Listening to the Richest people, there would be several names that might pop up in your mind. Every year there is a list that comes disclosing the list of the top wealthiest people. This list might differ owning to the profit made by the entrepreneurs in the year. But there is tough competition across the world to be named as the Richest men on the Earth.
The Richest people are disclosed as owning to their net worth, assets, and investments they make. The net worth fluctuates every year. Here is the list that showcases how these billionaires have reached the spot and how they have earned their wealth over the years.
Have a look at the Top 10 Richest People in the World as of December 2024:
10. Steve Ballmer: (Net worth – $61.6 Billion)
Steve Ballmer is the guy who was the CEO of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014, and he then gave his CEO throne to Satya Nadella. After he retired from Microsoft, he bought the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 Billion.
He joined the company in 1980 as an employee, and he supported the Microsoft at a challenging time and after the first dot.com crash which almost ruined the company. He was the wattage CEO of Microsoft, and he joined the company in 1980 as an employee No. 30 after he dropped out of Stanford’s MBA program.
After he retired from the company, he got very much into philanthropy, and he put over $2 billion into a donor-advised fund, and he focussed entirely on lifting Americans out of poverty.
Later in 2018, he invested $59 million in the funds of Social Solutions. Social Solutions is a company that makes software for government and non-profit organizations.
Although he was CEO for almost 15 years, he earned most of his wealth from his 4% stake in the company that he held through. It was reported that he had to leave the Microsoft board due to other members as he was laying out the plan to combat the rise of iPhone and Android to his board members, and then he was cut off by John Thompson.
9. Larry Ellison: (Net Worth – $63.9 Billion)
Larry Ellison is one of the biggest brains behind one of the world’s one of the biggest tech companies, Oracle. He is the co-founder and executive chairman and CTO of the company. In October 2019, he was listed as the world’s sixth wealthiest person.
He began his work with American Television company Ampex in the early 1970s, and he then founded Oracle using relational database design. Oracle was a successful database vendor for many systems, and it competes with the companies like Sybase and MS SQL Server.
Talking of his personal life, he has been married and divorced four times. He also made a brief cameo appearance in the 2010 movie Iron Man 2.
He also purchased the 50% shares of the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament, and he owns many exotic cars too. His collection of vehicles include Audi R8 and a McLaren F1. He says that his favorite car is Acura NSX, and he also owns a Lexus LFA.
Ellison also competes in Yachting through his Oracle Team USA, and he also found the BMW Oracle Racing to compete in the 2003 Louis Vuitton Cup. He is also a licensed pilot and owns several aircraft.
8. Sergey Brin and Larry Page: (Net Worth – $68 Billion, $67 billion)
The founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page of what is worshipped as God for digitalization- Google comes on the 8th position in the list. Both the partners are also the co-founder of Google’s parent company Alphabet and Page Rank.
The partners found Google and even the Page Rank algorithm, and Larry Page found this along with the fellow Stanford Student Sergey Brin, who was then pursuing Ph. D. They created Alphabet, and it includes Google, Calisco, Nest and many other small startups.
But they don’t take much salary from Alphabet as their annual salary from the Alphabet is $1 million and most of their money comes from their shares in the company. Larry Page is also an investor in the Flying Car startups Kitty Hawk and Opener.
They both resigned some years ago from the position of Google, and first, it was page to give up the CEO role to Eric Schmidt, and later the part was offered to Sundar Pichai.
In August 2004, the made Google public at an evaluation of $27 billion, and Larry bought mobile revolutionizing operating system Android for $50 million, and Schmidt did not know of this. Later they purchased YouTube in 2006.
7. Carlos Slim Helu: (Net Worth- $72 billion)
Famous Mexican entrepreneur and business people, Carlos Slim Helu has holding in several companies via Grupo carso. These conglomerate of companies consist of various sectors such as manufacturing, education, media, healthcare, Entertainment, Sports, technology, and more.
It is said to be the richest men in Latin America with 40% holdings in Mexican Stock Exchange.
Carlos was born to Julian and Linda Atta on 28th January in 1940. Since an early age, he was more inclined towards the business and investment sector, and his father was his financial teacher. Carlos graduated from National Autonomous University in Mexico with Civil engineering degree.
Post his graduation, he traded at the stock market in Mexico and earned good profits letting him start stock brokerage firm. He gradually started purchasing and forming new companies in several sectors.
Carlos married Soumaya Domit, but she died in 1999, after which Carlos never thought of remarriage. He has six children and is involved in Carlos’ business as well.
Carlos has been among the wealthiest person’s list and has surpassed Bill Gates and Warren Buffett at one point in time. Carlos owns a six-bedroom house in Chapultepec in Mexico where he is residing for more than 40 years. He has several other estates which he manages. He is involved in Charity and other philanthropic works as well.
6. Amancio Ortega: (Net Worth – $81 billion)
Owner of the fashion label, Zara, Amancio Ortega is the richest man in Spain and 6th richest in the world. Known to keep his life at a low key profile, Amancio surely knowns the money game.
His net worth, earnings depend on the fashion brand he owns under the Inditex group (parent company of brand Zara). He owns a59.3% stake in the company and has been earnings good fortunes with it.
Amancio took birth on 28th March 1936 in Busdongo in Spain to Josefa Hernandez and Antonio Rodriguez. He was brought up in Leon in Spain and left school early to help his father. He took the job of clothes making, and this is where his love for clothing began.
Amancio started with selling quilted bathrobes and then funded Zara along with his wife. His first wife, Rosalia Mera, died in 2013 with whom he divorced earlier and married to Flora in 2001 living with her in Spain. He leads a straightforward life and hardly gives any interviews and photographs to media personnel.
