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The richest people in the world: who they are and how they achieved success. The richest people in the world, Russia and throughout history the 100 richest person in the world

Forbes annually updates its list of the richest people on the planet. 2018 turned out to be a varied year for the rich: some increased their wealth, but others didn’t have such a sweet time. Let's take a closer look at the Forbes 2018 list and find out who became the richest person in the world, where the richest Russian is, and how many women were included in the Forbes list this year.

The list is headed by the same people who were in 2017. In first place is Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon. He managed to surpass Bill Gates in 2017 thanks to a 60% rise in Amazon shares. Bezos's capital is $112 billion. Old Bill took second place with a fortune of $91 billion. In third place is Warren Buffett with 77 billion. His Berkshare Hataway has changed its conservative investment policies slightly in recent years and is successfully growing the wealth of its shareholders.

The fourth was Bernard Arnault, owner of the LouisVuitton Moet Hennessey group of companies. Carlos Slim Helu, the richest Mexican, owner of the telecommunications holding AmericaMovil, climbed to fifth place. Carlos pushed Mark Zuckerberg out of 5th place. The sixth was the founder and owner of the Zara fashion chain, Amancio Ortega. His fortune is estimated at $57 billion. The seventh is Larry Ellison, founder of Oraclec $52 billion.

For Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in 2018, the year turned out to be difficult. The operation of the most popular social network has repeatedly experienced glitches leading to data leaks. This cost Zuckerberg billions and now he is in eighth place with $46 billion. This is the most significant change in the top ten of the Forbes 2018 list.

Google owners Larry Page and Sergey Brin round out the top ten. They are in ninth and tenth place, respectively, with $46 and $45 billion.

The richest women on the Forbes list 2018

There are significantly fewer female representatives among the richest people on the planet than men. Nevertheless, they exist and it is worth paying attention to the representatives of the first hundred. The most successful of them was Francoise Bettencourt Meyers. The Frenchwoman owns 33% of L’Oreal shares, which she inherited from her mother Liliana Bettencourt (died in 2017). Bettencourt, with a fortune of $44 billion, ranked 11th on the Forbes list. In 2018, she overtook her closest competitor.

This is Alice Walton, heir to the Walmart supermarket chain. She took 16th place with a fortune of $41 billion. It is curious that representatives of the Walmart empire Jim and Sam Walton also took 15th and 17th places.

In 32nd place is another woman – Jacqueline Mars. The owner of the company that makes those famous Mars bars is now 78 years old and the granddaughter of Frank Mars, the company's founder. Her net worth is $22 billion.

In 43rd place is Susanne Klatten, the richest woman in Germany with $20 billion, who inherited 19% of BMW shares. In addition to the German brand, Suzanne owns the pharmaceutical company Altana. At 53m is Yang Huiyan, the richest woman in China with a capital of $ 18 billion. At 60m is Laurene Powell Jobs, wife of the late Steve Jobs. In addition to Apple, Lauren owns shares in Disney, her fortune is estimated at $17 billion. At 80m - executive director and owner of 23% of Heineken, Charlene De Carvalho-Heineken with $13 billion. At 82m - Abigail Johnson, CEO and owner of 24.5% of Fidelity Investments with $ 12 billion

Rounding out the first hundred of the Forbes 2018 list is also a woman. Gina Rinehart is Australia's richest person and the owner of the iron ore company Hancock Prospecting, which she inherited from her father. Gina's net worth is $12 billion.

- a very rich investor. He manages to remain one of the richest people on the planet thanks to additional sources of income. The oligarch manages to obtain significant sums of money through investments in the engineering industry, the railway industry, and activities related to waste processing.

The richest people in the world, according to Forbes, in 2018 are Warren Buffett, he occupies third position in the ranking. His personal net worth is $75.6 billion.

Compared to 2017, business has seen a steady increase. Growth is estimated at approximately 14.8 billion.

Warren Buffett

In order to reduce risks, Warren is trying to expand his investment portfolio. The main investments are related to the oil, metallurgical and food industries. Not long ago, Buffett became the owner of a metallurgical holding called Precision Castparts.

The deal turned out to be very profitable. Now there is active investment of funds through the purchase of shares of oil companies, investments in Tim Hortons, Burger King.

The creator and owner of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, has risen to third place on the list of the world's richest people.

Space travel is the billionaire's main passion

Jeff Bezos' company Blue Origin is developing reusable rockets.

Its assets are estimated at $72.8 billion. This amount became the reason for the rise in the ranking due to the strong growth of shares (67%) of the company. The profit from the rise in Amazon stock prices amounted to $27.6 billion.

Owners of billions

One of the richest people in the world, according to Forbes, is Carlos Slim Helu from Mexico with a fortune of $54.5 billion. In 2018, positive changes occurred in its capital, the increase reached 4.5 billion.

Carlos Slim Helu

Slim Elu was able to get on the list of the richest people due to the fact that he is a shareholder of the American publishing house The New York Times, and its dollar share among shareholders is quite significant. The tycoon controls Grupo Carso (conglomerate), Grupo Financiero Inbursa, and the financial structure Ideal.

The top 10 richest people include Mark Zuckerberg (5th place in Forbes), as he owns $56 billion. The success of this man, about whom a film was even made, is associated with the creation of the social network Facebook.

