Top Richest people in the world

1.Benoit Arnault

Assets: $210.8 billion

Source: LVMH/Prestige Products

Age: 73

habitation: Paris

Nationality: France

The head of the world's largest luxury goods company, LVMH, which boasts more than 70 fashion and beauty brands, is Bernard Arnault. Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Moet & Chandon, and Sephora are a few of its most well-known brands. Jewelry retailer Tiffany & Co. was purchased by LVMH for $15.8 billion in January 2021.

Arnault's father amassed a fortune in the building industry, and he used $15 million of that wealth to launch his career by purchasing Christian Dior.

Parts of the LVMH empire employ four of Arnault's five children. Arnault appointed his daughter Delphine to lead Dior, the second-largest brand in the group, in January 2023.

2.Elon Musk

$196.5 billion in assets

Sources: Twitter, SpaceX, and Tesla

Age: 51

Hometown: Austin, Texas

American Musk is the CEO of Twitter, SpaceX, and Tesla, three companies that produce rockets. Between stock and options, he owns 23% of Tesla, but he has given up more than half of that ownership to serve as collateral for loans. The majority of his wealth—about two thirds—comes from the automaker. In October 2022, he paid $44 billion for Twitter, acquiring a 74% stake in the social media giant.

Musk, a South African native who immigrated to Canada before turning 18, worked a number of jobs before enrolling at Queen's University in Ontario. He later transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, where he received a bachelor's degree in economics.

He created PayPal in 2000 by combining an online bank he cofounded called X.com with a company cofounded by Peter Thiel. eBay acquired PayPal in 2002 for $1.4 billion. At El Segundo, close to Los Angeles, he established SpaceX in 2002. He joined Tesla in 2004, a year after company was created, as an investor and chairman; he was eventually given the cofounder title. Tesla's CEO since 2008, Musk, floated the business in 2010. In 2020 and 2021, its market capitalization increased dramatically. Musk gained the title of richest man in the world in September 2021. His wealth reached its pinnacle at a staggering $320 billion in November 2021.

Up until December 2022, when the value of Musk's fortune declined due to a decline in the share price of Tesla, Musk remained the richest person in the world. From the time of their high in November 2021 to February 28, 2023, Tesla stock has decreased by about 50%.

3.Jeff Bezos

Assets: $117.4 billion

Author: Amazon

Age: 59

Hometown: Medina, Washington

U.S. citizens.

In July 2021, Jeff Bezos, who founded and has invested billions in the private rocket company Blue Origin, resigned as CEO of the world's largest online retailer Amazon but continues to serve as chairman. That same month, he travelled to space on a rocket built by Blue Origin.

After leaving a position at hedge fund D.E. Shaw in New York, Bezos started online retailer Amazon.com in his garage in Seattle the following year. Amazon started out as an online bookshop when few people were really making purchases online. Amazon expanded to become the leader in cloud storage and entered the film and television industry to support Amazon Prime Video.

In July 2017, Bezos passed Bill Gates to claim the title of richest man in the world. He and Gates alternated holding the top two richest positions periodically. From 2018 through 2021, Bezos was the richest person in the world according to Forbes' list of the World's Billionaires; however, in 2022, he fell to second place. After falling to fourth place, he rose back to first.

Bezos and his wife MacKenzie divorced in 2019, and as part of the agreement, she received 4% of Amazon shares while he retained 12%. Since then, he has sold more of his stock, leaving him with about 10% of the business. Forbes estimates that he has sold more than $27 billion worth of his stock since Amazon went public in 1997.

4.Larry Ellison

Assets: $112.3 billion

Citation: Oracle

Age: 78

Hometown: Lanai, Hawaii

U.S. citizens.

Larry Ellison cofounded the software company Oracle in 1977 and served as its CEO until 2014. He currently holds the positions of chairman and chief technology officer. Oracle has over the years completed a number of large acquisitions, including the 2010 purchase of Sun Microsystems.

For $300 million, Ellison acquired the Hawaiian island of Lanai in 2012. In 2020, he relocated to Lanai from California.

From August 2018 to August 2022, Ellison served as a director of Tesla and made an investment in the automaker.

5.Warren Buffett

Assets: $106.4 billion

Information from Berkshire Hathaway

Age: 92

Hometown: Omaha, Nebraska

U.S. citizens.

Warren Buffett, also referred to as the "Oracle of Omaha," is one of the greatest investors in history. He is in charge of the investment conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, which controls a number of businesses, including the food chain Dairy Queen, the battery manufacturer Duracell, and the insurance Geico. He initially purchased shares at age 11 and first filed taxes at age 13, both as the son of a U.S. congressman.

In 2010, Buffett, Bill Gates, and Melinda French Gates established the Giving Pledge, which invited billionaires to pledge to donate at least half of their wealth to nonprofit organisations. Buffett has declared that 99% of his wealth would be donated. He has invested $51.5 billion in Berkshire Hathaway thus far.