The 20 Richest People on Earth: Origins, Breakthroughs, and Legacies

• Elon Musk — Tesla, SpaceX, xAI
  Engineer-entrepreneur who scaled EVs from niche to global, built the world’s busiest private launch system, and keeps betting on reusable rockets, AI, and autonomy. Ranked #1 as of this snapshot. Bloomberg

• Larry Ellison — Oracle
  Co-founded Oracle in 1977 and turned database software into an enterprise cloud empire; a master of long-game product and M&A strategy. Briefly overtook Musk in September before markets flipped again. Bloomberg+1

• Mark Zuckerberg — Meta
  Launched Facebook from a dorm room, then pivoted the company through mobile, AR/VR, and AI—monetizing a network used by billions. Bloomberg

• Jeff Bezos — Amazon
  Scaled e-commerce and cloud (AWS) into twin flywheels; investor in Blue Origin and a wide portfolio beyond retail. Bloomberg

• Larry Page — Google (Alphabet)
  Google’s co-founder helped commercialize web search and online ads; continues backing “moonshots” in AI and autonomous tech. Bloomberg

• Sergey Brin — Google (Alphabet)
  Co-founded Google and remains deeply involved in advanced research initiatives that spin out across Alphabet. Bloomberg

• Bernard Arnault — LVMH
  Built the world’s largest luxury group (Louis Vuitton, Dior, Tiffany & Co.), setting the template for brand stewardship at scale. Bloomberg

• Steve Ballmer — Microsoft
  Led Microsoft through its enterprise pivot as CEO; now owner of the NBA’s LA Clippers and a prominent philanthropy backer. Bloomberg

• Jensen Huang — NVIDIA
  Co-founded NVIDIA and rode the GPU from gaming to the core chip of AI and data centers; a defining leader of the AI hardware boom. Bloomberg

• Michael Dell — Dell Technologies
  Turned a college startup into a global PC and infrastructure company; engineered one of the largest tech buyouts to reshape Dell’s future. Bloomberg

• Warren Buffett — Berkshire Hathaway
  The “Oracle of Omaha” built a conglomerate via patient, value-driven investing and fortress balance sheets; a benchmark for long-term compounding. Bloomberg

• Jim Walton — Walmart heir
  Part of the Walton family whose Walmart stake reflects the scale of the world’s largest retailer. Bloomberg

• Rob Walton — Walmart heir
  Former Walmart chairman; his fortune also tracks the retail giant’s performance and dividends. Bloomberg

• Alice Walton — Walmart heir
  Collector and founder of Crystal Bridges Museum; her wealth similarly tied to Walmart’s growth. Bloomberg

• Bill Gates — Microsoft
  Microsoft co-founder turned full-time philanthropist; his ranking has slipped as he has donated and diversified, but his tech impact remains foundational. Bloomberg

• Amancio Ortega — Inditex (Zara)
  Reinvented fast fashion with tight supply chains and rapid design cycles, making Zara a global staple. Bloomberg

• Carlos Slim — América Móvil
  Built a telecom powerhouse across Latin America; holdings span infrastructure, retail, and finance. Bloomberg

• Mukesh Ambani — Reliance Industries
  Transformed a petrochemicals giant into a digital-retail platform (Jio, JioMart) while expanding energy and telecom footprints. Bloomberg

• Françoise Bettencourt Meyers — L’Oréal heir
  Chair of the family holding that controls L’Oréal; the world’s richest woman in most recent tallies thanks to compounding in consumer beauty. Bloomberg

• Gautam Adani — Adani Group
  Industrialist who scaled ports, power, and renewables across India—rebounding after scrutiny with renewed investor confidence in core infrastructure bets. Bloomberg

  What the 2025–26 boom tells us

  Tech is the engine: AI infrastructure (chips, cloud, enterprise software) and platform effects lifted most top fortunes this year. Bloomberg’s tracker shows the top 10 alone added more than half a trillion dollars in 2025, a reminder that these lists are market meters as much as they are biographies. Business Insider

  How to read these rankings

  • They are moving targets updated daily by market close; today’s #7 can be #5 next month.
  • This list uses Bloomberg’s real-time index for the current snapshot (Forbes maintains a separate real-time list; placements can differ based on methodology). Bloomberg+1

  Photo by Lucrezia Carnelos on Unsplash

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