Amancio is seen in White Shirt; Blue colored blazer and gray trouser always, which are ironically not of Zara. His brand has made him the number 6 position to top wealthiest people in the world as of 2024.
5. Mark Zuckerberg: (Net Worth – $84 billion)
Facebook, the popular microblogging website which connects billions of people worldwide, was founded by Mark Zuckerberg.
At the mere age of 19, when he was studying at Harvard University, he plunged to the idea of matching photos and names of his classmates. Facebook went public in 2012.
Mark was born in New York on 14th May 1984 to Karen and Edward Zuckerberg. He has three siblings and was brought up in Dobbs Ferry in New York.
Zuckerberg was a bright student in school and excelled at his academics always. He wrote software while in school and learned various programming languages as well. A movie, The Social network, showcasing how Facebook was formed, was released in the year 2010.
Mark has been doing quite a few philanthropic works as well. He founded the Education Foundation and donated several million to school for the education of students. Mark is married to Priscilla Chan and is a father of two beautiful daughters, Maxima and August.
Mark has pledged to donate the majority of Facebook shares to the Chan Zuckerberg initiative focusing on health & education. Owning to great prosperity that Facebook has given o him, Mark deservingly sits on 5th position in the list of Top wealthiest people in the world.
4. Warren Buffett: (Net Worth – $102 billion)
Known to be a savvy investor, Warren Buffet has always been on the list for a few years. It is said that his lifestyle and investment decision, both impact on his net worth as he still resides in his 1950s purchased home.
He always picks up investments in firms that give value in longer runs and are stable. He is the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, owning several companies.
Although he has massive fortune, he believes in donations and charities. Warren has money mindedness right from a young age as at the mere age of 16; he earned $50,000 by doing several odd jobs. He owns a private jet and a Cadillac XTS car. It is said that he only earns $1,00,000 as salary from Berkshire Hathway, but his fortunes are quite more significant.
Warren is a true example of High income with simple living. He does not lead a lavish life, and the 89-year-old is more focused on giving charity to needy people. Despite such charity works, he still is at number 4 with his smart investment decisions.
3. Bill Gates: (Net Worth – $106 Billion)
Talking about the wealthiest person and the name Bill gates have been topping the list from the past two decades. The Microsoft Co-Founder, who recently left the board with only a 1% stake in the company to focus on Philanthropic works.
Bill Gates was born in Seattle in 1955 to William and Mary Gates. He attended Harvard University but was a dropout to co-found Microsoft with his friend Paul Allen.
They started Microsoft in the year 1975, and since then, there has been no looking back. We are thankful for him for giving Microsft as we can’t imagine life without it now.
Bill Gates and his wife Melinda gates started a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000 and are known to spends billions on money on Charity. Bill believes in sharing his wealth with the needy ones. Apart from a charity, he is involved in several environmental and social works.
Bill Gates owns a private plane for travel costing $40 million, a 66,000 sq ft house worth $125 million, 1 2100 sq ft library, several expensive paintings, and luxurious cars.
2. Bernard Arnault: (Net worth- $107 billion)
The wealthiest person in Europe and 2nd richest over the world, Bernard Arnault, is the Chairman of LVMH, manufacturer of luxury goods. He is considered to be the wealthiest man in the fashion industry. The brand owns more than 70 fashion brands such as Loius Vuitton, Tag Heuer watches, Dom Perigon Champagne, and more.
Bernard belongs to Roubaix and went to Ecole Polytechnique to study engineering. Bernard then assisted in his father’s family business, a construction company. In 1984 Arnault became CEO of Financiere Agache.
Arnault’s family members are all in business. Bernard has a passion for arts and has unique paintings at his house. He has five children in total- 2 from first wife and three from the second (current) wife.
In the year 2017, Bernard was at number 14 in the Top Richest people list, and in just three years, he has surpassed several big names to be on 2nd position in the list. For a short time, he even topped until Amazon‘s share shoot up, making Jeff the richest among all.
1. Jeff Bezos: (Net Worth – $140 Billion)
One of the most well-known E-commerce platforms, Amazon, was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994. Jeffrey Preston Bezos took birth ion 12th January 1964 in Albuquerque to Jacklyn and Ted Jorgenson.
Jeff’s mother was a teenager when he was born, and after his mother remarried, he settled with his new family in Miami, where he finished his education. Jeff graduated from Princeton University and is said o have worked in Mcdonald as well.
Jeff started with a Startup Fitel and then worked at bankers Trust. Then he moved to a new hedge fund
company D.E Shaw & Co and worked till 1994. He was senior VP at the same company at the early age of 30. The Seatle Gragae had Jeff founded Amazon in 1994.
Amazon has its ups and downs in these years, but once the digital market surged up, Amazon was among the top players across the globe. His journey to being a millionaire was achieved in 1999 when he could raise $54 million via Amazon’s IPO. The year 2018 earned him whopping $230 billion of revenues adding his total net worth to be $140 billion as of December 2024.
Also read: Richest women in the world
Conclusion
Well, this was the list of top 10 wealthiest people in the world. All these men have earned this enormous wealth through their patience and hard work. They are nothing but inspiration for many of us. They dreamt of a company, and they had a plan, they worked on this plan, and they were able to create a company from scratch. They have made the world a better place through their philanthropy, and we hope that keep doing this, they have earned our utter respect.
So, let get inspired by them and commit ourselves to create a world a better place and doing hard work. These are the most inspiring personalities of the world, and they are the star in the eye of many people worldwide.