-
The elite group worth more than $100 billion includes Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
-
The seventeen members have become about $500 billion richer this year and are together worth $2.5 trillion.
-
Walmart heirs Jim, Rob and Alice Walton first joined the club in September.
Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg are among the handful of people on the planet with a net worth of over $100 billion.
Members of this elite group have amassed twelve-figure fortunes by owning vast amounts of stock in some of the most valuable companies in the world. Most are founders and current or former CEOs, and some, like Warren Buffett, would be much richer if they didn’t give billions to charity.
There may only be 17 centibillionaires, but according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, their combined wealth is about $2.5 trillion. They are worth more than Amazon or Google parent Alphabet, each of which has a market value of about $2 trillion.
All but one of them got richer this year, adding a net $504 billion to their combined fortunes. Oracle ($481 billion), Mastercard ($476 billion), and Home Depot ($404 billion) are all worth less than that.
Walmart heirs Jim, Rob and Alice Walton joined the exclusive group in September, thanks to their net worth increasing by more than $30 billion this year.
Here is the list of individuals worth at least $100 billion, which shows Bloomberg’s estimate of their net worth at the time of publication, how much it has changed this calendar year, and the source of their wealth.
All figures are correct as of October 21, 2024.
1. Elon Musk
Net worth: $241 billion
YTD change in prosperity: +$11.5 billion
Source of Wealth: Tesla and SpaceX shares
Elon Musk is the CEO of electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla and spacecraft manufacturer SpaceX. He is also the owner of X, the social network formerly known as Twitter.
His other companies include The Boring Company, Neuralink and xAI.
2. Jeff Bezos
Net worth: $212 billion
YTD change in prosperity: +$35 billion
Source of Wealth: Amazon shares
Jeff Bezos is the founder, executive chairman and former CEO of Amazon, the e-commerce and cloud computing giant.
He also founded the space company Blue Origin and owns The Washington Post.
3. Mark Zuckerberg
Net worth: $204 billion
YTD change in prosperity: +$75.6 billion
Source of Wealth: Meta stock
Mark Zuckerberg is the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Meta Platforms, the social media titan behind Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads.
Meta’s Reality Labs division makes headsets and experiences for virtual reality and augmented reality.
4.Larry Ellison
Net worth: $184 billion
YTD change in prosperity: +$61.2 billion
Source of Wealth: Oracle and Tesla shares
Larry Ellison is the co-founder, Chief Technology Officer and former CEO of Oracle, an enterprise software company specializing in cloud computing and database platforms.
He invested in Tesla before joining the automaker’s board in 2018 and made more than ten times his money on paper by the time his term as director ended in August 2022.
5. Bernard Arnault
Net worth: $177 billion
YTD change in prosperity: -$30.6 billion
Source of Wealth: LVMH shares
Bernard Arnault is the founder, chairman and CEO of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. His conglomerate owns a slew of luxury brands, including Dior, Fendi, Dom Pérignon, Sephora and Tiffany & Co.
6. Bill Gates
Net worth: $162 billion
YTD change in prosperity: +$20.9 billion
Source of Wealth: Microsoft shares
Bill Gates is the co-founder and former CEO of Microsoft, which makes the Office application suite, the cloud computing platform Microsoft Azure and Xbox consoles.
He is known for his philanthropic work at the helm of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the world’s largest charities.
7. Larry Page
Net worth: $149 billion
YTD change in prosperity: +$22.5 billion
Source of Wealth: Alphabet stock
Larry Page co-founded Google in a friend’s garage with his Stanford University classmate Sergey Brin in 1998 and served as CEO until 2001.
He took charge again between 2011 and 2015 after Google was restructured as a subsidiary of Alphabet alongside other companies such as YouTube and Waymo.
8. Warren Buffett
Net worth: $147 billion
YTD change in prosperity: +$27 billion
Source of Wealth: Berkshire Hathaway Stock
Warren Buffett took over Berkshire Hathaway when it was a failing textile mill in 1965 and has since grown it into one of the largest companies in the world. His nearly 15% stake is worth about $145 billion.