He is still the head of the network today. Mark's capital lately only growing. It’s interesting that this wealthy philanthropist plans to sell almost all of his company’s shares for charitable purposes (99%).

Mark Zuckerberg

Larry Ellison was able to earn a little less (52.2 billion). Ellison got into the rating due to the fact that he heads Oracle Corporation and is the main shareholder in NetSuite Inc. He is an early investor in Salesforce.com (an American company).

The most significant personalities on the planet

You can become the richest person in the world thanks to successful investments, a successful choice of profession, the creation of a significant invention, etc. In addition to the rankings of the richest people, the list of 100 subjects is updated annually. It is compiled by Time magazine in America.

Vladimir Putin, President Russian Federation is present in the ranking, keeping company with Hollywood actors, singers, other politicians, businessmen, and designers.

In order to obtain characteristics of each subject, the editors invited famous personalities: P. Poroshenko, B. Obama, M. Kane, etc. Influential people in the world are determined by voting by readers. Vladimir Putin was able to get the most votes.

Putin turned out to be more influential than US President Barack Obama and Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany. It was V. Putin who gained almost 7% of the votes in 2018. Putin owes such changes to the deterioration economic situation in your own country.

According to United States political scientist Ian Bremmer, Putin provokes a feeling of admiration among people around the world.

Other world influencers in the top five:

singer Rihanna;
Lady Gaga;
Taylor Swift;
2NE1 - CL (lead singer of a South Korean pop group).

The magazine prepared 5 copies of the cover for printing. They depict personalities whose names are very popular and influential. Among them are Kanye West, Bradley Cooper, Misty Copeland, Ruth Bader, Jorge Ramos.

Rihanna is on the list of influential people

The list also includes such influential people of the world as Reese Witherspoon, Julianne Moore, Emma Watson, Diane von Furstenberg, Bradley Cooper, Alexander Wang, Kim Kardashian, etc.

Live and get rich

The richest people have a lot to worry about every day. What are the real thoughts of rich people, how should they live in order to become better every day, increase their wealth, and enjoy life?

When a person has been able to earn a decent fortune, he definitely has his own specific philosophy of life that he adheres to.

It is interesting that not all tycoons live large, they are used to spending a lot, some live a modest life. Everything is connected with what each individual subject has his own attitude towards money.

Where do the richest people live? For example, Warren Buffett still lives in a house that he purchased in the middle of the last century for $31,500. According to his philosophy, you need to live in a room that fully meets all needs, without being compared to the mansions of those around you.

Hollywood success

You don't have to have your own business to be on the Forbes list. Among the 100 richest people are talented actresses. A rating of the wealthiest actresses of 2016 in Hollywood has been compiled.

The film “Snow White and the Huntsman” brought enormous popularity, high fees and championship to Kristen Stewart, who is only 22 years old. She managed to earn 34.5 million dollars. The actress became famous after playing in The Twilight Saga.

Kristen Stewart

Next in the ranking, Cameron Diaz is included in the second line. Her earnings amounted to 34 million dollars. The film “Very Bad Teacher,” which shows quite specific American humor, turned out to be very successful. At the box office, revenue amounted to 216 million.

Sandra Bullock's fortune increased by 25 million dollars. In the photo, Sandra can be seen absolutely happy, as she manages to cope well with all roles. The film “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” is no exception.

The fourth line rightfully belongs to Angelina Jolie, her earnings are 20 million. Her fortune is earned not by successful roles, but by excellent photos, since she regularly takes part in photo shoots for the most fashionable magazines.

The American magazine Forbes traditionally announced the list of the richest people in the world based on the results of the past year. The 32nd annual world ranking, published on March 6, 2018, included 2,208 people from 72 countries globe, each of whom owns a fortune of at least $1,000,000,000. At the same time, the total income of billionaires from all over planet Earth increased by 18% compared to last year and amounted to $9.1 trillion. We invite you to familiarize yourself with this year’s list and the types of activities to which billionaires owe their capital.

The top ten absolute world leaders in terms of wealth earned include businessmen, software developers, representatives of the fashion industry, publishing, media and the mobile communications market.

The top ten people on Forbes' 2018 list of the world's richest people are:

Jeff Bezos ($112 billion) topped the 2018 Forbes Billionaires List for the first time and became the world's richest person. The rapid rise in price of shares of his brainchild Amazon by 59% allowed 53-year-old Bezos to add $39,200,000,000 to his net worth compared to last year.

Interesting! Jeff Bezos managed not only to top the list of the world's richest people in 2018, but also to become the first billionaire whose fortune is estimated at 12 figures.

Bill Gates ($90 billion) ranks 2nd on the Forbes list. Despite the fact that Microsoft brought him fame and the bulk of his fortune, today Gates's stake in the company does not exceed 3%. Now he makes money mainly from a mechanical engineering company, an investment fund and a number of other sources.

Warren Buffett ($84 billion) is in 3rd place in the 2018 top richest people. The 87-year-old billionaire's income throughout his life comes from the investment holding Berkshire Hathaway, which owns various shares of shares in more than 60 companies.

Bernard Arnault ($72 billion) was able to get to 4th place in the Forbes top and increase his wealth by $30,500,000,000 (while in 2017 he was only in the second ten). The 69-year-old Frenchman is the sole owner of the LVMH Moët Hennessy holding, which represents luxury brands Louis Vuitton, Sephora, Christian Dior (since 2017), etc.

