Forbes has released its annual list of the wealthiest in the world for 2021, and Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, topped the list for the fourth consecutive time. He was worth $177 billion, up $64 billion from a year ago, in part, due to the shares of Amazon running very high due to the pandemic.
On number two on this list was Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX, whose net worth was a cool $151 billion, a whopping $126.4 billion more than a year ago.
French luxury goods tycoon Bernard Arnault held onto his spot at No. 3. However, his fortunes saw a considerable rise – they nearly doubled to $150 billion, from $76 billion, due to an 86 per cent rise in the shares of LVMH, owner of brands including Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior and cosmetics retailer Sephora.
Bill Gates of Microsoft and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook were on No. 4 and No. 5 on the list, rounding off the top 5.
While the richest man in Europe was Bernard Arnault, the richest man in Asia was Mukesh Ambani from India, who beat Jack Ma of China to the title. Ambani of Reliance Industries was also ranked No. 10 on the list.
There were an unprecedented 2,755 billionaires in the world — a whopping 660 more than a year ago. And, despite the pandemic, these billionaires put together are worth $13.1 trillion, up from $8 trillion on the 2020 list.
There were a record 493 newcomers on the list, which included Bumble dating app cofounder Whitney Wolfe Herd, who is also the world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire.
At 724, the United States had the most number of billionaires whereas China had the second highest number of billionaires – 698. India had the third most number of billionaires – 140.
Here is the list of the top 10 richest people in the world.
#1 Jeff Bezos
NET WORTH: $177 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: AMAZON
RESIDENCE: SEATTLE
#2 Elon Musk
NET WORTH: $151 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: TESLA, SPACEX
RESIDENCE: AUSTIN, TEXAS
#3 Bernard Arnault
NET WORTH: $150 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: LUXURY GOODS
RESIDENCE: PARIS
#4 Bill Gates
NET WORTH: $124 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: MICROSOFT
RESIDENCE: MEDINA, WASHINGTON
#5 Mark Zuckerberg
NET WORTH: $97 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: FACEBOOK
RESIDENCE: PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA
#6 Warren Buffett
NET WORTH: $96 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY
RESIDENCE: OMAHA, NEBRASKA
#7 Larry Ellison
NET WORTH: $93 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: SOFTWARE
RESIDENCE: LANAI, HAWAII
#8 Larry Page
NET WORTH: $91.5 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: GOOGLE
RESIDENCE: PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA
#9 Sergey Brin
NET WORTH: $89 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: GOOGLE
RESIDENCE: LOS ALTOS, CALIFORNIA
#10 Mukesh Ambani
NET WORTH: $84.5 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: DIVERSIFIED
RESIDENCE: MUMBAI, INDIA
To read more about the billionaires on the list, click here.
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