The richest man in the world. The richest people in the world: who they are and how they achieved success German Larrea Mota-Velasco

The American magazine Forbes traditionally announced the list of the richest people in the world based on the results of the past year. The 32nd annual world ranking, published on March 6, 2018, included 2,208 people from 72 countries around the globe, each of whom owns a fortune of at least $1,000,000,000. At the same time, the total income of billionaires from all over planet Earth increased by 18% compared to last year and amounted to $9.1 trillion. We invite you to familiarize yourself with this year’s list and the types of activities to which billionaires owe their capital.

The top ten absolute world leaders in terms of wealth earned included businessmen, software developers, representatives of the fashion industry, publishing, media and the mobile communications market.

The top ten people on Forbes' 2018 list of the world's richest people are:

  • Jeff Bezos ($112 billion) topped the 2018 Forbes Billionaires List for the first time and became the world's richest person. The rapid rise in price of shares of his brainchild Amazon by 59% allowed 53-year-old Bezos to add $39,200,000,000 to his net worth compared to last year.

Interesting! Jeff Bezos managed not only to top the list of the world's richest people in 2018, but also to become the first billionaire whose fortune is estimated at 12 figures.

  • Bill Gates ($90 billion) ranks 2nd on the Forbes list. Despite the fact that Microsoft brought him fame and the bulk of his fortune, today Gates's stake in the company does not exceed 3%. Now he makes money mainly from a mechanical engineering company, an investment fund and a number of other sources.

  • Warren Buffett ($84 billion) is in 3rd place in the 2018 top richest people. The 87-year-old billionaire's income throughout his life comes from the investment holding Berkshire Hathaway, which owns various shares of shares in more than 60 companies.

  • Bernard Arnault ($72 billion) was able to get to 4th place in the Forbes top and increase his wealth by $30,500,000,000 (while in 2017 he was only in the second ten). The 69-year-old Frenchman is the sole owner of the LVMH Moët Hennessy holding, which represents luxury brands Louis Vuitton, Sephora, Christian Dior (since 2017), etc.

  • Amancio Ortega ($70 billion) is the founder of the Inditex holding, which includes the famous brands Zara, Bershka, Massimo Dutti, etc., and is the 6th billionaire in the world. The 80-year-old Spaniard also buys real estate in prestigious locations in Europe and America and receives substantial dividends from its resale or rental.

  • Carlos Slim Helu ($67.1 billion) is seventh on the Forbes world list of billionaires. The Mexican is the owner of the mobile operator America Movil, as well as a co-owner of the New York Times newspaper and a number of real estate and mining companies.

  • Charles Koch ($60 billion) is on the eighth line of the Forbes 2018 top list. Together with his brother, he is the owner of the Koch Industries holding. The latter's history began in 1940, when their father founded an oil refinery.

  • David Koch ($60 billion) is the second co-owner of Koch Industries, who, thanks to the decision to buy out the Times publishing house, managed to add $11,700,000,000 to his capital and take 9th place in the ranking of world billionaires.

  • Larry Ellison ($58.5 billion), an American ranked 10th on the Forbes list, is the founder of the IT company Oracle, which has recently been developing cloud services. Ellison also actively invests in her favorite pastime, sailing, and spares no expense for charitable causes.

The richest people in Russia in 2018

Among the richest people in the world, the 2018 Forbes list included 102 people from Russia, whose total wealth was estimated at $410,800,000,000. Most of them earned their fortune in the oil and gas sector or other commodity markets. So, the ten richest representatives of the Forbes list from Russia:

  • Vladimir Lisin ($19.1 billion) is the richest person in Russia in 2018 and is on the 57th line of the Forbes global ranking. Lisin holds the position of Chairman and is the main owner of shares in NLMK (steel sector) and Universal Cargo Logistics Holding.

On a note! Vladimir Lisin holds the position of vice president of the International Shooting Sports Organization. It was thanks to him that the largest shooting complex in Europe, “Fox Hole,” appeared in the Moscow region.

  • Alexey Mordashov ($18.7 billion) is the second (as last time) place among the richest Russians and 60th place in the world top. The capital of the co-owner of Severstal, tour operator TUI and gold mining company Nord Gold N.V increased by $1,200,000,000.

  • Leonid Mikhelson ($18 billion), the winner of last year’s Russian Forbes rating, dropped to 3rd place in 2018 (64th place in the Forbes top). The fortune of the co-owner of the chemical holding Sibur and the largest private gas production company Novatek decreased by $400,000,000.


