The 5 Richest People in the World

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Billionaires play an outsized role in shaping the global economy, politics, and philanthropy Forbes puts the number of billionaires in the world at 2,781 in 2024. The wealthiest among them is Elon Musk; CEO of Tesla and SpaceX The individuals on this list belong to an even more exclusive club and wield still more power. Many are founders of technology giants, with much of their wealth still invested in the companies they started

Elon Musk

These billionaires can, however, still borrow against that wealth to avoid selling stock, deferring (or eliminating for heirs) taxes on unrealized capital gains in the process. Multi-billionaires can also take advantage of a panoply of tax deductions to offset reported income, leaving some on this list paying no income tax in recent years With so much of their wealth in publicly traded stocks, the net worth of the richest fluctuates along with the market valuations of the companies they own. Below are the 10 wealthiest people on the planet, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. All figures are current as of Aug. 1, 2024

1. Elon Musk Age: 53 Residence: United States Co-founder and CEO: Tesla Net Worth: $252 billion Tesla Ownership Stake: 13% ($95.4 billion) X Ownership Stake: 79% ($7.68 billion)
Other Assets: Space Exploration Technologies ($82.2 billion private asset), The Boring Company ($3.33 billion private asset), Neuralink ($2.07 billion private asset), xAI ($13.3 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

Tesla CEO Elon Musk at an event.

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) In 2004, Musk became a major funder of Tesla Motors (now Tesla), which led to his current position as CEO of the electric vehicle company. In addition to its line of electric automobiles, Tesla produces energy storage devices, automobile accessories, and, through its acquisition of SolarCity in 2016, solar power systems. Musk is also CEO and chief engineer of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), a developer of space launch rockets. In December 2020, Tesla joined the S&P 500, becoming the largest company added, and in January 2021, Musk became the richest person in the world—a title that has fluctuated alongside the value of Tesla

In April 2022, Musk began a campaign to take X private, which culminated in a $44 billion buyout. Musk planned to fund the deal with $21 billion of his own capital. In the run-up to the buyout announcement, Musk sold 9.6 million shares of Tesla, valued at roughly $8.5 billion. In July 2022, Musk decided to back out of the buyout. The company filed a lawsuit against Musk to force the buyout to go through. Musk countersued the company but then reversed course and declared he was willing to buy it after all. The deal officially closed in Oct. 2022, giving him a 79% stake in the company

2. Jeff Bezos

  • Age: 60
  • Residence: United States
  • Founder and Executive Chair: Amazon (AMZN)
  • Net Worth: $209 billion
  • Amazon Ownership Stake: 9% ($174 billion)
  • Other Assets: Blue Origin ($15 billion private asset), The Washington Post ($250 million private asset), Koru ($500 million private asset), and $19.9 billion in cash13

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.1415 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.1617 Bezos owned as much as 16% of Amazon in 2019 before transferring 4% to his former wife, MacKenzie Scott, as part of their divorce proceedings. In 2020, Amazon’s share price jumped 76% on the heightened demand for online shopping amid the COVID-19 pandemic. On July 5, 2021, Bezos stepped down as CEO of the e-commerce giant, becoming its executive chair

Jeff Bezos

Bezos originally took Amazon public in 1997 and went on to become the first man since Bill Gates in 1999 to achieve a net worth of more than $100 billion. Bezos’ other projects include aerospace company Blue Origin, The Washington Post (which he purchased in 2013), and the 10,000-year clock—also known as the Long Now.
On July 20, 2021, Bezos, his brother Mark, aviation pioneer Wally Funk, and Dutch student Oliver Daemen completed Blue Origin’s first successful crewed flight, reaching an altitude of more than 66 miles before landing safely. Bezos’ wealth peaked at $213 billion in the same month.

3. Bernard Arnault

  • Age: 75
  • Residence: France
  • CEO and Chair: LVMH (LVMUY)
  • Net Worth: $185 billion
  • LVMH Ownership Stake: 48% ($170 billion)
  • Other Assets: $16 billion in cash24
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