Amancio Ortega ($70 billion) is the founder of the Inditex holding, which includes the famous brands Zara, Bershka, Massimo Dutti, etc., and is the 6th billionaire in the world. The 80-year-old Spaniard also buys real estate in prestigious locations in Europe and America and receives substantial dividends from its resale or rental.

Carlos Slim Helu ($67.1 billion) is seventh on the Forbes world list of billionaires. Mexican is the owner mobile operator America Movil, as well as a co-owner of the New York Times newspaper, a number of real estate and mining companies.

Charles Koch ($60 billion) is on the eighth line of the Forbes 2018 top list. Together with his brother, he is the owner of the Koch Industries holding. The latter's history began in 1940, when their father founded an oil refinery.

David Koch ($60 billion) is the second co-owner of Koch Industries, who, thanks to the decision to buy out the Times publishing house, managed to add $11,700,000,000 to his capital and take 9th place in the ranking of world billionaires.

Larry Ellison ($58.5 billion), an American ranked 10th on the Forbes list, is the founder of the IT company Oracle, which has recently been developing cloud services. Ellison also actively invests in her favorite pastime, sailing, and spares no expense for charitable causes.

The richest people in Russia in 2018

Among the world's richest people in the 2018 Forbes list, 102 people from Russia were noted. general condition who were valued at $410,800,000,000. Most of them made their fortune in the oil and gas industry or other commodity markets. So, the ten richest representatives of the Forbes list from Russia:

Vladimir Lisin ($19.1 billion) is the richest person in Russia in 2018 and is on the 57th line of the Forbes global ranking. Lisin holds the position of Chairman and is the main owner of shares in NLMK (steel sector) and Universal Cargo Logistics Holding.

Note! Vladimir Lisin holds the position of vice president of the International Shooting Sports Organization. It was thanks to him that the largest shooting complex in Europe, “Fox Hole,” appeared in the Moscow region.

Alexey Mordashov ($18.7 billion) is the second (as last time) place among the richest Russians and 60th place in the world top. The capital of the co-owner of Severstal, tour operator TUI and gold mining company Nord Gold N.V increased by $1,200,000,000.

Leonid Mikhelson ($18 billion) – last year’s winner Russian rating Forbes in 2018 dropped to 3rd place (64th place in the Forbes top). The fortune of the co-owner of the chemical holding Sibur and the largest private gas production company Novatek decreased by $400,000,000.

Vladimir Potanin ($15.9 billion) – ranks 6th and 83rd in the Forbes lists of Russia and the world, respectively. Ownership of shares in the Norilsk Nickel company, the Petrovax Pharm concern and the most famous ski resort in Russia, Rosa Khutor brought Potanin an additional $1,600,000,000.

Andrey Melnichenko ($15.5 billion) - the main owner of Eurochem, the companies SGK (energy) and SUEK (coal mining) in 2018, ranks 7th in the Russian and 88th place in the international list of billionaires according to Forbes 2018 .

Mikhail Fridman ($15.1 billion) – an increase in his own finances by $700,000,000 allowed the founder of Alfa Bank, co-owner of Alfa Group and LetterOne to be ranked 8th on the Forbes 2018 list.

Viktor Vekselberg ($14.4 billion) – ranks 9th among the richest people in Russia (89th in the world). The lion's share of his income now comes from the Suzler company from Switzerland (which produces pumping equipment). In addition to her, Vekselberg also receives income from the activities of the Renova Group of Companies, of which he is the founder.

Interesting! Viktor Vekselberg’s private collection contains famous works of art, including 9 Faberge eggs; he paid the Forbes family about $100,000,000 for the acquisition.

Alisher Usmanov ($12.5 billion) closes the top 10 richest people in Russia according to Forbes 2018 and ranks 118 in the world top. Having started a business with the production of polyethylene products during the Soviet era, today Usmanov is a co-owner of the Metalloinvest holding, Megafon, Mail.ru Group, Arsenal FC and a stake in Xiaomi.

Billionaire best friends Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are two of the richest people in the world.
The world's richest 30 people control a huge chunk of the global economy: $1.23 trillion - more than the annual GDP of Spain, Mexico or Turkey.
That's according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which recently relaunched and expanded online to include 500 billionaires worldwide. The ranking is updated daily to provide the latest data on the richest men and women in the world.
And so the 30 richest people in the world:

30. Ma Huateng

Net worth: $22.5 billion USA

Age: 45

Country: China

Industry: Technology

Source of Wealth: Tencent Holdings

Software engineer Ma Huateng (aka Pony Ma) founded China's largest Internet portal, Tencent Holdings, in 1998. He was 26 years old. Ma has a number of successful and widely used platforms, including QQ, its instant messaging service, which is one of the world's 10 largest sites; mobile text service (WeChat) with more than 800 million users; mobile commerce product (WeChat Wallet); and an online gaming community (Tencent Games), the largest in China.

Ma's wealth increased by $4.7 billion last year.

