By Lars Mucklejohn
The world’s 20 richest people have added around $700bn to their combined wealth over the last year, according to Forbes latest rich list.
The business magazine on Tuesday published its annual ranking of the world’s 200 wealthiest people, revealing that tech tycoons had enjoyed a massive boost on the back of a frenzy for AI products and the success of Nasdaq 100 stocks.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg saw the biggest increase in his estimated net worth, from $113bn in 2023 to $177bn in 2024.
Just three Brits made the top 200: hedge fund manager Michael Platt in 104th ($18bn), chemical tycoon Jim Ratcliffe in 111th ($16.5bn) and bagless vacuum cleaner inventor James Dyson in 140th ($13.6bn).
Below are the top 10 on the list.
10. Larry Page ($114bn)
Larry Page is an internet entrepreneur best known for co-founding Google in 1998 with Sergey Brin.
Page was chief executive of Google between 1997 and 2001 and again between 2011 and 2015, before becoming CEO of its newly formed parent company Alphabet until 2019. He remains an Alphabet board member and controlling shareholder.
9. Mukesh Ambani ($116bn)
Mukesh Ambani is the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, a multinational conglomerate with interests in petrochemicals, oil and gas, telecom, retail and financial services.
Ambani is the richest man in Asia, and his firm is the largest publicly-listed company in India, with a market capitalisation of £192bn. Companies linked to the Ambani family own 50.4 per cent of Reliance’s shares.
8. Steve Ballmer ($121bn)
Sitting just shy of his old boss Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer was the CEO of Microsoft between 2000 and 2014. He also owns the L.A. Clippers basketball team.
Much of Ballmer’s wealth comes from his stake in Microsoft. Shares in the firm have surged 46 per cent over the last 12 months amid a wider rally in the tech sector on increasing demand for AI.
7. Bill Gates ($128bn)
Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft in 1975. It is now the world’s biggest software maker and the largest company in the world by market capitalisation, with a $3.11trn valuation. Gates was Microsoft’s largest individual shareholder until May 2014.
Outside his shares in Microsoft, more than half of Gates’ wealth is managed through Cascade Investment, which has stakes in dozens of publicly traded companies, including waste disposal firm Republic Services and tractor maker Deere.
6. Warren Buffett ($133bn)
Popularly known as the “Oracle” or “Sage” of Omaha, Warren Buffett is one of the most successful investors ever. At the age of 93, he currently serves as the chair and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, which Buffett purchased in 1965.
Buffett and Gates founded The Giving Pledge in 2010, encouraging wealthy people to give a majority of their fortune to philanthropic causes.
5. Larry Ellison ($141bn)
Larry Ellison co-founded software giant Oracle in 1977. He was the company’s CEO between 1977 and 2014 and currently serves as its chief technology officer and executive chair.
Ellison owns just under 40 per cent of Oracle, which posted a revenue of $50bn in the year ending 31 May 2023, helped by a boom in demand for its AI technology.
4. Mark Zuckerberg ($177bn)
Mark Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook with his Harvard roommates in 2004 at the age of 19. Two decades later, it is the world’s largest social network.
Its parent company Meta also owns Instagram and Whatsapp, reporting a revenue of $134.9bn in 2023 and boasting some 4bn monthly users across its products.
3. Jeff Bezos ($194bn)
Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1994 out of his garage in Seattle. It is currently the world’s largest online retailer, selling everything from books and electronics to groceries and prefab houses.
Bezos has a roughly nine per cent stake in Amazon, which reported a revenue of $574.8bn in 2023 and has a market cap of $1.87trn. After 27 years at the helm, Bezos stepped down as CEO of Amazon to become its executive chair in 2021.
2. Elon Musk ($195bn)
Business magnate Elon Musk has co-founded six companies. His wealth primarily comes from his ownership stakes in Tesla, which dominates the battery electric vehicle market, and SpaceX, the spacecraft manufacturer which makes trips to the International Space Station for NASA.
Musk also owns the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
1. Bernard Arnault and family ($233bn)
Topping Forbes’ list is Bernard Arnault, who co-founded the world’s largest luxury goods firm LVMH in 1987 and serves as its chair and CEO. LVMH’s empire includes 75 fashion and cosmetics brands such as Louis Vuitton and Sephora.
Arnault controls around half of LVMH, which posted a revenue of 86.2bn euros in 2023.
