The Richest Man In The World: Forbes Magazine makes a list of the richest people in the world every year. They look at how much money and things each person has and how much they owe to others. They call this their net worth. They publish the list in March and it shows who is the richest man in the world then. They started doing this in 1987 and many people wait for it and care about it. It tells us how much money the richest people in the world have.
The list uses US dollars to show the net worth of people. It does not have people who are rich because of their job or power, like kings, queens, or presidents.
World’s Richest Person 2024
To find out how rich someone is, we look at the value of what they have and what they owe. We call this their net worth. The list shows the net worth of people in US dollars. It is important to know that the list does not have kings, queens, presidents, or other people who are rich because of their job or power.
Top 10 Richest People in the World by January 2024
Elon Musk is the richest person in the world as of December 2023. He has a net worth of $253.2 billion. He makes a lot of money from Tesla and SpaceX.
This is the list of the top 10 richest people in the world.
| Name | Net worth (in billions) | Country |
|---|---|---|
| Elon Musk | $222 | United States |
| Jeff Bezos | $171 | United States |
| Bernard Arnault | $169 | France |
| Bill Gates | $134 | United States |
| Larry Ellison | $129 | United States |
| Steve Ballmer | $129 | United States |
| Warren Buffet | $119 | United States |
| Larry Page | $119 | United States |
| Mark Zuckerberg | $115 | United States |
| Sergey Brin | $113 | United States |
How do they Calculate Net Worth?
Net worth is the value of what someone owns minus what they owe. It is a measure of how rich or poor someone is. To calculate net worth, you need to add up the value of all the assets and subtract the value of all the liabilities. Assets are things like money, property, stocks, and bonds. Liabilities are things like loans, mortgages, and credit card debt. The formula for net worth is:
Net Worth=Total Assets−Total Liabilities
For example, if someone has $100,000 in assets and $50,000 in liabilities, their net worth is $50,000. If someone has $50,000 in assets and $100,000 in liabilities, their net worth is -$50,000. A positive net worth means that someone has more assets than liabilities. A negative net worth means that someone has more liabilities than assets.
Who is the richest man in the world?
This is a short summary of the top 10 richest men in the world. It tells you how much money they have, where they get it from, and some other facts.
1. Richest Man in the World – Elon Musk
Elon Musk is the richest man in the world. He is 52 years old and lives in the United States. He is the boss of Tesla, a company that makes electric cars. He owns 13% of Tesla, which is worth $98.1 billion. He also owns 79% of X, a company that does secret projects. It is worth $9.32 billion. He has other companies too, like SpaceX, which makes rockets, and the Boring Company, which digs tunnels. They are worth $53.2 billion and $3.33 billion. He bought Twitter, a social media site, for $44 billion in October 2022.
2. Second Richest Man in the World – Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos is the second richest man in the world. He is 59 years old and lives in the United States. He started Amazon, a company that sells things online. He owns 10% of Amazon, which is worth $145 billion. He also has other things that make him money, like Blue Origin, a company that makes spaceships, The Washington Post, a newspaper, Koru, a health company, and $14 billion in cash.
In July 2021, Jeff Bezos stopped being the boss of Amazon, but he still stayed as the chairman. He also went to space in July 2021 with his spaceship company, Blue Origin.
3. Third Richest Man in the World – Bernard Arnault
Bernard Arnault is the third richest man in the world. He is 74 years old and lives in France. He is the boss and the chair of LVMH, a company that makes expensive and fancy things. He has a net worth of $169 billion. Most of his money comes from owning 97.5% of Christian Dior, a famous fashion brand. It is worth $130 billion. He also has money in Moelis & Company, a financial company, and $13.1 billion in cash.
LVMH has about 70 popular brands of clothes, makeup, and other things. In January 2021, LVMH bought Tiffany & Co., a jewellery company, for $15.8 billion.
Arnault has five children who work in different parts of LVMH. In January 2023, he made his daughter Delphine the boss of Dior, the second biggest brand in LVMH.
