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The richest people in the world in 2024 are persons whose net worths are staggering. They are people who have failed at one point in life but they never give up.
In fact, two of the world's rich people mentioned below have spoken about by others, that they will not reach anywhere as they will continue to fail.
In this article, you will get to know their source of wealth, their net worth in USD, their age, countries they are based, and lots of interesting information about them. Only one woman makes it to this list, as others are all men.
These are the top 15 world's richest people 2024 (plus what they do), they are,
- Elon Musk
- Bernard Arnault
- Jeff Bezos
- Bill Gates
- Larry Ellison
- Larry Page
- Warren Buffett
- Sergey Brin
- Steven Anthony Ballmer
- Mukesh Ambani
- Gautam Adani
- Carlos Slim Helu
- Francoise Bettencourt Meyers
- Mark Zuckerberg
- Zhong Shanshan
Check them out, keep reading!
1. Elon Musk - The Richest Person in the World
Net worth: $ 270.8 Billion
Source of wealth: SpaceX, Tesla motors
Age : 51 (June 28, 1971)
Country: United States
He was born in South Africa, his dad is from South Africa and his mum is from Canada. At a very young, age of 12, he made a video game that he later sold. He move to Canada in 1988 and he later relocate to the United States for better economic opportunities.
He studied physics and economics at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. He believed so much in the use of the internet, that internet has the power to change society. This brings him as the first person among the richest people in the world in 2024.
Then he found the Zip2, it is a company that helps online newspapers by providing them with business directories and maps. He later sold the company, after which he found x.com (a financial company) which later become PayPal (an electronic-payment firm). He later sold it in 2002.
After that, he venture into Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) in 2002. He launched it to make space exploitation more affordable through rockets.
The two less expensive rockets, Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 were launched in 2006 and 2010 respectively. Because of his interest in electric cars, he became one of the founders of Tesla motors.
2. Bernard Arnault
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| Image credit: Jérémy Barande / Ecole polytechnique Université Paris-Saclay / CC BY-SA 2.0 |
Net worth: $ 189.9 Billion
Source of wealth: LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA
Age: 73 (March 5, 1949)
Country: France
He is a French businessman. He studied enginering at École Polytechnique, Paris. Ferret-Savinel was his father's firm, and he took over it in 1971, where his business journey began. He later renamed it to Férinel Inc after 8 years and he shift its focus to real estate.
He then bought a bankrupt textile company, Boussac Saint-Frères with his $15 million also with Antoine Bernheim, they later raises about $80 million in the purchase. Then recently he acquire luxury brands that really contributed to his wealth.
Arnault obtain the Italian organization Fendi (2003), the notable French retail chain La Samaritaine (2010), Italian gems brand Bulgari (2011), and Tiffany & Co. of the United States (2021). This made him the second among the richest people on earth in 2024.
3. Jeff Bezos
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| Image credit: Seattle City Council /Wikimedia Commons |
Net worth: $188.8 Billion
Source of wealth: Amazon, Blue Origin
Age: 58 (January 12, 1964)
Country: United States
At the age of 35, he became a self-made billionaire. He was the first person in modern history to have reached a net worth of $200 billion in August 2020. He is third richest man in the world in 2024.
Here is his brief story. Her mother Jacklyn Bezos was 17 years old when she gave birth to him, she was in high school then. Ted Jorgensen is Jeff Bezos's biological father. Ted Jorgensen and Jacklyn Bezos's marriage did not last, they were together for less than a year.
Then her mother remarries to a Cuban immigrant, Mike Bezos. Mike Bezos is a good stepfather to Jeff Bezos, he took his last name instead of his biological father. Since childhood, he has had a passion for making things work, to see how things work and he is keen on engineering.
For example, when he was a child it happened that he felt that he was too old to sleep in a crib, he screw-down everything and rebuild it again. As a young man, in the summer he works at McDonald's.
At the time he was in high school, he started his own business. He launched the Dream Institute, which is an educational summer camp for 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. He said to charge $600 per student.
He studied computer science and electrical engineering at Princeton University. He launched his big Amazon website in his garage in 1994. It was an online merchant of books then. But now, Amazon has a variety of products.
The space in his garage was so small that he uses local Barnes & Noble to hold meetings. MacKenzie Bezos, his former wife also plays an important role in developing Amazon. Sadly the couple divorced each other after 25 years of marriage in 2019.
Apart from Amazon, he owns the popular newspaper company, the Washington Post. And he also runs Blue Origin, a rocket ship company that he funded privately.
