Top 10 Richest Billionaires in the World 2022

Elon Musk, an American-South African entrepreneur, founded X.com in 1999 (later became PayPal), SpaceX in 2002, and Tesla Motors in 2003. Musk became a dollar billionaire in his late twenties by selling his startup, Zip2, to Compaq. In October 2002, Musk earned his first billion when PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in stocks. Before the sale, Musk owned 11% of PayPal.

Musk established his third company, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, in 2002 with the intention of building spacecraft for commercial space travel. By 2008, SpaceX was well-established, and NASA awarded the company a contract to transport cargo to the International Space Station. Musk is the co-founder, CEO, and product architect at Tesla Motors, a company founded in 2003 specializing in affordable electric cars for the mass market, as well as battery products and solar energy roof tiles. As of the current moment, Elon Musk is the richest person on the planet with a net worth of $223.8 billion.

Gautam Adani is the chairman and founder of the multinational conglomerate Adani Group, headquartered in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. His wife, Priti Adani, leads the Adani Foundation. He is a first-generation entrepreneur driven by the core philosophy of 'Growth with Goodness' through his vision for nation-building. As of June 17, 2021, he lost the title of the second richest person in Asia due to a sudden drop in Adani Group's stocks. Gautam Adani is currently the 3rd richest person in the world according to Forbes magazine.

Adani Power, established by Adani, is the energy business arm of the Adani Group founded in 1996. It has power plants with a capacity of about 4620 and is the largest thermal power producer in the country. Gautam Adani also ventured into power distribution business in 2006. He also acquired Abbot Point Port in Australia and the Carmichael coal mine in Queensland from 2009 to 2012. Adani won the world's largest solar energy bid by the Indian Solar Energy Corporation (SECI) worth $6 billion in May 2020. Adani Green will also receive an 8000 MW solar power plant project in the future. Adani Solar will set up an additional 2000 MW capacity for the production of solar cells and modules.

Bernard Arnault is a French business magnate, investor, art collector, and one of the most significant fashion and luxury goods producers globally. He is also the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of LVMH Moet Hennessy-Louis Vuitton SE Company. LVMH Moet Hennessy-Louis Vuitton SE is the world's largest luxury goods company with a value of 329 billion USD. LVMH is a major patron of the arts in France. LVMH Young Fashion Designer was established as an international competition for fine arts students.

Bernard owns an auction house in France and he purchased his first Tajan in 2006. Pursuing his passion in the art field, initiated the Louis Vuitton Fund, a project dedicated to contemporary art creation. The success of LVMH is built on innovation, quality, business spirit, and long-term vision. They are the stepping stones of the empire that Bernard has built throughout his life. Arnault owns a 35 million USD private island in the Bahamas, an exclusive property that can only be visited by invitation. The island serves as a resort for the wealthy and discreet, with a cost of 300,000 USD per week, accessible only to a select few who can afford to visit the island.

Warren Buffett - one of the wealthiest individuals globally, consistently ranks high in Forbes' billionaire list. His net worth is listed as 104.5 billion USD as of June 2022. Buffett is known as a knowledgeable entrepreneur and a generous philanthropist. He is perhaps best known for being one of the most successful investors globally. That's why it's no surprise that Warren Buffett's investment strategy has reached legendary proportions. Buffett adheres to some key principles and an investment philosophy widely applied worldwide.

Warren Buffett is one of the richest men still living, accumulating his wealth through a successful investment strategy. Buffett is a top-tier investor. Warren Buffett was ranked as the second richest person in the United States in the early 2000s and, at the same time, he is the only one earning money through stock investment, serving as the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Holdings. Despite having a net worth in the billions, Warren Buffett remains frugal in legend. He still lives in the 5-bedroom house he bought in 1958 for $31,000, drinks Coca Cola, and dines at local restaurants, where he enjoys sandwiches or burgers.

Renowned global entrepreneur and a trailblazer in the e-commerce sector, Jeff Bezos is the founder and CEO of the world's largest e-commerce company, Amazon, owner of The Washington Post, and the founder of the space exploration company Blue Origin. His highly successful business ventures have made him one of the wealthiest men in the world with a net worth soaring into the hundreds of billions of US dollars. The initial success of the company was partly due to geographical factors. With a no-press-advertising policy, Bezos' Amazon.com conducted a book-selling campaign across the United States and 45 foreign countries within a 30-day period.

Amazon.com was officially launched to the public in 1997. Bezos continued to diversify Amazon's e-commerce platform by selling CDs and videos in 1998, later expanding to clothing, electronics, toys, etc. through major retail partners worldwide. While many dot-com businesses in the early 90s went bankrupt, his Amazon conglomerate continued to grow robustly, bringing in annual revenues skyrocketing from $510,000 in 1995 to over $17 billion in 2011. By September 2018, Amazon was officially valued at over a trillion USD, becoming the second company to reach that milestone just weeks after tech giant Apple. Forbes magazine listed Bezos as one of the richest people in the world with an estimated net worth of $126.9 billion.