  • Vladimir Potanin ($15.9 billion) – ranks 6th and 83rd in the Forbes lists of Russia and the world, respectively. Possession of shares in the Norilsk Nickel company, the Petrovax Pharm concern and the most famous ski resort in Russia, Rosa Khutor, brought Potanin an additional $1,600,000,000.

  • Andrey Melnichenko ($15.5 billion) - the main owner of Eurochem, the companies SGK (energy) and SUEK (coal mining) in 2018, ranks 7th in the Russian and 88th place in the international list of billionaires according to Forbes 2018 .

  • Mikhail Fridman ($15.1 billion) – an increase in his own finances by $700,000,000 allowed the founder of Alfa Bank, co-owner of Alfa Group and LetterOne to be ranked 8th on the Forbes 2018 list.

  • Viktor Vekselberg ($14.4 billion) – ranks 9th among the richest people in Russia (89th in the world). The lion's share of his income now comes from the Suzler company from Switzerland (which produces pumping equipment). In addition to her, Vekselberg also receives income from the activities of the Renova Group of Companies, of which he is the founder.

Interesting! Viktor Vekselberg’s private collection contains famous works of art, including 9 Faberge eggs; he paid the Forbes family about $100,000,000 for the acquisition.

  • Alisher Usmanov ($12.5 billion) closes the top 10 richest people in Russia according to Forbes 2018 and ranks 118 in the world top. Having started a business with the production of polyethylene products during the Soviet era, today Usmanov is a co-owner of the Metalloinvest holding, Megafon, Mail.ru Group, Arsenal FC and a stake in Xiaomi.

Beyoncé

Forbes magazine calculated which of the stars earned how much over the past year, and is in a hurry with the results of the calculations: first place ($130 million for the year) went to rapper and music producer Sean Combs, better known as P (or Puff) Daddy. Second place in this ranking was taken by: her latest album Lemonade and the Formation World Tour turned out to be triumphant and brought the black singer $105 million. Third place was taken by British writer Joanne Rowling - her new book-play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, as well as other projects, brought her a total of $95 million.

Hip-hop artist Drake was slightly behind Rowling - his result was fourth, and his annual income was over $94 million. Fifth place was taken by, who, it seems, quite recently (and, it seems, is preparing for this) - his bank account was replenished with $93 million. Singer The Weeknd came in sixth with $92 million.

So the top 10 list looks like this:

1. Sean "Puff" Combs


2. Beyoncé

3. JK Rowling


5. Cristiano Ronaldo


6. The Weeknd

7. Howard Stern

8. Coldplay

9. James Patterson


10. LeBron James


Also in the honorable rating were (13th place, 83 million), Ellen DeGeneres (16th place, 77 million), Adele (18th place, 69 million), Elton John (26th place, 60 million) and Paul McCartney ( 32nd place, $54 million). 19-year-old Kylie Jenner also appeared on the rich list for the first time - her annual income of $41 million allowed her to take 59th place. Sister Kylie turned out to be more successful: her result was $45 million and 47th place. Last year's champion (then she earned a record 170 million dollars), this time she took only 49th place with an income of 44 million greenbacks.


The editors of Forbes have prepared a special issue of the magazine dedicated to this rating. The cover went to the already mentioned The Weeknd, who rose by as much as 24 positions over the year.

The Forbes ranking of the world's richest people was first published back in 1918. Then the leader with $1.2 billion was the American entrepreneur John Rockefeller. Since then, the American publication regularly introduces its readers to its own analytical materials, which assess the size of the fortunes of leading businessmen, industrialists, investors, bankers, as well as their heirs. The Forbes list is often called one of the most objective, suggesting that the publication's journalists constantly monitor the activities of the owners of the largest fortunes.

Who is the richest person in the world today? According to journalists from the famous American financial and economic magazine Forbes, in 2017 the list of the 100 richest people in the world is headed by the founder of Microsoft, 61-year-old Bill Gates. Interestingly, it was he who topped the ratings in the periods from 1996 to 2007 and from 2009 to 2015, i.e., in fact, he remained the richest person on the planet for the last two decades and at the same time systematically increased his capital. The complete list of dollar billionaires in 2017 can be downloaded from the link below.
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Forbes list of the 100 richest people in the world in 2017