29. Phil Knight

Net worth: US$25 billion

Age: 78

Country: USA

Source of wealth: Nike

He worked as an accountant for the sports shoe company Blue Ribbon Sports. Then he launched his own brand of sports shoes, Nike.
Nike's success has been fueled by collaborations with famous athletes, starting with runner Steve Prefontaine in 1973 and continuing with one of the most successful shoe marketers of all time, Michael Jordan, with whom Nike signed a five-year contract in 1984 worth $500,000 per year. Today is the most big star The NBA still has a partnership with Nike, and LeBron James signed a lifetime deal with the brand in 2015, reportedly worth over $1 billion.

28. George Soros

Net worth: $25.2 billion USA

Age: 86

Country: USA

Industry: Hedge funds

Source of Wealth: Managing the Soros Foundation

Born in Budapest, George Soros survived the Nazi occupation of Hungary during World War II, then moved to the UK and then the US. Called “the man who broke the Bank of England,” he is best known for the hedge fund he created in 1973 under the management of Soros Fund Management. In 1992, he shorted the British pound, a risky move, that ended up making $1 billion in one day and cementing Soros' place in the financial world. The Quantum Fund has also generated annual returns of over 30% under Soros' leadership, making it one of the most successful hedge funds of all time.

Today, Soros remains chairman of Soros Fund Management, which manages more than $25 billion in assets, including stakes in well-known companies such as Amazon, Facebook and Netflix. He is also Chairman of Open Society, an organization founded in 1979 that functions as a network of foundations and partners around the world that promote the values of open societies and human rights.

Over the past year, Soros' wealth has dropped by $800 million.

27. Mukesh Ambani

Net worth: $26.3 billion USA

Age: 59

Country: India

Industry: Petrochemicals, oil and gas

Source of wealth: Inheritance; Industries

Mukesh Ambani became chairman of Reliance Industries when his father, the company's founder, passed away in 2002. A huge industrial conglomerate in the fields of energy, petrochemicals, textiles, natural resources, retail and, more recently, telecommunications.

Ambani is the richest man in India and owns a 27-story mansion in Mumbai worth $1 billion.

26. Wang Wei
(photo unavailable)

Net worth: $26.5 billion USA

Age: 46

Country: China

Industry: Transport

Source of wealth: SF Holding

Wang Wei founded China's largest package delivery company, SF Express. He recently made his debut on the stock exchange and made it onto the list of richest people for the first time. Over the past year, his wealth has increased by almost $22.7 billion. USA.

The son of a Russian People's Liberation Army Air Force translator, Wang grew up in Hong Kong and then returned to his birthplace of China in the 1990s to start a delivery service, Bloomberg said. At the time, his business was considered part of the "black delivery" market, and he risked being caught and fined by the country's postal officers.

25. Steve Ballmer

Net worth: US$27 billion

Age: 60

Country: USA

Industry: Technology

Source of wealth: ; Microsoft

Steve Ballmer left business school at Stanford in 1980 to join Harvard friend Bill Gates at Microsoft as the company's first business manager, receiving a $50,000 salary and a stake in the company. Ballmer served as vice president of marketing, vice president of systems software, and executive vice president of sales and support, and was often referred to as the "numbers guy."

He became general director company in 2000 after Gates stepped down, and he remained in charge of the software giant until Satya Nadella replaced him in 2014. Under Microsoft's leadership, the company's revenue grew by 294% and profits by 181% - although its market share was surpassed by Google and Apple during the same period.

After he took over as CEO, Ballmer fulfilled his dream of acquiring an NBA franchise by paying $2 billion in a deal to buy the Los Angeles Clippers, now his primary venture.

Last year equity Ballmera increased by $4.8 billion.

24. Sheldon Adelson

Net worth: US$28 billion

Age: 83

Country: USA

Industry: Real estate

Source of wealth: Las Vegas casinos

"The King of Las Vegas" first hit the jackpot in 1995, when he turned 61, at the Computer Dealers Show (COMDEX), one of the largest trade shows in Las Vegas. This year, Adelson sold the company to Japan's Softbank for $860 million and used the money to finance the purchase of Sands Casino. He quickly demolished it and built the Venetian Casino Resort and Sands Expo Convention Center in its place. After further expansion, he took over his gaming conglomerate, Las Vegas Sands, which opened in 2004. .

Adelson, a former reporter and mortgage broker and the son of Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants, was hit hard during the financial crisis in 2008, reportedly losing $25 billion, and needed to boost his company's balance sheet with $1 billion in cash. Although the casino had a rough 2015 - shares fell 25% during the year - its fortunes have recovered from the dark days of 2008. Net worth increased by $3.2 billion last year. He still runs the casino and is CEO of China Sands, a subsidiary that opened its fifth casino in Macau last year.

In late 2015, he bought Nevada's largest newspaper for $140 million.

23. Jorge Lehmann

Net worth: $28.8 billion USA

Age: 76

Country: Brazil

Source of wealth: 3G Capital

Dubbed "the world's most interesting billionaire" by Bloomberg, Jorge Lehmann was previously a journalist and professional tennis champion before moving into finance in 1971 with the purchase of a small Brazilian brokerage firm. He later went on to start a joint investment company, 3G Capital, in 2004, which made Lehmann best known for Warren Buffett's deals.

In late 2014, Lehmann created the fast food giant with the help of Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, combining Burger King with Canadian brand Tim Hortons in a series of deals valued at more than $11 billion. In 2015, 3G and Berkshire Hathaway teamed up again to invest $10 billion in the Kraft and Heinz megagerm, which created the fifth-largest food and beverage company in the world.