6. Larry Ellison - $102.5 billion USD

Larry Ellison, co-founder of one of the world's largest software corporations, Oracle (ORCL), in 1977. Under his leadership, Oracle has evolved from a startup with just three programmers to the largest database software provider and the second-largest business application provider globally. Ellison's remarkable achievements in identifying and conquering new markets have played a crucial role in the rapid growth of Oracle. The company continuously expands through the acquisition of other software companies, including Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion in 2010 and NetSuite for $9.3 billion in 2016.

Since stepping down as CEO of Oracle in 2014, Ellison has held the positions of Chairman of the Board and Chief Technology Officer. In addition to owning over 40% of Oracle's shares, he also holds shares in one of the world's largest electric car companies, Tesla Inc. (TSLA). Ellison is a well-known billionaire with extravagant spending, including the purchase of 98% of the shares of Lanai Island in Hawaii. He spent $194 million on a yacht, invested hundreds of millions in luxurious real estate in Malibu, California, and built a 16th-century Japanese architecture-inspired estate in California.

7. Bill Gates - $102.9 billion USD

Renowned entrepreneur and top technology investor Bill Gates, along with business partner Paul Allen, founded and built the world's largest software business, Microsoft. Through technological innovation, sharp business strategies, and explosive growth in the technology sector, Gates became one of the wealthiest men globally. Gates' intelligence allowed him to see all aspects of the software industry, from product development to corporate strategy. When analyzing any company's moves, he developed a profile of all possible scenarios and examined them, questioning anything that could happen.

In February 2014, Gates stepped down as Chairman of Microsoft to take on a new role as technology advisor. In April 2018, Gates announced collaboration with Google's co-founder Larry Page to provide $12 million in funding for a universal flu vaccine. Gates has received numerous awards for his charitable activities. Time magazine honored Gates as one of the most influential people of the 20th century. The magazine also recognized Gates and his wife Melinda, along with U2's lead singer Bono, as the Persons of the Year in 2005.

8. Larry Page - $83.5 billion USD

Larry Page, one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world of the internet and a computer scientist, collaborated with his close friend Sergey Brin to officially launch the Google search engine in 1998. As CEO, Larry Page played a pivotal role in making Google the world's most popular search engine shortly after its debut in 1998. Later, Page and Brin oversaw Google's parent company, Alphabet, until stepping down from their daily roles at the end of 2019. Larry Page is a highly successful entrepreneur who laid the foundation for a business that changed how we use the internet.

Google grew rapidly and became highly profitable. The company's first initial public offering was $1.67 billion, with a market capitalization of $23 billion. Larry Page became a billionaire at the age of 27, one of the youngest billionaires at that time. He was also a shareholder favorite, leading to a significant increase in Google's stock price. Page received the 'Golden Plate Award' from the Academy of Achievement in 2004. By 2006, Google had over 10,000 employees with an annual income of over ten billion dollars. Google acquired several hardware and software companies, with the most profitable being the purchase of YouTube for $1.65 billion. Today, Google is one of the most widely used websites with over a million servers worldwide. It processes over a billion search requests every day.

Mukesh Ambani, the wealthiest entrepreneur in India with a net worth of $51.4 billion as of March 25, 2020, represents India globally as a business tycoon, making him an admired figure. He is the Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and the largest shareholder of Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), a Fortune Global 500 company and the most valuable company in India by market value.

The income from RIL's various subsidiaries has made Mukesh Ambani the richest person in the country and Asia as of April 2020. Reliance Industries Limited, or RIL, owned by Mukesh Ambani, operates in various sectors, including energy, petrochemicals, textiles, natural resources, retail, and telecommunications. Antilia, Ambani's residence, is a 27-story private residence in Mumbai, valued at $1 billion during its construction. The building requires 600 staff for maintenance and includes three helipads, a 160-car garage, a private theater, a swimming pool, a gym, and operating costs of $2.5 million per month.

Carlos Slim Helu, a billionaire investor from Mexico and a renowned philanthropist, currently owns over 200 businesses in various sectors. He has been consistently honored by 'Forbes' as the world's richest person for several years. Learning fundamental business ways from his father early on, he worked in the family business as a teenager. After graduating from college, he started serious investing and gradually built a diversified empire of conglomerates and corporations, both developed and acquired by him.

Today, Carlos Slim Helu holds stakes in Latin American and international companies, spanning industries from construction and manufacturing to dry goods and tobacco. His most famous and influential assets include his near-total monopoly on the mobile phone market in Mexico, providing at one point over 80% of the mobile services used in the country. A portion of his vast wealth is dedicated to various charitable projects, specifically for environmental conservation, providing reliable and affordable healthcare services, preserving culture and arts, and various humanitarian activities.