Ballmer’s net worth benefitted from the popularity of tech stocks like Microsoft, which this year grew in value by more than 50%. The CEO of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, which owns brands such as Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Givenchy, added $61 billion to his net worth in 2021. Next time you Google anything, remember Page, who is one of its co-founders. Oracle is the world’s second-largest software company, providing a wide variety of cloud computing programs as well as Java and Linux code and the Oracle Exadata computing platform. Oracle has acquired numerous large companies over its history, such as Sun Microsystems and Cerner. Mark Zuckerberg first developed Facebook (now Meta) alongside fellow students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes while attending Harvard University in 2004.
The surge in their companies’ stock prices this year has added $46 billion and $42 billion to their respective fortunes. The S&P 500 climbed 2% on Thursday and is now up 8% this year, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 2.4% and has gained 17% in 2023. Musk owns an estimated 74% of the social media company, which is now worth nearly 70% less than he paid, Forbes estimates. This and other factors like low Tesla earnings have lead to his net worth dipping below $200 billion several times over the last two years. Billionaires themselves are also wealthier, with two-thirds adding to their worth. The top 20 on the list gained the most, adding $700 billion to their combined worth since 2023.
Julia Koch & Family – Net Worth: $67.4 billion
Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s wealth has swelled by $21 billion, while Alphabet cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have notched gains of $16 billion and $15 billion each. Oracle chairman Larry Ellison and Mexican telecoms magnate Carlos Slim have each made about $15 billion on paper this year too. Already a controlling shareholder in the French luxury goods company that owns Louis Vuitton, Arnault recently spent $538 million to further invest in the burgeoning LVMH stock. Seen here with siblings Rob (left) and Alice, Jim Walton gave away $1.2 billion worth of his Walmart stock in 2019. He reportedly gave it to several charities, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Two days after enrolling in a graduate physics program at Stanford University, Musk deferred attendance to launch Zip2, one of the earliest online navigation services. He reinvested a portion of the proceeds from this startup to create X.com, the online payment system that was sold to eBay (EBAY) and ultimately became PayPal Holdings (PYPL). As the granddaughter of the founder of L’Oréal, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers inherited her wealth and now controls the largest cosmetics company in the world.
Mark Zuckerberg (U.S.)
Established in 2009, the company was acquired by blockchain firm ConsenSys in 2018 amid funding problems. He has also shown an interest in flying car companies, investing in both Kitty Hawk and Opener, although Kitty Hawk ceased operations in 2022. The most famous living value investor, Warren Buffett filed his first tax return in 1944 at age 14, declaring earnings from 5 wealthiest people in the world his boyhood paper route. He first bought shares in a textile company called Berkshire Hathaway in 1962, becoming the majority shareholder by 1965. Buffett expanded the company’s holdings to insurance and other investments in 1967. In 2004, Musk became a major funder of Tesla Motors (now Tesla), which led to his current position as CEO of the electric vehicle company.
Co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates has also invested in various sectors through his private investment firm, Cascade Investment. He co-chairs the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest private charitable foundation. The new ranking marks a step down for Bezos, who was No. 1 on the 2021 list.