When it comes to who gets the top spot as the richest person in the world, there's a constant battle of the billionaires. Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos spring to mind when talking about the rich and wealthy, but although these famous A-listers have personal fortunes worth billions and are the faces behind big name companies such as Microsoft (MSFT) and Amazon (AMZN), neither of them takes the top spot on the Forbes "Real-Time Billionaires List" tracking the richest people in the world.
This was true at the start of 2024, and it's truer here at the end of the year. There have been some shakeups at the top of the Forbes' billionaires list over the course of the year, particularly as a result of stock market movements — and the results of the presidential election. Some changes since January 2024 include Warren Buffett dropping out of the top-5, while Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg moved back in.
Americans "dominate the billionaires ranks" with 16 out of the top 25 spots, says Forbes. Other household names that have made it onto the Forbes rich list include Mark Zuckerberg and Warren Buffett, but where do they rank and who is the richest person in the world? One thing is for sure: The rich certainly got richer in 2024.
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5. Bernard Arnault (and family)
Billionaire, businessman and the chairman and chief executive of LVMH (LVMUY), Bernard Arnault holds the crown as the second richest person in the world. According to Forbes, Arnault has a fortune of $169.5 billion as of late December 2024, down from $191.3 billion near the start of the year.
LVMH is the biggest luxury goods company in the world and owns more than 70 high-end brands including Louis Vuitton, Givenchy and Fendi.
The billionaire was born on March 5, 1949, in Roubaix, a city in northern France, and comes from a wealthy family who owned a construction company. Arnault had a good education and holds a degree in engineering from the École des Mines de Paris.
Putting aside Arnault's business acumen and wealth, he enjoys art and has one of the biggest private art collections in the world. He has donated millions of dollars to charities in his time.
4. Mark Zuckerberg
Twenty years after starting Facebook — and 12 years after taking it public — Mark Zuckerberg finds himself the fourth richest person in the world according to Forbes' real-time valuation. As Meta Platforms' (META) stock price skyrocketed nearly 70% in the last year, so, too, did Zuckerberg's net worth.
Zuckerberg was the third richest person for a period this fall, per Forbes, as a result of a strong week of trading. His net worth past $200 billion in October. The strong 2024 follows a strong 2023: His net worth rose 184% in 2023, according to The Guardian.
Now, the 40-year-old tech bro who lives in Palo Alto ends 2024 with a net worth of $207.4 billion.
3. Larry Ellison
Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle (ORCL), is ending 2024 with a fortune of $213.3 billion, a big jump from the $145.5 billion he started the year with. Like Zuckerberg, Ellison benefited from a great year in the stock market; Oracle stock rose 60% over the course of the year.
The billionaire, now 80, founded the computer technology company Oracle in 1977 and has expanded it to specialize in hardware, enterprise software and cloud computing. Ellison's inspiration to start the business came from working on a project with the CIA where he had to create a database.
2. Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos has a current net worth of $237.5 billion at the end of 2024, up from $167.4 billion near the start of the year, Forbes reports. His spot on the rich list is fairly dynamic and yet he's one of the best-known billionaires of them all. Bezos is famous for founding Amazon (AMZN) in 1994. From just selling books in the '90s, Amazon has now grown to be the biggest online retailer in the world with a market capitalization of over $1 trillion.
It all started when Bezos was working on Wall Street and saw a gap in the market for selling products online and its potential. After selling books, he branched out to other products, such as household goods and electronics, and the success came from his business model, focusing on great customer service and low prices.
The entrepreneur also has other investments, including The Washington Post and Blue Origin.
1. Elon Musk
It's no surprise anymore that Elon Musk remains at the top spot among the world's richest, with an estimated wealth of a whopping $436.8 billion at the end of December 2024, up from $245.5 billion at the start of the year. The entrepreneur has accumulated his wealth from his involvement in companies such as Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX and, of course, the social media platform X formerly known as Twitter.
It's been a raucous year for Musk as he got heavily involved in Donald Trump's successful fun for the presidency. In the wake of the election results — as well as a blowout third-quarter earnings report — Tesla's stock price shot up, bringing Musk's net worth with it. In all, over the last year, the price went up over 70%.
Musk, 53, has been working on a fortune for decades, starting with work involved with PayPal. Tesla transformed the automotive industry by producing electric cars that produce less CO2 than petrol vehicles. Musk's other venture, SpaceX, was founded in 2002 and aims to make space travel accessible and affordable for all. He also started an artificial intelligence company, xAI.
He apparently plans to keep up with this work while taking up a new post in the Trump administration leading the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, which is intended to make cuts to the government workforce and cut regulation. It's sure he hopes — as do investors — that efficiency will lead to more value for Tesla and Musk in 2025 and beyond.
Other billionaire notables, including Warren Buffett and Jensen Huang
The other names rounding out the top 10 richest people in the world at the end of 2024, per Forbes' real-time list, are Larry Page, cofounder of Google ($158.8 billion), fellow Google cofounder Sergey Brin ($151.5 billion), Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett ($142.5 billion), Steve Ballmer of Microsoft ($126.3 billion) and Jensen Huang, CEO and cofounder of tech giant Nvidia ($119.6 billion).
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