The World’s Top 50 Wealthiest Billionaires
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The Top 50 Billionaires by Industry
1. Google
Larry Page / Sergey Brin – $75.5 billion
Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were Ph.D. students at Stanford University. They have since moved beyond the search engine and their products now include Android, YouTube, Chrome and Gmail, to name but a few – all operating under the Alphabet umbrella of companies since 2015.
2. Walt Disney
Laurene Powell Jobs – $14.1 billion
Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, holds a significant stake (7.8%) in the Walt Disney Company. Jobs now runs Emerson Collective, an organization dedicated to education reform.
3. Koch
Koch Brothers – $94.2 billion
Fred C. Koch founded the oil refinery company in 1940. His sons, Charles and David, each own 42% of Koch Industries. They bought out their brothers, Frederick and William, after a very public and controversial legal battle during the 1980s and 1990s.
4 Wanda group
Wang Jianlin – $29.2 billion
Wang Jianlin is a Chinese businessman and philanthropist. He serves as the Chairman of the Dalian Wanda Group, China’s largest real estate developer and the world’s largest movie theater operator.
5. Jack Ma
Jeff Bezos
Comparisons between these two billionaires are inevitable since the companies they helm occupy the unique intersection of online retail and technology. The main differentiator is that Amazon also runs its own distribution network, whereas Alibaba is primarily an online marketplace.
6. Walmart
Walton Family – $136 billion
Brothers Sam and Bud Walton founded the world’s largest retailer in 1962. Their surviving children now own over 50% of Walmart. Bud’s children have a net worth of $14 billion; Sam’s children have a combined worth of $136 billion.
7. Zara
Amancio Ortega – $66.8 billion
Amancio Ortega, Zara’s notoriously private and unflashy founder, was briefly the world’s richest man in 2015. From humble beginnings producing housecoats and robes, Ortega built Zara into an unparalled clothing empire with nearly 6000 stores worldwide.
8. Mars
Mars Family – $85.8 billion
The Mars family is the third richest family in America, comprised of siblings Forrest Jr, Jacqueline and John. They inherited Mars Inc. – the largest candy company in the world – in 1999 after the death of their father, Forrest Sr.
Where is their citizenship?
– USA is still home to the lion’s share of the world’s richest people – 58% of the people on this list are American citizens.
– While China now has more billionaires than the U.S., only a select few have amassed big enough fortunes to crack the list. Just four from China and two from Hong Kong made it into the Top 50.
– Jorge Lemann (Brazil) made his fortune from beer, and is the only person on the list from the Southern Hemisphere. However, even he now lives further north, residing in Switzerland.
– Aliko Dangote (Nigeria) is Africa’s richest man. His company, Dangote Cement, makes 30 million tonnes of cement every year.
The Age Spectrum
Not surprisingly, the younger side of our age spectrum is dominated by tech industry heavyweights.