No. Name Field of activity fortune, billion dollars
1 Bill Gates founder of Microsoft 86,0
2 Warren Buffett institutional investor 75,6
3 Jeff Bezos founder of Amazon 72,8
4 Amancio Ortega owner of the textile group Inditex 71,3
5 Mark Zuckerberg Facebook owner 56,0
6 Carlos Slim Elu and family holdings Grupo Carso, America Movil and Carso Global Telecom 54,5
7 Larry Ellison software giant 52,2
8 David Koch Koch Industries 48,3
9 Charles Koch Koch Industries 48,3
10 Michael Bloomberg creator and main owner (88% of shares) of the Bloomberg news agency 47,5
11 Bernard Arnault collector 41,5
12 Larry Page co-owner of Google 40,7
13 Sergey Brin co-owner of Google 39,8
14 Liliane Bettencourt heir to the L`Oreal empire and co-owner of the Nestle concern 39,5
15 Samuel Robson Walton former Walmart president 34,1
16 Jim Walton Sam Walton's youngest son, co-owner of Walmart 34,0
17 Alice Walton founder of the investment bank Llama Company 33,8
18 Wang Jianlin owner of the Wanda conglomerate 31,3
19 Lee Ka Shin container shipping business Hutchinson Whampoa Limited 31,2
20 Sheldon Adelson gambling tycoon 30,4
21 Steve Ballmer Microsoft 30,0
22 Jorge Paulo Leman beer 29,2
23 Jack Ma Alibaba 28,3
24 David Thomson mass media 27,2
25 Karl Albrech and Beate Heister Aldi grocery store chain 27,2
26 Jacqueline Mars 27,0
27 John Mars sweets, animal food, Mars company 27,0
28 Phil Knight Nike 26,2
29 George Soros hedge fund 25,2
30 Maria Franca Fissolo Ferrero SPA, sweets and food 25,2
31 Ma Huaten Tencent, the largest software developer in China 24,9
32 Lee Shau Kee real estate 24,4
33 Mukesh Ambani oil and gas 23,2
34 Masayoshi Son Softbank 21,2
35 Kjeld Kirk Christiansen Lego 21,1
36 George Shuffler production of ball bearings 20,7
37 Joseph Safra banking business 20,5
38 Michael Dell Dell computers 20,4
39 Susan Klatten BMW and pharmaceuticals 20,4
40 Lauryn Paul Jobs and family widow of Steve Jobs, shares in Apple and Pixar 20,0
41 Len Blavatnik Access Industries 20,0
42 Paul Allen software 19,9
43 Stefan Persson clothing chain H&M 19,6
44 Theo Albrecht Jr. chain stores ALDI and Trader Joes 18,8
45 Al-Waleed bin Talal Alsaoud investment activities 18,7
46 Leonid Mikhelson gas 18,4
47 Stefan Quandt BMW 18,3
48 Charles Yergen EchoStar, telecommunications 18,3
49 James Simons hedge fund 18,0
50 Leonardo del Vecchio production of branded glasses 17,9
51 Alexey Mordashov ferrous metals, Severstal 17,5
52 William Ding Online Games 17,3
53 Dieter Schwarz retail 17,0
54 Ray Dalio hedge fund 16,8
55 Carl Icahn land redemption 16,6
56 Lakshmi Mittal black metals 16,4
57 Vladimir Lisin black metals 16,1
58 Dassault aircraft manufacturing 16,1
59 Gennady Timchenko oil, trade 16,0
60 Wang Wei delivery service 15,9
61 Tadashi Yanai retail 15,9
62 Charen Sirivadhanabhakdi beverages 15,8
63 Francois Pinault retail 15,7
64 Srichand and Golichand Hinduja diversified income 15,4
65 David and Simon Reiben real estate 15,3
66 Alisher Usmanov investment entrepreneur from Russia: ferrous metals, telecommunications, numerous Russian-language IT services 15,2
67 Donald Bren real estate 15,2
68 Lee Gun Hee President of Samsung 15,1
69 Georgina Rinehart minerals 15,0
70 Joseph Lau real estate 15,0
71 Thomas and Raymond Kwok real estate 15,0
72 Azim Permzhi software 14,9
73 Marcel Hermann Telles beer 14,8
74 Vagit Alekperov oil and petroleum products 14,5
75 Mikhail Fridman Alfa Group – banks, investments, telecommunications 14,4
76 Abigail Johnson investment fund 14,4
77 Vladimir Potanin non-ferrous metals 14,3
78 Pallonji Mistry construction 14,3
79 Wang Wenying minerals 14,0
80 Elon Musk Tesla Motors, SpaceX, Paypal 13,9
81 Stefano Pessina pharmacies 13,9
82 German Larrea Mota Velasco minerals 13,8
83 Thomas Peterffy discount broker 13,8
84 Dilip Shanghvi pharmaceuticals 13,7
85 Iris of Fontbon mining 12,7
86 Dietrich Mateschitz RedBull 13,4
87 Robin Lee Internet search engine Baidu main Chinese service 13,3
88 Harold Hamm oil production 13,3
89 Andrey Melnichenko coal, fertilizers 13,2
90 Heinz Hermann Telle mechanical engineering 13,1
91 Rupert Murdoch mass media 13,1
92 Patrick Draghi telecommunications 13,0
93 Steve Cohen hedge fund 13,0
94 Andrey Krupsky production 12,8
95 Henry Su retail 12,7
96 Carlos Alberto Sicupira beer 12,5
97 Ronald Perelman land redemption 12,3
98 Philip Anschutz investments 12,5
99 Hans Rausing package 12,5
100 Victor Vekselberg oil and metals 12,4