See also:
4. Bill Gates
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| Image credit: Kuhlmann /MSC/Wikimedia Commons |
Net worth: $ 135 Billion
Source of wealth: Microsoft Corporation
Age: 67 (October 28, 1955)
Country: United States
The largest personal computer software company in the world is Microsoft corporation co-founded by Bill Gates. Virtually, all computers in the world today have this software.
Bill Gates has been so interested in programming since he was 13years. When he was in high school, he assist in their school’s payroll system.
In 1986, he became a billionaire, though he was a private person then, later became a public figure. He is also known for his charitable work, the Bill Gates foundation.
Being a philanthropist has an effect on where he is as the fourth on the list of the richest people in the world in 2024. Notwithstanding he is happily doing his charitable work.
5. Larry Ellison
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| Image credit: Oracle Corporate Communications/Wikimedia |
Net worth: $ 121.2 Billion
Source of wealth: Oracle Corporation
Age: 78 (August 17, 1944)
Country: United States
He is an entrepreneur and American businessman, whose full name is Lawrence Joseph Ellison. At nine months of age, he lived with his uncle and aunty because his single mum could not cope with his health challenge.
In 1962, he began to study at the University of Illinois, he later dropped out because of the death of her aunty in 1964. His uncle never believed in him, he sometimes makes him look like a failure.
He later moved to Califonia where he work for companies as a computer programmer. Miner, Oates, and Ellison form the Software Development Laboratories (SDL) in 1977.
But he wants more for SDL. With the help of a research paper published by Edgar F. Codd, a computer scientist, he was motivated to develop another marketing program.
That such program will enable large data to be organized, stored, easily be retrieved and it will have commercial potentials as well.
Based on Edgar F. Codd's theory, Ellison encouraged his two other friends, Miner and Oates to develop a program.
In 1979, the popular database program, Oracle was released after the three work with Relational Software, Inc. This program makes among the richest people in the world.
6. Larry Page
Net worth: $ 120.1 Billion
Source of wealth: Google
Age: 49 (March 26, 1973)
Country: United States
He is an entrepreneur and a computer scientist. At Michigan State University, he studied computer engineering and his father is a professor there.
He later studied at Stanford for his doctorate program where he met Brin. Both were fascinated with the fact that information on the internet can be extracted.
Then they start to work on a search engine technology that extracts information based on the number of backlinks (links from other websites to the site) from Page’s dormitory room.
At that point in life, both may have not thought that they will become one of the richest people in the world in 2024. The two friends were able to raise $1 million from friends and family to help in the creation of the search engine.
In 1998, they founded the search engine and name it Google (Google Inc), from the word googol, which is a wrong spelling for a numerical term for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros.
In 1999, google is already processing 500,000 questions per day. In 2001, he step down as Google CEO but still work with Brin for Google to run smoothly.
7. Warren Buffett
Net worth: $ 116.7 Billion
Source of wealth: Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Age: 92 (August 30, 1930)
Country: United States
He is popularly known as the 20th century's most successful investor and also as the Oracle of Omaha. At the age of 11, he began to venture into a business that he bought some stock then.
At the age of 16, he already has had $53,000 from his various investments. In the 1950s, he studied at the University of Nebraska.
He later applied to Harvard business school but was rejected. With the help of Benjamin Graham, he learned about business, because Benjamin was a professor at the Columbia University School of Business.
Buffett took over the textile manufacturing company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc in 1965 which became the primary source of his wealth.
He is also known as a philanthropist, in fact, he decides to donate 80% of his wealth at one point. He earned 95 % of his wealth after he turned 60 years.
Although he is an elderly man, he still looks younger than his age and he is among the top 10 world's richest people. President Barrack Obama awarded him the “Presidential Medal of Freedom" in 2011.
See also:
8. Sergey Brin
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| Image credit: James Duncan Davidson/O'Reilly Media, Inc./Wikimedia |
Net worth: $ 115.8 Billion
Source of wealth: Google
Age: 49 (August 21, 1973)
Country: United States
He was born in Russia, but his parent migrated to the US when he was 6 years old. As discussed above, he and Larry Page founded Google which is the biggest search engine on the internet today.
He studied mathematics and computer science at the University of Maryland. He later went to Stanford University where he met Larry Page.
In 2006, Larry and Brin acquire YouTube for $1.65 billion. With this, they were able to expand their internet search. And they were able to give everyone in the world voice which also bring him to the list of the richest people in the world.
9. Steven Anthony Ballmer
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| Image credit: Eric Garcetti |
Net worth: $98.6 Billion
Source of wealth: Microsoft
Age: 66 (March 24, 1956)
Country: United States
In 1998, he was the president of Microsoft, the computer software company Microsoft Corporation. From the year 2000 to 2014, he was the CEO of the same company.
He stepped down as the CEO in 2014 and then he ventured into business. For example, The Los Angeles Clippers of the NBA were bought by Ballmer later that year.
