Number of billionaires on Forbes list and their collective wealth shrinks : NPR

The richest newcomer, at $38.2 billion, is Miriam Adelson of Nevada, who inherited her husband Sheldon Adelson’s casino empire following his death in January. Another 250 people who’d fallen off the billionaires’ list in the past came roaring back. Altogether, a staggering 86% of all billionaires are richer than a year ago.

• Altogether, the planet’s billionaires are now worth $12.2 trillion, a drop of $500 billion from $12.7 trillion in March 2022.
• Pauline MacMillan Keinath is thought to have the largest stake in Cargill and is worth $7.2 billion, while Martha, pictured above, is worth $1.3 billion, Forbes estimates.
• A record total of 1,426 people made the 2013 list, representing $5.4 trillion of assets.[33] Of those, 442 billionaires hailed from the United States.[31] The Asian-Pacific region had 386 billionaires and Europe 366.
• Musk is also CEO and chief engineer of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), a developer of space launch rockets.
• There are almost 30,000 families in the U.S. with assets of more than $100 million, Buffett’s among them.
• He converted Ferret-Savinel to a real estate company named Férinel Inc. in 1979.
• 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.

The rally benefited tech tycoons Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, the biggest winners in the index this year. The gains mark the best half-year for all the billionaires on the index since https://www.bookstime.com/articles/balance-sheet-vs-income-statement the second half of 2020 when the markets rebounded from the COVID-19 pandemic, per Bloomberg. The world’s top 500 billionaires had a bumper start to 2023 thanks to a broad market rally.

The number of billionaires has fallen (but they’re worth a collective $12.7 trillion)

Not that the 90-year-old Oracle of Omaha had a bad year—he’s still worth $28.5 billion more than he was on the 2020 list. Canada’s richest person added another $5.2 billion to his fortune in 2022 as his 68% stake in the conglomerate Thomson Reuters jumped 17%. The Toronto based company, which Thomson chairs, has been supplementing its core news and information business with AI investments like SurePrep, an automated tax software company it acquired in January for $500 million. After decades of almost religiously holding onto their family retailer’s shares, the children of Walmart cofounder Sam Walton have been among its biggest sellers, unloading another $1.8 billion of stock over the past 12 months. A chunk of the proceeds likely helped fund Rob Walton’s record $4.7 billion purchase of the Denver Broncos last August.

Americans dominate the top of the billionaires ranks, taking 17 of the 25 spots, followed by France and India, with two apiece. The top 25 mostly made their money in technology (eight list members) and fashion & retail (seven). Her net worth is derived from her holdings in L’Oréal, the world’s largest cosmetics company.

#154 Lin Jianhua & family

60 people from the 2012 list fell below a billion dollars of assets in 2013, and eight others from the 2012 list died. The Asia-Pacific region had the most drop-offs, with 29, followed by the United States with 16. The 2013 list featured 138 women, of which 50 came from the United States. The richest woman in the world is Francoise Bettencourt Meyers of France. As of November 1, 2023, she is worth an estimated $84.4 billion and is the world’s 14th richest person.

Musk was also the world’s richest person for most of 2022—until December 2022, when a drop in Tesla’s share price pushed down the value of his fortune. On October 25, shares of the company fell 10% in a day, but have recovered somewhat since then. But Forbes, which used stock prices and exchange rates from March 11 to calculate their net worths, said both the number of billionaires and their collective wealth has dropped since last year. As of November 1, 2023, the richest person in the world is Elon Musk, the CEO of electric car company Tesla; he’s worth an estimated $217 billion. He moved into the number one spot in June this year, overtaking Bernard Arnault of France. Brin, who came to the U.S. from Russia with his family when he was 6 years old to escape anti-Semitism, is the richest immigrant in America.

Knight Frank’s Wealth Report

The company filed a lawsuit against Musk to force the buyout to go through. Musk countersued the company but then reversed course and declared he was willing to buy it after all. The deal officially closed in Oct. 2022, giving him a 79% stake in the company.

The most famous living value investor, Warren Buffett filed his first tax return in 1944 at age 14, declaring earnings from his boyhood paper route. He first bought shares in a textile company called Berkshire Hathaway in 1962, becoming the majority shareholder by 1965. Buffett expanded the company’s holdings to insurance and other investments in 1967. Page was among early investors in Planetary Resources, a space exploration and asteroid-mining company. Established in 2009, the company was acquired by blockchain firm ConsenSys in 2018 amid funding problems. He has also shown an interest in flying car companies, investing in both Kitty Hawk and Opener, although Kitty Hawk ceased operations in 2022.

The Dell chairman and CEO is $5 billion poorer this year after a 27% drop in Dell Technologies’ stock price. His family office, however, has grown into a large investment and advisory firm. MSD Partners, which manages over $12 billion, merged with fellow billionaire Byron Trott’s BDT & Co. in October.

Supply chain difficulties and Covid restrictions in China nudged Nike’s shares down 3%. Ben Affleck portrays a young Knight in the new movie AIR, about the brand’s lucrative signing of a young Michael Jordan. Bloomberg, a longtime supporter of Israel, waded into Israeli politics in a New York Times opinion piece in March, criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to weaken the country’s judiciary. Mark Zuckerberg first developed Facebook (now Meta) alongside fellow students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes while attending Harvard University in 2004.

#2. Elon Musk

He runs investing conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, which owns dozens of companies, including insurer Geico, battery maker Duracell and restaurant chain Dairy Queen. The son of a U.S. congressman, he first bought stock at age 11 and first filed taxes at age 13. Larry Ellison cofounded software firm Oracle in 1977 and ran it as CEO until 2014; he now serves as chairman and Chief Technology Officer of the company.

• “It’s about Coco Chanel. It’s about Karl. It’s about everyone who works and creates at Chanel. It’s not about the Wertheimers,” he said at the time, referring to Karl Lagerfeld, the fashion house’s former creative director.
• Next time you Google anything, remember Page, who is one of its co-founders.
• Bezos was the world’s richest person on Forbes’ list of the World’s Billionaires from 2018 through 2021; he dropped to second richest on the 2022 billionaires list.
• The New York Times has called the brothers “fashion’s quietest billionaires.” In a rare interview, Gérard told the Times in 2002 about their choice to stay under the radar.
• The rumored cage fight between Musk and Zuckerberg has become a melee for media attention, and Jeff Bezos can regularly be spotted on his $500 million yacht with his fiancée, Lauren Sánchez.
• His family office, however, has grown into a large investment and advisory firm.
• 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.

Ellison invested in Tesla and served on the board of the car company from 2018 through August 2022. For Forbes’ full list of the World’s Billionaires, see forbes.com/billionaires. Of the 493 newcomers we tracked down this year, some prominent routes to new richest stood out, including cryptocurrency, SPACs (special purpose acquisition companies), traditional IPOs and Covid-related healthcare. The CEO of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, which owns brands such as Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Givenchy, added $61 billion to his net worth in 2021.

#157 Johann Rupert & family

He was invited to invest in LVMH in 1987 and became the majority shareholder, chair of the board, and CEO of the company two years later. 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 5 richest people in the world 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.