Published the next annual ranking of the richest people in the world. To be included in the list, you must have a net worth of at least $1 billion. This year, 2,208 people from 72 countries meet this requirement. Their total wealth increased by 18% compared to last year and amounted to $9.1 trillion.

Bezos came out on top twice in 2017, according to Forbes, which ranks the fortunes of billionaires in real time.

On July 27, he managed to stay at the top of the list for only a few hours. On October 28, he again broke through to the first line of the rating - this happened after the publication of the company’s quarterly report, the results of which exceeded analysts’ expectations. As a result, Amazon shares rose by 13%, and Bezos' fortune increased by more than $10 billion in just one day.

With a large gap from Bezos, Bill Gates is in second place in the Forbes global ranking - the Microsoft founder's fortune is estimated at $90 billion.

The third position in the global list of rich people is occupied by American investor and founder of Berkshire Hathaway Warren Buffett with a fortune of $84 billion - the authors of the Forbes rating remind that Buffett promised to allocate 99% of his capital to charity. So far, $32 billion has been allocated for these purposes, the magazine notes.

The Frenchman, who ranks fourth in the ranking, is more than $10 billion behind Buffett. Arnault owns the LVMH Moët Hennessy holding, an empire that includes world-famous brands from Sephora to Sephora. The wealth of the richest Frenchman is estimated at $72 billion. By the way, last year Arnault did not make it into the Forbes top ten.

The top 10 richest people in the world also included Spanish businessman, founder of the Zara chain Amancio Ortega ($70 billion), Mexican TV magnate Carlos Slim ($67.1 billion), CEO and controlling shareholder of Coch Industries Charles and (both $60 billion) . The chairman of the board of directors and chief technology officer closes the top ten with $58.5 billion.

The richest Russians according to Forbes

The magazine named the chairman of the board of directors and owner of a controlling stake Vladimir Lisin as the wealthiest Russian of the year. The Russian entrepreneur's fortune is estimated at $19.1 billion. Over the past year, Lisin managed to add another $3 billion to his wealth and displace last year's leader on the Russian list.

Compared to 2017, Lisin’s position in the global ranking remained unchanged - the businessman still ranks 57th.

Second place in the ranking, as last year, was retained by Chairman of the Board of Directors Alexey with a fortune of $18.7 billion - in 2017 the businessman managed to earn $1.2 billion. This is more than two times less than last year’s figure, when Mordashov increased his personal wealth by $2.7 billion.

Co-owner Leonid Mikhelson, who occupied the first line of the Russian list of the richest people in 2017, lost ground, ending up in third place in the ranking. At the end of 2017, his personal fortune amounted to $18 billion, having decreased by $0.4 billion.

The top 5 wealthiest Russian entrepreneurs also included the president ($16.4 billion, an increase of $1.9 billion) and the owner

Just recently, a list of the richest people in the world was published. The data obtained from this list shows that it is now the entrepreneurs and self-made businessmen who have found themselves in the highest positions, so that the leaders are no longer those who inherited their wealth. Of course, it is also worth considering that there are many families on the list who pass on their wealth and their companies by inheritance, such as the owners of Koch Industries, Walmart and even the L"Oreal cosmetics empire; more and more self-made billionaires are appearing on the list from all over the world. Most of them made their billions in the technology industry, such as Jack Ma or Mark Zuckerberg. It's time to find out who is the richest in the world?

Alain and Gerard Wertheimer - $24 billion

The brothers are the owners and managers of the famous perfume company House of Chanel.

Samuel and Donald Newhouse - $25 billion

The brothers inherited Advance Publications, a multimillion-dollar publishing empire that owns publications such as The New Yorker and Vogue.

Ma Huateng - $26 billion

The Chinese Internet businessman is the founder, president, chief executive and board member of Tencent. It is a holding company whose subsidiaries deal with absolutely everything: online advertising, press, entertainment and payment systems.

George Soros - $26 billion

Soros is one of the most famous and successful investors in the world. However, he started small, working as a railway porter and waiter, thus earning his way to study at the London School of Economics.

