Billionaires play an outsized role in shaping the global economy, politics, and philanthropy. Forbes puts the number of billionaires in the world at 2,781 in 2024. The wealthiest among them is Elon Musk; CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.12
The individuals on this list belong to an even more exclusive club and wield still more power. Many are founders of technology giants, with much of their wealth still invested in the companies they started.
These billionaires can, however, still borrow against that wealth to avoid selling stock, deferring (or eliminating for heirs) taxes on unrealized capital gains in the process. Multi-billionaires can also take advantage of a panoply of tax deductions to offset reported income, leaving some on this list paying no income tax in recent years.3
BNY Mellon Wealth Management. “Your Active Wealth Podcast: Borrow Like a Billionaire, February 2022.”
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With so much of their wealth in publicly traded stocks, the net worth of the richest fluctuates along with the market valuations of the companies they own. Below are the 10 wealthiest people on the planet, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. All figures are current as of Nov. 1, 2024.
Key Takeaways
- Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, is the richest person and the richest man in the world with a net worth of $263 billion.
- After Musk is Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.
- Other billionaires with some of the largest net worths include LVMH’s Arnault, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, and Oracle’s Larry Ellison.
- Eight of the top 10 billionaires made their fortunes in technology, with Arnault and Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett being the exceptions.
1. Elon Musk
- Age: 53
- Residence: United States
- Co-founder and CEO: Tesla
- Net Worth: $263 billion
- Tesla Ownership Stake: 13% ($103 billion)
- X Ownership Stake: 79% ($5.62 billion)
- Other Assets: Space Exploration Technologies ($82.2 billion private asset), The Boring Company ($3.33 billion private asset), Neuralink ($2.07 billion private asset), xAI ($13.3 billion private asset)5
Elon Musk is the richest man in the world. He was born in South Africa and attended a university in Canada before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned bachelor’s degrees in physics and economics.6
Two days after enrolling in a graduate physics program at Stanford University, Musk deferred attendance to launch Zip2, one of the earliest online navigation services. He reinvested a portion of the proceeds from this startup to create X.com, the online payment system that was sold to eBay (EBAY) and ultimately became PayPal Holdings (PYPL).6
In 2004, Musk became a major funder of Tesla Motors (now Tesla), which led to his current position as CEO of the electric vehicle company. In addition to its line of electric automobiles, Tesla produces energy storage devices, automobile accessories, and, through its acquisition of SolarCity in 2016, solar power systems. Musk is also CEO and chief engineer of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), a developer of space launch rockets.67
In December 2020, Tesla joined the S&P 500, becoming the largest company added, and in January 2021, Musk became the richest person in the world—a title that has fluctuated alongside the value of Tesla.85