In November 2015, 3G's Anheuser-Busch InBev pulled off a mammoth $108 billion deal to take over SABMiller, becoming the world's most dominant beer maker. Earlier this year, he initiated a takeover deal - Unilever - a deal that was worth about $250 billion.

Over the past year, his net worth has increased by $2.9 billion. USA.

22. Li Ka-shing

Net worth: $30.6 billion USA

Age: 88

Country: Hong Kong

Industry: Diversified investments

Source of Wealth: CK Hutchison Holdings

Despite humble beginnings, business tycoon Li Ka-shing became the richest man in Hong Kong. After his father died of tuberculosis, Lee abandoned school at 16 to support his family by working in a factory making plastic flowers. Six years later he opened his own factory, the predecessor of which is today known as CK Hutchison Holdings, a vast trading empire with interests in real estate, manufacturing, energy, telecommunications and technology.

A savvy investor, Lee and his venture fund Horizon Ventures have backed companies including Facebook, Skype, Spotify and the Hampton Creek egg replacement product launch.
Lee's net worth increased by $4.1 billion. USA over the past year.

21. Wang Jianlin

Net worth: $31.6 billion USA

Age: 62

Country: China

Industry: Real estate

Source of Wealth: Dalian Wanda Group

Real estate tycoon Wang Jianlin, who served in the Chinese military from 1970 to 1986 before going into business, controls dozens of sectors and hundreds of companies. Some of Wang's largest investments are overseas, including high-profile property development projects in Sydney and Madrid. Since this time last year, his wealth has grown by $4.8 billion.

From 2014 to 2015, his wealth more than doubled from $13.2 billion to $30 billion.

19. and 20. John and Jacqueline Mars

John Mars owns the world of Mars candy with siblings Forrest and Jacqueline.
Net worth: $32.4 billion USA each

Age: 77 and 81

Country: USA

Industry: Candy

Source of wealth: Inheritance; Mars Inc.

Siblings Jacqueline and John Mars inherited a stake in the iconic Candymaker Mars Inc. when their father, Forrest Sr., died in 1999.
In 2008, Mars expanded and now produces not only candies, but also chewing gum and animal food.

For last year their combined net worth increased by $2.6 billion.

18. Alice Walton

Net worth: $34 billion USA

Age: 67

Country: USA

Industry: retail

The daughter of late Walmart founder Sam Walton, Alice Walton is a major figure at the company, making her the richest woman on earth. Although she was never actively involved in running the supermarket.

Instead of spending his time at Walmart, Walton became a patron of the arts. In 2011, she opened the $50 million Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas, which displays a number of her famous paintings.

In 2015, Walton donated 3.7 million of his Walmart shares to the family's nonprofit and put its Texas ranches—one a working horse ranch and the other a luxury vacation retreat—on the market for a total of $48 million.

Over the past year, her net worth has increased by $2.3 billion.

17. Jim Walton

Net worth: $35.1 billion USA

Age: 68

Country: USA

Industry: retail

Source of wealth: Inheritance; Walmart

James "Jim" Walton's parents, Helen and Sam Walton, purchased a controlling interest in Arkansas Bank in Bentonville a year before the first Walmart store opened in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962, when Jim was just 14 years old. Within five years, the family owned 24 retail stores. In 1975, after working in Walmart's real estate department for several years, Jim joined his parent bank, which later became Arvest Bank Group. He is now chairman and CEO of a regional community bank that has $15 billion in assets. Over the past year, Walton has grown by $2.7 billion.

16. Rob Walton

Net worth: $35.4 billion USA

Age: 72

Country: USA

Industry: retail

Source of wealth: Inheritance; Walmart

Samuel Robson "Rob" Walton is the eldest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton. In 1969, he began working for the iconic trading giant, holding positions ranging from senior vice president to general counsel to the chairman, from which he retired in June 2015 after 23 years. His son-in-law succeeded him.

On New Year's Eve, Walton and his brother donated 1.5 million shares to charity, and their sister Alice gave away 3.7 million shares, for a total of $407 million. This is an incredible amount!

His wealth increased by $3.3 billion last year.

15. Jack Ma

Net worth: $35.7 billion USA

Age: 52

Country: China

Industry: Technology

Source of wealth: Alibaba

China's richest man, Alibaba founder and executive chairman Jack Ma, reportedly started China's first internet company in 1988: China Yellowpages. He transferred control of that company to a state-owned telecommunications enterprise in 1996 and launched Alibaba three years later for just $60,000. Fifteen years after its creation, the company became the largest in the world.
But the company's shares fell 22% in 2015, most likely due to China's slowing economy and problems with counterfeiters using the company's platform. Ma wasn't worried. He acknowledged that 2016 would be a difficult year for the Chinese economy, but remained confident in Alibaba's long-term success.

Over the past year, Ma's wealth increased by $8.4 billion. USA.

14. Liliana Bettencourt

Net worth: $36.8 billion USA

Age: 94

Country: France

Industry: Cosmetics

Source of wealth: Inheritance; L'Oreal Group

Heiress to the L'Oreal cosmetics fortune and the company's largest shareholder, Liliane Bettencourt is the richest woman in the world, with a net worth of $368 billion, an increase of $3 billion last year alone. She no longer has a hand in business operations, but L'Oreal and the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, which she founded with her late husband, continue to thrive. She is an art collector, owning works by Picasso, Matisse and Munch.