Phil Knight - $26 billion

Knight is the co-founder and chairman emeritus of Nike, one of the world's most renowned sports companies.

Maria Franca Fissolo - $26 billion

The Italian billionaire is the owner of one of Europe's largest confectionery companies, Ferrero. She is the widow of Michel Ferrero.

Mukesh Ambani - $28 billion

Ambani is the Chairman, Managing Director and largest shareholder of Forture 500 company Reliance Industries Limited.

Axel Dumas - $28 billion

He is the executive director of one of the largest fashion houses, Hermès. He is the sixth generation of the family that founded the house in 1837 and has run it ever since.

Henkel family - $28 billion

The German chemical and consumer products company was founded in 1876 by Fritz Henkel. Christoph Henkel inherited the company in 1999 when his father Conrad passed away.

Steve Ballmer - $30 billion

Ballmer is a former Microsoft executive who served in that position from 2000 to 2014. Now he is the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team.

Jorge Paulo Lehmann - $31 billion

Lehmann is Brazil's richest man and made his fortune as a legend of corporate takeovers.

Sheldon Adelson - $31 billion

He is the founder and chief executive of gambling giant Las Vegas Sands Corp. and is an active member of the Republican Party.

Li Ka-shing - $32 billion

He is one of the richest people in China and is one of the first major investors in Facebook. It also acquired the British telecommunications company O2 in 2015 for 15 billion.

Wang Jianlin - $33 billion

He is the founder of China's largest real estate company, Dalian Wanda Group, and also owns 20 percent of the Spanish football club Atletico Madrid.

Jack Ma - $36 billion

This Chinese high-tech billionaire is the founder and executive chairman of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group.

Ingvar Kamprad and his family - $36 billion

The Swedish business magnate is the founder of IKEA, one of the largest furniture stores and best-loved brands in the world, and has been at the helm of the company for more than 70 years.

Carl and Theo Albrecht Jr., Beate Heister and family - $39 billion

German Karl Albrecht founded the Aldi supermarket chain with his brother Theo.

Stefan Quandt and Susanne Klatten - $39 billion

He is the son of Herbert and Johanna Quandt, and he owns 25 percent of the shares of automobile giant BMW, while his sister has 20 percent.

Liliane Bettencourt - $41 billion

She is the heir to the fortune that she got together with the cosmetics company L'Oreal, and she is also the largest shareholder of this company.

Sergey Brin - $43 billion

The Russian-American computer scientist teamed up with Larry Page to create the tech giant Google.

Larry Page - $44 billion

Page beat his Google co-founder Sergey Brin by one billion.

Bernard Arnault - $45 billion

Arnault is the chairman and chief executive of the world's largest luxury goods company, LVMH.

Michael Bloomberg - $50 billion

He is the founder, owner and CEO of the global finance, software and media company, Bloomberg. It is worth noting that he bequeathed half of his fortune to charity after his death.

Larry Ellison - $52 billion

Ellison is the founder and chairman of the international giant Oracle. He is also a yacht aficionado, and has been responsible for purchasing some of the most outstanding yachts in the world, as well as purchasing entire Hawaiian islands.

Carlos Slim Helu and his family - $59 billion

He is the richest man in Mexico, and he also became one of the richest self-made billionaires in the world after taking control of one of the largest mobile telecommunications companies, America Movil.

Mark Zuckerberg - $61 billion

The 32-year-old is the chairman, chief executive and co-founder of the world's largest social networking site, Facebook.

John and Jacqueline Mars - $63 billion

Brother and sister are the heirs of a confectionery empire, which is famous for the production of Mars bars.

Warren Buffett - $79 billion

This legendary investor is considered the most successful investor in the world, a title he achieved while serving as chairman and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway. He also promised to give 99 percent of his fortune to charity.

Jeff Bezos - $80 billion

He is the founder, chairman and CEO of the world's largest online retailer, Amazon. He is also a successful investor and invests through his own investment company, Bezos Expeditions.

Amancio Ortega - $82 billion

In 1985, Ortega created Inditex, a company that owns brands such as Zara, Bershka, Pull & Bear and Massimo Dutti. He also owns 60 percent of the company's shares.

Bill Gates - $91 billion

Gates made his fortune by co-founding the world's largest personal computer software company, Microsoft.

Charles and David Koch - $102 billion

Charles has been the chairman and chief executive of Koch Industries, the second largest private company in the United States, since 1967. It is a family business and his brother David is the vice president of the company.

Walton family - $130 billion

This American family created the world's largest retail company, Walmart. The three most prominent members of the family living today are Jim, Rob and Alice.

 

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