4. Fourth Richest Man in the World – Bill Gates
Bill Gates is the fourth richest man in the world. He is 68 years old and lives in the United States. He started Microsoft, a company that makes software, with Paul Allen in 1975. He has a net worth of $134 billion. He owns 1.4% of Microsoft, which is worth $24.1 billion. He also has $64.1 billion in cash and other things that he invested in. He is very powerful in the business world.
He is the fourth richest person on the list of billionaires. He makes a lot of money from Microsoft and from investing in clean energy. He owns only 1% of Microsoft as of March 2020.
Bill Gates owns more farmland than anyone else in the United States. He also invested in other companies like Canadian National Railway and AutoNation. He was the fourth richest person on the list of billionaires in 2022.
5. Fifth Richest Man in the World – Larry Ellison
Larry Ellison is the fifth richest man in the world. He is 79 years old and lives in the United States. He started Oracle, a company that makes software, with some friends. He is the boss, the chair, and the tech leader of Oracle. He has a net worth of $129 billion. He owns more than 42% of Oracle, which is worth $96.1 billion. He also has money in Tesla, a company that makes electric cars, and $21.8 billion in cash.
He is the fifth richest person on the list of billionaires. He owns 35% of Oracle and is still in charge of its technology. He stopped being the CEO of Oracle in 2014. He moved to a Hawaiian island called Lanai and bought it for $300 million. He also bought 3 million shares of Tesla and became part of its board in December 2018.
6. Steve Ballmer
Steve Ballmer is the sixth richest man in the world. He is 67 years old and lives in the United States. He owns the Los Angeles Clippers, a basketball team. He has a net worth of $129 billion. He also owns 4% of Microsoft, a company that makes software. It is worth $119 billion. He has other things that are worth a lot of money, like The Forum and the Intuit Dome, which are places where people play sports or watch shows. He also has $3.48 billion in cash.
Steve Ballmer used to be the boss of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014. He is an American who does business and invests in things. He is the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, which is a team in the National Basketball Association.
7. Warren Buffet
Warren Buffet is the seventh richest man in the world. He is 93 years old and lives in the United States. He is the boss of Berkshire Hathaway, a company that invests in other companies. He has a net worth of $119 billion. He owns 15% of Berkshire Hathaway, which is worth $118 billion. He also has $1.28 billion in cash, which shows that he is good at managing and investing his money.
Warren Buffet is known as the “Oracle of Omaha” because he is very smart and successful at investing. He leads Berkshire Hathaway, a company that has many different businesses, such as Geico, which sells insurance, Duracell, which makes batteries, and Dairy Queen, which sells ice cream.
8. Larry Page
Larry Page is the eighth richest man in the world. He is 50 years old and lives in the United States. He started Alphabet, a company that owns Google and other things, with his friend Sergen Brin. He is a board member of Alphabet. He has a net worth of $119 billion. He owns 6% of Alphabet, which is worth $102.7 billion. He also has $16.3 billion in cash and other things that he invested in. He is smart and good at managing his money.
Larry Page is an American who is very rich and powerful. He and Sergen Brin made Google, a website that helps people find things online. He also made PageRank, a way of ranking websites on Google. He and Brin won a prize in 2004 for their work.
9. Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg is the ninth richest man in the world. He is 39 years old and lives in the United States. He is the boss and the chair of Meta Platforms, a company that owns Facebook and other things. He has a net worth of $115 billion. He owns 13% of Meta Platforms, which is worth $111 billion. He is very powerful in the tech industry. He also has $4.03 billion in cash and other things that he invested in. He is smart and good at managing his money.
Mark Zuckerberg is an American who is very rich and successful. He made Facebook, a website that helps people connect and share, with some friends. He also started Meta Platforms, a company that does more things online. He is the leader and the main owner of both companies.
10. Sergey Brin
Sergey Brin is the tenth richest man in the world. He is 50 years old and lives in the United States. He started Alphabet, a company that owns Google and other things, with his friend Larry Page. He is a board member of Alphabet. He has a net worth of $113 billion. He owns 6% of Alphabet, which is worth $96.5 billion. He also has $16.4 billion in cash and other things that he invested in. He is smart and good at managing his money.
Sergey Brin made Google, a website that helps people find things online, with Larry Page. He was the president of Alphabet, the company that owns Google and more, until he quit in December 2019.