In recent years, Bettencourt has been forced to take legal action, in May 2015, when eight people, including trusted friends and financial advisers, were convicted of using the heiress' capital.

In late 2015, charges were brought against her former butler and five journalists for recording meetings with the billionaire and thus violating her right to privacy. The butler, Pascal Bonnefoy, claimed he made the recordings to show Betancourt's fragile state - all six were acquitted in January 2016.

13. Bernard Arnault

Net worth: US$40 billion

Age: 67

Country: France

Industry: Luxury goods

Source of wealth: LVMH

Bernard Arnault's LVMH has 70 luxury brands from Louis Vuitton to Hennessy to Dom Perignon, controlled by family company Groupe Arnault. By the 1980s and 90s, Arnault, having started working as a civil engineer, took over the family business and proceeded to buy the luxury fashion house Christian Dior, reviving it from the brink of bankruptcy. Like most LVMH brands today, Dior is thriving.

Last year, Arnault's wealth grew by $6.8 billion. USA.

12. Sergey Brin

Net worth: $41.6 billion USA

Age: 43

Country: USA

Industry: Technology

Source of Wealth: Google

Along with co-founder Larry Page, Sergey Brin helped orchestrate the massive restructuring of Google that the company announced in 2015. The move brought Google under the umbrella of the Alphabet holding company, with Brin as president and Page as CEO. Other Google businesses, such as Nest and Google X, are separate companies also under Alphabet.

The restructuring allowed Brin to focus on exploring new projects and moonshot ideas. With top-notch talent and an abundance of resources, Alphabet has already made automated homes and self-driving cars a reality.

Brin, who emigrated from Moscow to the US as a child, was linked to Page in 1995 at Stanford, where they were each pursuing Ph.D. Three years later they founded Google, now one of the most powerful companies on the planet.

Over the past year, Brin's wealth has increased by $4.1 billion.

11. Larry Page

Net worth: $42.5 billion USA

Age: 43

Country: USA

Industry: Technology

Source of Wealth: Google

As a student at Stanford University in 1998, Larry Page teamed up with fellow student Sergey Brin to create BackRub, an early search engine. The project eventually became Google - now called Alphabet - one of the largest companies in the world, worth more than $581 billion. Over the past year, the company's personal net worth increased by $4.3 billion.

10. Ingvar Kamprad

Net worth: $43 billion USA

Age: 90

Country: Sweden

Industry: retail

Source of wealth: IKEA

At 17, Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA, now the world's largest furniture store with revenues of almost 34.2 billion euros ($36 billion). Kamprad's plan from the beginning was to create an "eternal life" for IKEA, which meant keeping it on the stock market and securing it within a complex corporate structure involving charitable work both trade and franchise, collectively known as the Stichting INGKA Foundation. The Swedish business tycoon is no longer involved in day-to-day decision-making processes, but still attends meetings as a senior advisor to the supervisory board.

Among his peers, the 90-year-old founder is incredibly modest, despite his enormous wealth. He has reportedly been flying economy flights, staying in cheap hotels and driving the same Volvo for more than two decades. He also infamously moved IKEA and his family out of Sweden in the 1970s to escape its onerous tax rates. He returned to live in his home country in 2013 after a long period in Switzerland.

Kamprad donated $300 million to charity in his lifetime.

Last year, Kamprad's personal wealth increased by $2.6 billion.

9. Larry Ellison

Net worth: $45.3 billion USA

Age: 72

Country: USA

Industry: Technology

Source of Wealth: Oracle Corp

In 1977, Larry Ellison teamed up with two colleagues from an electronics company to start their own programming firm, which soon signed a contract to create a relational database management system for the CIA under Project Oracle code. The project grew to what is now known as Oracle Corp., which generated $37 billion in revenue last year. In 2010, Ellison cut his annual salary from $1 million to $1, but he still receives more than $60 million in compensation through generous stock awards. Ellison stepped down as CEO in 2014 after 38 years and took on the role of chief technology officer.

The tech mogul is also a generous philanthropist, donating money to environmental causes and medical research.

Ellison's wealth increased by $5.2 billion last year.

7. TIE: David Koch

Age: 76

Country: USA

Industry: Diversified investments

Along with his brother Charles, David Koch runs Koch Industries and is executive vice president. The second-largest private company, $100 billion (in sales), Koch Industries makes everything from fertilizer and Dixie Cups to asphalt and biodiesel. David's personal wealth dropped by $1.2 billion last year.

High-profile conservatives, the brothers also maintain enormous political influence and regularly spend hundreds of millions on political campaigns along with their vast network of donors.

David had two brushes with death. He survived the 1991 plane crash that killed everyone else in first class and also won his battle with cancer prostate gland. He has become one of the world's most generous philanthropists since then, donating more than $1.2 billion to medical causes.

7. TIE: Charles Koch

Net worth: $47.9 billion USA

Age: 81

Country: USA

Industry: Diversified investments

Source of Wealth: Koch Industries

Charles Koch is the chairman and CEO of the diversified conglomerate Koch Industries, the second largest private company in America. His younger brother David is executive vice president. The company employs 120,000 people and generates $100 billion in annual revenue each year from its diverse holdings, which make everything from petrochemicals and Dixie cups to clothing materials.