The celebrity investor’s conglomerate owns dozens of companies, including GEICO, See’s Candies and BNSF Railway, and has billion-dollar stakes in publicly traded companies such as Apple and Coca-Cola.
Since 2006, Buffett has donated about half of his Berkshire shares to the Gates Foundation and four family foundations. All else being equal, if he had kept all his shares, he would be the richest person in the world with a net worth of over $300 billion.
9. Steve Ballmer
Net worth: $146 billion
YTD change in prosperity: +$14.7 billion
Source of Wealth: Microsoft shares
Steve Ballmer was CEO of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014. He joined the company in 1980 as an assistant to Bill Gates, initially negotiating a profit share, which he later traded for an equity stake when it became excessively large.
Ballmer retired as CEO in 2014 with a 4% stake – a position now worth more than $120 billion. He promptly bought the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion and remains the owner of the basketball team.
10. Sergei Brin
Net worth: $140 billion
YTD change in prosperity: +$20.4 billion
Source of Wealth: Alphabet stock
Sergey Brin co-founded Google with Page in 1998 and served as the search and advertising titan’s first president.
He and Page left their respective roles as president and CEO of Alphabet in 2019.
11. Jensen Huang
Net worth: $125 billion
YTD change in prosperity: +$81.5 billion
Source of Wealth: Nvidia stock
Jensen Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993, but the microchip maker has become a market darling in the past two years as its semiconductors have proven crucial to the development of artificial intelligence.
Nvidia’s stock price has skyrocketed from less than $15 at the end of 2022 to more than $140, valuing the company at about $3.5 trillion and making Huang one of the richest people in the world.
12. Michael Dell
Net worth: $116 billion
YTD change in prosperity: +$37.5 billion
Source of Wealth: Dell Stock
Michael Dell is the founder, chairman and CEO of the computer maker of the same name. Dell’s shares have soared from below $40 in March last year to above $120, valuing the company at around $90 billion, as investors bet it will be a major beneficiary of the AI boom.
Dell owns about 46% of its business and pocketed more than $10 billion last year from the sale of Dell-backed VMware to Broadcom.
13. Amancio Ortega
Net worth: $115 billion
YTD change in prosperity: +$28 billion
Source of Wealth: Inditex shares
Amancio Ortega is the founder and former chairman of Inditex, a fashion retail group with brands such as Zara, Bershka and Massimo Dutti.
The billionaire philanthropist and real estate investor stopped running Inditex in 2011. His daughter Marta Ortega Pérez was appointed chairman at the end of 2021.
14. Mukesh Ambani
Net worth: $104 billion
YTD change in prosperity: +$7.25 billion
Source of Wealth: Reliance Industries Shares
Mukesh Ambani is the chairman and director of Reliance Industries and Asia’s richest person.
His father, Dhirubhai Ambani, founded Reliance and trusted Mukesh to grow the conglomerate’s petrochemical business and expand into new areas such as telecommunications.
Mukesh hosted a star-studded, multi-event wedding ceremony for his son Anant Ambani this summer.
15. Jim Walton
Net worth: $104 billion
YTD change in prosperity: +$31 billion
Source of Wealth: Walmart stock
Jim Walton is the youngest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton, who more than 70 years ago gave each of his four children a 20% stake in the nascent retail business. Jim and his two remaining siblings, Rob and Alice, each still own more than 11% of the company.
Jim’s net worth surpassed $100 billion in September thanks to a 54% increase in the retailer’s stock this year.
16. Rob Walton
Net worth: $101 billion
YTD change in prosperity: +$30.1 billion
Source of Wealth: Walmart stock
Rob Walton, Sam Walton’s eldest, served on Walmart’s board for more than 40 years before retiring in June.
His net worth surpassed $100 billion for the first time in September, making him the second Walton to join the club after his younger brother Jim.
17. Alice Walton
Net worth: $101 billion
YTD change in prosperity: +$30.6 billion
Source of Wealth: Walmart stock
Alice Walton is Sam Walton’s only daughter and the richest woman in the world after overtaking L’Oréal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers earlier this year.
She joined her brothers Jim and Rob in the $100 billion club in September.
Read the original article on Business Insider
