25 years and left the post of general director only in 2000, although a few years later he said in an interview that "he still devotes a lot of time to the company and consulting the Microsoft team." Today, Gates, who is one of the largest owners of agricultural land in the United States, invests in dozens of companies, but most of all he is a fan of the agricultural machinery and equipment manufacturer Deere & Co., which he helps not only financially, but also by finding skilled specialists .
7. Mark Zuckerberg (age 39, $115.9 billion)
The popular social network Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004, while still studying at Harvard University. The company, now called Meta Platforms, expanded by acquiring Instagram, WhatsApp, and became the world's largest social network with 3.88 billion monthly users. Although Zuckerberg is Meta's CEO, he only owns 13 percent of the stock.
It is worth noting that together with his wife Priscilla Chan, Mark promised to use 99 percent of the capital not to meet his own needs, but to develop human potential. One of the most ambitious projects funded by the couple is to develop tools that will help doctors prevent, control and effectively treat any disease.
8. Steve Ballmer (age 67, $112.8 billion)
A classmate of Bill Gates from Harvard University, in 1980, after completing the MBA program at Stanford University, he joined the Microsoft team as an ordinary employee, however, after Gates' resignation from the post of CEO in 2000, it was he who headed the company, which he led until 2014.
According to the businessman, he gave up the post of director of Microsoft in exchange for his favorite sport. Passionate about basketball, Ballmer devoted all his time and resources to the development of the Los Angeles Clippers, which he purchased for $ 2 billion, setting a record for the most expensive acquisition in the history of the National Basketball Association. However, under his tutelage, the assets of the team have doubled and today they are worth 4.65 billion dollars.
9. Larry Page (age 50, $116.2 billion)
Page created the Google search engine in 1998 with Sergey Brin, whom he met while studying at Stanford University. Later, the meeting between Page and Brin was called by some "epic", others "fatal and transformative", which is absolutely justified, because the partnership of young people is still considered one of the most successful business tandems today. However, many argue that the founders of Google do not like each other very much, and only common interests force them to maintain a partnership. No one knows how true the rumors are, but everyone agrees that, despite personal sympathies, the cooperation between Page and Brin has been fully justified, because the businessmen have long secured a place in the list of the richest people in the world.
Although Page stepped down as CEO in 2015, he still retained a controlling stake in Google's parent company Alphabet and membership on the board of directors. Later, Page founded asteroid mining company Planetary Resources, which was acquired by blockchain company ConsenSys in 2018.
10. Sergey Brin (age 50, $107.3 billion)
Like his partner Page, Brin retained a controlling interest in shares and a seat on the board of directors after leaving the post of president of Alphabet.
It is worth noting that Brin, who moved to America with his parents fleeing anti-Semitism from Russia at the age of 6, is today considered the richest immigrant in the United States. 10 years ago, the businessman publicly declared that he belonged to a high-risk group of Parkinson's disease due to his genetic predisposition, therefore he started a kind of educational campaign to study the disease and to this day he is intensively funding research into neurodegenerative diseases. In total, Brin's financial support exceeded 1 billion dollars in 10 years.