The global population as of mid-2023 stands at a staggering 8,045,311,447, based on estimates from the United Nations.

This reflects a 0.88% increase, equivalent to 70,206,291 individuals, from the previous year when the population was 7,975,105,156.

In 2022, there was a 0.83% increase, totaling 65,810,005 people, from the 2021 figure of 7,909,295,151.

These numbers are undeniably colossal, aren’t they?

Yet, despite the vastness of the world’s population, only approximately 3,000 individuals out of those eight billion are billionaires.

These billionaires wield significant influence over the global economy, politics, and philanthropy.

Today, we present to you the elite group of the Top 10 Richest individuals in the world, chosen from a pool of 2,640 billionaires for this year.

Below, you’ll find the names of the 10 wealthiest people on the planet, as per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index (All figures are current as of Oct. 4, 2023).

1. Elon Musk
Age: 52
Residence: United States
Co-founder and CEO: Tesla
Net Worth: $228 billion
Tesla Ownership Stake: 13% ($101 billion)
X Ownership Stake: 79% ($10.2 billion)
Other Assets: Space Exploration Technologies ($53.2 billion private asset), The Boring Company ($3.33 billion private asset)

Elon Musk is the richest man in the world. He was born in South Africa and attended a university in Canada before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned bachelor’s degrees in physics and economics. 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).

2. Bernard Arnault
Age: 74
Residence: France
CEO and Chair: LVMH (LVMUY)
Net Worth: $164 billion
Christian Dior Ownership Stake: 97.5% ($126 billion total)
Other Assets: Moelis & Company equity ($25.1 billion public asset) and $12 billion in cash

French national Bernard Arnault is the chair and CEO of LVMH, the world’s largest luxury goods company. LVMH brands include Louis Vuitton, Hennessey, Marc Jacobs, and Sephora.

Most of Arnault’s wealth comes from his massive stake in Christian Dior SE, the holding company that controls 41.4% of LVMH. His shares in Christian Dior SE, plus an additional 6.2% in LVMH, are held through his family-owned holding company, Groupe Familial Arnault.

3. Jeff Bezos
Age: 59
Residence: United States
Founder and Executive Chair: Amazon (AMZN)
Net Worth: $150 billion
Amazon Ownership Stake: 10% ($124 billion)
Other Assets: Blue Origin ($11.2 billion private asset), The Washington Post ($250 million private asset), Koru ($500 million private asset), and $13 billion in cash

In 1994, Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com in a garage in Seattle, shortly after he resigned from the hedge fund giant D.E. Shaw. He had originally pitched the idea of an online bookstore to his former boss David E. Shaw, who wasn’t interested.

Though Amazon originally started out selling books, it has since morphed into a one-stop shop for everything under the sun and is expected to overtake Walmart as the world’s largest retailer by 2024. Amazon’s pattern of constant diversification is evident in some of its unexpected expansions, which include acquiring Whole Foods in 2017 and entering the pharmacy business the same year.

4. Bill Gates
Age: 67
Residence: United States
Co-founder: Microsoft (MSFT)
Net Worth: $122 billion
Microsoft Ownership Stake: 1.4% ($20.3 billion)
Other Assets: $60.2 billion in cash and billions over multiple other companies

While attending Harvard University in 1975, Bill Gates went to work alongside his childhood friend Paul Allen to develop new software for the original microcomputers. Following this project’s success, Gates dropped out of Harvard during his junior year and founded Microsoft with Allen.

5. Larry Ellison
Age: 79
Residence: United States
Co-founder, Chair, and CTO: Oracle (ORCL)
Net Worth: $122 billion
Oracle Ownership Stake: 42%+ ($87.7 billion)
Other Assets: Tesla equity ($11.1 billion public asset), $20.2 billion in cash

Larry Ellison was born in New York City to a 19-year-old single mother. After dropping out of the University of Chicago in 1966, Ellison moved to California and worked as a computer programmer. In 1973, he joined the electronics company Ampex, where he met future partners Ed Oates and Bob Miner. Three years later, Ellison moved to Precision Instruments, serving as the company’s vice president of research and development.

6. Larry Page
Age: 50
Residence: United States
Co-founder and Board Member: Alphabet (GOOG)
Net Worth: $121 billion
Alphabet Ownership Stake: 6% ($103.5 billion total)
Other Assets: $15.3 billion in cash

Like several of the tech billionaires on this list, Larry Page embarked on his path to fame and fortune in a college dorm room. While attending Stanford University in 1995, Page and his friend Sergey Brin came up with the idea of improving Internet data extraction. The duo devised a new search engine technology they dubbed Backrub after its ability to assess links to a page.

From there, Page and Brin went on to found Google in 1998, with Page serving as CEO of the company until 2001, and again between 2011 and 2019.

Google is the world’s dominant Internet search engine, accounting for more than 92% of global search requests. In 2006, the company purchased YouTube, the top platform for user-submitted videos.

7. Warren Buffett
Age: 93
Residence: United States
CEO: Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)
Net Worth: $115 billion
Berkshire Hathaway Ownership Stake: 15% ($114 billion)
Other Assets: $1.20 billion in cash

The most famous living value investor, Warren Buffett filed his first tax return in 1944 at age 14, declaring earnings from 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.

Widely known as the Oracle of Omaha, Buffett is a buy-and-hold investor who built his fortune by acquiring undervalued companies. More recently, Berkshire Hathaway has invested in large, well-known companies. Its portfolio of wholly owned subsidiaries includes interests in insurance, energy distribution, and railroads as well as consumer products.

8. Sergey Brin
Age: 50
Residence: United States
Co-founder and Board Member: Alphabet (GOOG)
Net Worth: $115 billion
Alphabet Ownership Stake: 6% ($97.3 billion total)
Other Assets: $15.4 billion in cash

Sergey Brin was born in Moscow, Russia, moving to the U.S. with his family when he was six in 1979. After co-founding Google with Larry Page in 1998, Brin became Google’s president of technology when Eric Schmidt took over as CEO in 2001. He held the same post at the Alphabet holding company after it was established in 2015, stepping down in 2019 when Sundar Pichai took over as CEO.

9. Steve Ballmer
Age: 67
Residence: United States
Owner: Los Angeles Clippers
Net Worth: $111 billion
Microsoft Ownership Stake: 4% ($100 billion total)
Other Assets: Los Angeles Clippers ($3.73 billion private asset), The Forum ($400 million private asset), Intuit Dome ($2 billion private asset), $3.35 billion in cash

Steve Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980 after Bill Gates convinced him to drop out of Stanford University’s MBA program. He was Microsoft’s 30th employee. Ballmer went on to succeed Gates as Microsoft CEO in 2000. He held the position until stepping down in 2014. Ballmer oversaw Microsoft’s 2011 purchase of Skype for $8.5 billion.

10. Mark Zuckerberg
Age: 39
Residence: United States
CEO and Chair: Meta Platforms (META)
Net Worth: $111 billion
Meta Platforms Ownership Stake: 13% ($106 billion total)
Other Assets: $3.75 billion in cash

Mark Zuckerberg first developed Facebook (now Meta) alongside fellow students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes while attending Harvard University in 2004. As Facebook began to be used at other universities, Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard to focus entirely on his growing business. Today, Zuckerberg is the CEO and chair of Meta, which had 3 billion monthly active users.

Source: FORBES Magazine

(Filed by Jr Amigo/ai/mnm)