The Top 10 Richest Persons in The World
The billionaires play an outside function in creating the worldwide economy, philanthropy and politics. Forbes says 2,755 the number of billionaires at the world. The richest between them belong to an even more exclusive club and wield still more power. Many of these billionaires are founders of technology giants, with much of their wealth still invested in the companies they started.
They can, however, still borrow against that wealth to avoid selling stock, deferring (or eliminating for heirs) taxes on unrealized capital gains the process. Multibillionaires 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.
With so much of their wealth in publicly traded stocks, the net worth of the richest can fluctuate with market valuations. For example, Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Tesla Inc. (TESLA) and the richest person in the world as of Feb. 28, 2022, saw his net worth surge in 2021 thanks to the increase in the share price of Tesla (where he currently owns 17% of the company)—with Tesla shares rising nearly 50% in 2021.
In contrast, Meta Platforms Inc. (FB) founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg fell out of the top 10 in early February 2022, when Meta's share price plunged 26% after a disappointing earnings report. Zuckerberg's net worth is down $45 billion in 2022 (as of March. 25, 2022)
Below are the 10 wealthiest people on the planet as of the same date, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
- Elon Musk
- Age: 50
- Residence: Texas
- Co-founder and CEO: Tesla
- Net Worth: $223 billion
- Tesla Ownership Stake: 17% ($150 billion)
- Other Assets: Space Exploration Technologies ($40.3 billion private asset), $5.53 billion in cash
Elon Musk 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. 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 Inc. (EBAY) and ultimately became PayPal Holdings Inc.