World’s richest billionaires named as Elon Musk tops Forbes’ list
There are more billionaires than ever before, and Elon Musk is the richest of them all, according to Forbes’ latest billionaires list.
Musk has taken the top spot in the annual list from French luxury goods titan Bernard Arnault, according to the magazine, although he was already at the top of Forbes’ real-time billionaires list.
The Trump adviser’s net worth grew by 75% to an estimated $342 billion (44.2 trillion Ksh), with his jump in wealth following big new valuations of SpaceX and his artificial intelligence company xAI and a 12-month rise in Tesla stock despite its share price plunging recently, Forbes said.
It is Forbes’ 39th annual world’s billionaires list, which the publication describes as “the definitive ranking of the world’s richest people.”
On the list are a record-breaking 3,028 billionaires, up 247 from last year. Between them, they’re worth $16.1 trillion.
Tech bosses dominate the ranking, with all the top 10 spots taken by men.
Coming in fourth is Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle, the computer tech business, who has a net worth of $192 billion (£148.7 billion).
The only non-tech boss in the top five is Arnault and his family with $178 billion (£137.9 billion). They’re at the helm of the luxury goods business LVMH, which owns brands like Louis Vuitton and Moet Hennessy.
Another non-tech boss comes next in the form of investor Warren Buffett with his $154 billion (£119.3 billion) fortune.
Google founders Larry Page (worth $144 billion or £111.6 billion) and Sergey Brin (worth $138 billion or £107 billion) take the seventh and eighth spots.
The only non-American in the top 10 is Spaniard Amancio Ortega. As the founder of the Inditex fashion brand, which owns Zara and Bershka. He’s amassed $124bn (£96bn).
The tenth richest is former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer with $118 billion (£91.4 billion).
One of the 288 newcomers on this year’s billionaires list is Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Google’s parent company, Alphabet. His net worth rose to $1.1bn (£850m) as the value of his Google shares increased.
Another notable person on the longer billionaires list is President Donald Trump, whose wealth has doubled to an estimated $5.1bn (£3.95bn) as his social media company Truth Social became a publicly listed company and he sold his own cryptocurrency token.