He studied economics and mathematics from Harvard University and he graduated in 1977. In 1980 he joined Bill Gates and became the co-founder of Microsoft. Bill Gates and him were friends at Harvard but Bill Gates dropped out.
10. Mukesh Ambani
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| Image credit: World Economic Forum/Wikimedia |
Net worth: $ 98.2 Billion
Source of wealth: Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)
Age: 65 (19 April 1957)
Country: India
Outside Europe and America, he is the richest man. He was born in Aden, Yemen. Like other world richest people mentioned above, he is also a Stanford University dropout.
After dropping at university, he helps his father in building reliance as the eldest son. Today, he has the largest share at Reliance Industries Limited (RIL).
RIL is the chief organizer of the Indian energy and materials conglomerate Reliance Group. Jamnagar also belongs to him which is the largest refinery in the world.
He is also one of the wealthiest sport owners as he owns the IPL team Mumbai Indians. He owns the biggest and the most expensive house in the world.
His daughter, Isha Ambani is among the world's billionaire heiresses. Despite his busy schedule, he makes sure he spends time with his family every Sunday because his family is important to him.
11. Gautam Adani
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| Image credit: Gautam Adani/Wikimedia Commons |
Net worth: $90.0 Billion
Source of wealth: Adani Group,
Age: 58 (June 24, 1962)
Country: India
He is a business magnate from India who formed the Adani Group in 1988. Adani Group is a multinational conglomerate firm in India.
The corporation is now a key player in a variety of industries; including power generation, multi-modal logistics, coal mining, coal trading, coal mining, and more.
He inherited his forefathers' commercial skills, but he had little interest in the family's textile company.
At a young age, he dropped out of school and relocated to Mumbai from his city to chase his fortune. And today, he is one out of the top richest people in the world in 2024.
See also:
12. Carlos Slim Helu
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| Image credit: SecretarÃa de Cultura Ciudad de México from México |
Net worth: $83.4 Billion
Source of wealth: Telecom
Age: 82 (January 28, 1940)
Country: Mexico
His parents were Lebanese but migrated to Mexico. During the Mexican Revolution, from 1910 to 1920, his father amassed a fortune in real estate. After he graduated from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, he invested in many businesses.
He and his family own América Móvil, the largest mobile telecommunications company in Latin America. He purchased a stake in Telmex, Mexico's only phone company, in 1990 with the help of foreign telecom partners. América Móvil has acquired Telmex.
He also owns some percentage of The New York Times and he has investments in real estate, mining, consumer goods, and Mexican construction. No wonder he is on the list of the top richest people in the world in 2024.
13. Francoise Bettencourt Meyers
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| Image credit: Nairametrics |
Net worth: $87.5 Billion
Source of wealth: L'Oréal
Age: 69 (July 10, 1953)
Country: France
She is a French billionaire heiress and author. She is the 11th richest person in the world and of course the wealthiest woman. L'Oréal is the world’s largest cosmetic company owned by her father, late Liliane Bettencourt. She is the only child of her parents.
Bettencourt Meyers inherited her mother's fortune after her mother died on September 21, 2017. Her net worth rose from $44.3 billion to around $90 Billion. As an author, she has written books about Greek mythology and Jewish-Christian ties.
14. Mark Zuckerberg
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| Image credit: Anthony Quintano/Wikimedia Commons |
Net worth: $ 116.5 Billion
Source of wealth: Facebook
Age: 38 (May 14, 1984)
Country: United States
He has been interested in the use of computers since a tender age. At the age of 12, he creates "Zucknet." which is a messaging program, by using the Atari BASIC.
Zucknet was useful to his family as they use it to communicate within the family and his father also use it to communicate with his receptionist in his dental office.
He is well known as the co-founder and the CEO of Facebook since 2004. At the end of 2004, Facebook had already had 1 million users.
Facebook is the largest social media on the internet today. He left Harvard University to focus on his website. He chooses the blue color for Facebook because it is the color that is vivid to his eyes.
He is color blind to red-green. He married his wife, Priscilla Chan in 2012, and they have two kids together. He is the youngest among the richest people in the world in 2024 on this list.
15. Zhong Shanshan
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| Image credit: DHalps |
Net worth: $71.4 Billion
Source of wealth: Pharmaceuticals and Beverages
Age: 68 (December 1, 1954)
Country: China
In the 1980s, he was a reporter. Then he quit starting a bottled water distributor business. In 1993, he founded a Nongfu Spring, a beverage brand, and Yangshengtang, a health products brand.
In 2001, he acquired a big shareholder in Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise, a vaccination and hepatitis test kit manufacturer.
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