The Koch brothers, with a total net worth of $95.8 billion. The United States, a world leader in conservative politics and public policy, advocates for smaller government and regularly funds political campaigns.

6. Carlos Slim Helu

Net worth: $50.7 billion USA

Age: 77

Gender: Male

Industry: Telecom

Source of wealth: Grupo Carso

The richest man in Mexico owns more than 200 companies in his country through a conglomerate called Grupo Carso - also known as Slimlandia. The son of Lebanese-Mexican entrepreneurs, Carlos Slim Helu, gained control of his father's retail and real estate businesses after his death. After earning a degree in civil engineering, Slim built a diversified portfolio during the 1960s, 70s and 80s that now dominates Mexico's economy.

Grupo Carso acquired the state-owned telephone company Telmex, which now owns 80% of telephone lines in Mexico. In 2008, Slim bought a 6.4% stake in The New York Times for $127 million. He has since increased his ownership stake to 17%, worth about $391 million, thanks to the revival of The Times.

Slim still has ambitions to grow his empire, which includes interests in the financial, industrial, telecommunications and media sectors, especially in his home country, where he invested $4 billion in 2015. However, over the past year his capital has decreased by $1 billion.

5. Mark Zuckerberg

Net worth: $58.5 billion USA

Age: 32

Country: USA

Industry: Technology

Source of wealth: facebook

In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg, a 19-year-old sophomore at Harvard, launched TheFacebook.com, a rudimentary version of the now ubiquitous social network known as Facebook. Zuckerberg dropped out of college to work full-time as CEO of Facebook, and the site quickly became popular. Today it attracts more than a billion users daily and is worth almost $400 billion. At 32, Zuckerberg is the youngest of the world's 50 richest people. His wealth increased by $11.1 billion. USA last year.

In December 2015, Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan pledged to give away 99% of their wealth during their lifetime through an organization called the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, although some critics have noted that the organization itself is not a nonprofit charity.

But this is not the couple's first step into philanthropy. They donated $25 million to the fight against Ebola in 2015, and they pledged $100 million in Facebook stock to improve New Jersey's public school system.

4. Amancio Ortega

Net worth: $68.5 billion USA

Age: 80

Country: Spain

Industry: retail

Source of wealth: Inditex

Amancio Ortega is the fourth richest man in the world thanks to his control of Spanish fashion giant Inditex, where Ortega started working as a delivery boy at a local clothing store at age 14 and built it from a small-town clothing store into one of the largest fashion empires on the planet. However, Ortega's wealth fell by $800 million last year.

Despite Ortega's enormous wealth, he lives modestly. The billionaire still eats lunch with his employees in the company cafeteria, and although he is the richest man in the fashion industry, he keeps it simple in a white shirt and blue blazer.

3. Jeff Bezos

Net worth: $73.1 billion USA

Age: 53

Country: USA

Industry: Technology

Source of wealth: amazon.com

Jeff Bezos made his enormous fortune by introducing e-commerce to the world. After spending time in finance on Wall Street, Bezos founded Amazon.com in the garage of his Seattle home in 1994, selling books exclusively. The company opened to the public three years later, and has since sold everything from furniture to food to Amazon's own electronics, which generated $136 billion in revenue in 2016.

Bezos also has interests outside of Amazon, including investments in private space company Blue Origin, which successfully launched its first spacecraft in 2015, and The Washington Post, a newspaper he bought in 2013.

Last year, Bezos' wealth increased by $21.9 billion.

2. Warren Buffett

Net worth: $77.2 billion USA

Age: 86

Country: USA

Industry: Diversified investments

Source of Wealth: Berkshire Hathaway

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett began his amazing investing career at a young age. As a child, he delivered newspapers on his bicycle, and by age 11, the Nebraska native bought his first stock on the stock market—Cities Service Preferred at $38 a share—and sold it for a $5 profit. He was not accepted into Harvard Business School, so Buffett went to Columbia Business School and studied there. Buffett worked as an analyst securities in the early 1950s before starting his own investment firm. He bought the textile company Berkshire Hathaway in 1969, turning it into a holding company.
The investments that made him rich may seem random - he bet on companies: Coca-Cola, American Express, Geico, Fruit of the Loom, Dairy Queen and General Motors, all of which generate cash that has long-term value. Last year, his capital increased by $13.1 billion. USA.

A frugal man with a love of unhealthy food, Buffett has donated more than $25 billion to charity. He is well acquainted with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, with whom he collaborated to create "The Promise Maker," a pledge by billionaires to give at least half of their wealth to charity.

1. Bill Gates

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett speak with journalist Charlie Rose at an event hosted by Columbia Business School on January 27, 2017 in New York City.
Net worth: $85.2 billion USA

Age: 61

Country: USA

Industry: Technology

Source of Wealth: Microsoft

In just 20 years, Bill Gates founded Microsoft with his childhood friend Paul Allen. A few months before his 31st birthday, the company took off, making Gates a billionaire. He was the software's CEO until 2000 and was its chairman and largest shareholder until 2014. Although he is still with the company, Gates is no longer actively involved with Microsoft.

Gates is not only the richest man in the world - his net worth increased by $10.6 billion in the last year alone - but he is also the most generous. Since 1999, Gates and his wife have led the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the most influential philanthropic foundations in the world. The fund, which controls more than $40 billion, aims to lift millions of people out of poverty by focusing special attention eliminating HIV, malaria and other infectious diseases. The pair are also working on a plan to mobilize mobile banking for the 2 billion adults who don't have a bank account.

He is also the co-founder of the Giving Pledge, which he started in 2010 with good friend and fellow billionaire Warren Buffett as a pledge to donate 50% or more of their fortunes. Currently, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are among the 156 members of the Giving Pledge.

Illustration: Michael Witte

They account for 13% of the $2,208 billion owned by the top 100 billionaires. Minimum threshold entry into this elite club is $39 billion, which is 28% higher than last year.

1. JEFF BEZOS
$112 billion, USA

The richest man on the planet, the head of Amazon, became the first billionaire with a fortune of over $100 billion. Shares of the e-commerce giant rose 59% in 12 months, increasing Bezos's fortune by almost $39.2 billion - a record increase. He also owns the Washington Post and the aerospace company Blue Origin.

2. BILL GATES
$90 billion, USA
Gates lost first place in the ranking of the richest for only the sixth time in the last 22 years. Over the past year, the Microsoft co-founder's fortune has increased by $4 billion, but he is far from Bezos' epic leap.

3. WARREN BUFFETT
$84 billion, USA
In January, the 87-year-old billionaire named two senior Berkshire Hathaway employees to vice chairman positions, the first step in a transition plan for the company. For now, however, Buffett, who says he is doing well, continues to run Berkshire, whose shares are up 16% since the start of last year.

4. BERNARD ARNAUD
$72 billion, France
Record profits from the LVMH premium brand empire and the purchase of almost 100% of the Christian Dior fashion house allowed Arnault to increase his fortune by $30.5 billion.

5. MARK ZUCKERBERG
$71 billion, USA
The head of Facebook is now under scrutiny for the role the world's largest social network played in Russian interference in the US election. However, the company's share price increased by 31%, adding $15 billion to Zuckerberg's fortune.

6. AMANCIO ORTEGA
$70 billion, Spain
Much of Ortega's wealth is tied to Inditex, which operates brands such as Zara. The company's shares sank, reducing it by $1.3 billion.

7. CARLOS SLIM HELU
$67.1 billion, Mexico

Slim's fortune increased by $12.6 billion compared to last year, mainly due to the fact that shares of his telecommunications company América Móvil rose 39%.

8. CHARLES KOCH
$60 billion, USA
In November, Koch Industries, with a turnover of $100 billion, announced the launch of a venture capital division, Koch Disruptive Technologies, led by Charles Koch's son, Chase. The company has already become the lead investor in the Israeli medical device startup, investing $150 million in it.

8. DAVID KOCH
$60 billion, USA
The executive vice president of Koch Industries and his brother Charles made headlines in November when their investment arm invested $650 million to buy struggling Time magazine. The total amount of the transaction, where Meredith Corp. was the main investor, amounted to $2.8 billion.

10. LARRY ELLISON
$58.5 billion, USA
In the cloud technology market, Oracle competes with Salesforce and Amazon, but despite this, the company's shares grew by 13%. Ellison, who owns a quarter of the shares, is $6.3 billion richer.

11. MICHAEL BLOOMBERG
$50 billion, USA
The former New York mayor continues to run his company, Bloomberg LP, which provides financial information and develops a media platform. He supports a gun control organization that has launched new initiatives to protect students in the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

12. LARRY PAGE
$48.8 billion, USA
The Google co-founder and CEO of parent company Alphabet is said to be leading Saudi Arabia negotiations on the construction of a technological hub in the kingdom. Page's net worth has increased by $8.1 billion over the past year.

13. SERGEY BRIN
$47.5 billion, USA

Page's Google partner is the richest immigrant in America. He is now the president of Alphabet and reportedly uses the company's fleet for both personal travel and to deliver humanitarian aid to remote areas of the planet.

14. JIM WALTON
$46.4 billion, USA
The youngest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton was a member of the company's board of directors until 2016. He now runs the family bank Arvest.

15. SAMUEL ROBSON WALTON
$46.2 billion, USA
Sam Walton's eldest son was chairman of Walmart for 23 years. Today, Samuel Robson is one of three family members still involved in the company. He and Stuart Walton, Jim Walton's son, are board members, and his son-in-law Gregory Penner is chairman.

16. Alice Walton
$46 billion, USA
Sam Walton's only daughter is not involved in running the family business, but she owns many shares of Walmart, making her the richest woman in the world.

17. MA HUATEN
$45.3 billion, China
Ma first became richest man Asia, thanks in part to the success of his Tencent-owned messaging app WeChat, which has nearly 1 billion active users. Tencent also has stakes in Tesla, Snap (Snapchat's parent company) and music streaming service Spotify.

18. FRANCOISE BETANCOURT-MYERS
$42.2 billion, France

Her mother, L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, died in September 2017, leaving her fortune to Bettencourt-Myers and her family.

19. MUKESH AMBANI
$40.1 billion, India
The Indian tycoon returned to the top 20 for the first time since 2012.

20. JACK MA
$39 billion, China
In 2017, Ma took e-commerce giant Alibaba to new heights by partnering with the Olympics for the first time and signing a streaming deal with Disney. Alibaba shares rose 76%, allowing Ma to enter the top 20 for the first time.