As 2022 is slowly approaching to a close, it’s worth noting the world’s richest people, whose tremendous wealth influenced the world throughout the year. According to Forbes, the prestigious American business magazine, in 2022, apart from multi billion dollar worth of tech entrepreneurs, business magnates and investors, there are also four extremely wealthy Greeks.
According to the business magazine, in 2022, there are 2,668 billionaires in the world, with a cumulative wealth value of $12.7 trillion.
Yet, the list of the world’s billionaires this year decreased by 87 people, mainly due to the Russia – Ukraine war, the COVID-19 pandemic, but also the global economic situation, while the total wealth of the top ten richest people fell by $400 billion.
The list also records 329 losses. The country counting the most losses is Russia. The country counts 34 resounding “absences” from the 2021 list, following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.
The US still dominates the list with 735 billionaires and a combined worth of $4.7 trillion. After the USA, China follows with 607 billionaires and a cumulative value of $2.3 trillion.
The ten people who dominate the list, include tech entrepreneurs, business men and investors.
The Ten Richest People of 2022 according to Forbes
10. Carlos Slim Helú, $81.6 billion
Carlos Slim Helú is a Mexican business magnate, investor, and philanthropist.
Slim was ranked as the richest person in the world by Forbes for three four consecutive years, between 2010 and 2013. He derived his fortune from his extensive holdings in a considerable number of Mexican companies through his conglomerate, Grupo Carso.
He accounts for 40% of the listings on the Mexican Stock Exchange, while his net worth is equivalent to about 6% of Mexico’s gross domestic product. As of 2016, he is the largest single shareholder of The New York Times Company.
9. Larry Page, $83.5 billion
Larry Page is an American business magnate, computer scientist and internet entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of Google along Sergey Brin.
Page was the CEO of Google from 1997 until August 2001, then from April 2011 until July 2015 when he moved to become CEO of Alphabet Inc., a post he held until 2019. He remains an Alphabet board member, employee, and controlling shareholder.
He is also the inventor of PageRank, which became the foundation of Google’s search ranking algorithm.
8. Mukesh Ambani, $89.2 billion
Mukesh Ambani is an Indian billionaire businessman. He is the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd., a Fortune Global 500 company and India’s most valuable company by market value.
7. Larry Ellison, $102.5 billion
Larry Ellison is an American businessman and investor. He is the co-founder, executive chairman, chief technology officer (CTO) and former CEO of the American computer technology company Oracle Corporation. In 2020, Oracle was the third-largest software company in the world by revenue. The company sells database software and technology, cloud engineered systems, and enterprise software products.
Ellison is also known for his 98% ownership stake in Lanai, the sixth-largest island in the Hawaiian Archipelago.
6. Bill Gates, $102.9 billion
The American business magnate, software developer, investor, author, and philanthropist toped Forbes’s list at number six.
Gates is the co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, world’s largest personal computer software company, Gates held the positions of chairman, CEO, president and chief software architect, while also being the largest individual shareholder until May 2014.
In 2000, Gates and his ex-wife Melinda Gates launched the private philanthropic organisation Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He is also known for his philanthropic efforts on climate change, global health and development, and education.
From 1995 to 2017, he held the Forbes title of the richest person in the world every year except from 2010 to 2013.
5. Warren Buffett, $104.5 billion
Known as the “Oracle of Omaha,” Buffett is an American businessman and philanthropist, widely considered the most successful investor of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is the owner of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., an American multinational conglomerate holding company.
During the global financial crisis of 2007–08, Buffett made a number of deals that, though questioned at the time, proved highly profitable. He invested $5 billion in the U.S.-based bank holding company Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., as well as $3 billion in General Electric Company (GE). Berkshire also bought the railroad company Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation for about $26 billion.
As a result of defying prevailing investment trends, he made a personal fortune of more than $60 billion by the late 2000s.
4. Jeff Bezos, $126.9 billion
Jeff Bezos, an American entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor, computer engineer, and commercial astronaut is the world’s fourth richest person. He is the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon.
Bezos founded e-commerce giant Amazon in 1994 out of his garage in Seattle. He stepped down as CEO to become executive chairman in July 2021. He now owns a bit less than 10% of the company.
Bezos has donated more than $400 million worth of stock to nonprofits in 2022, though it’s unclear which organizations received those shares.
What is more, Bezos owns The Washington Post and Blue Origin, an aerospace company developing rockets. He made headlines when he briefly flew to space in one in July 2021.
3. Gautam Adani, $131.3 billion
Gautam Adani is an Indian billionaire tycoon. He is considered the third richest person in the world as of 2022.
He is the chairman and founder of Adani Group, an Ahmedabad-based multinational conglomerate involved in port development and operations in India. Adani is also the president of Adani Foundation, a private philanthropic organisation, which is primarily led by his wife, Priti Adani.
Adani controls Mundra Port, India’s largest port, in his home state of Gujarat. He acquired a 74% stake in Mumbai International Airport, India’s second-busiest airport, in September 2020. He’s now the country’s biggest airport operator.
The Indian tycoon wants to be the world’s largest producer of green energy and has said he will invest up to $70 billion on renewable energy projects.
2. Bernard Arnault & family, $156.5 billion
Bernard Arnault is a French business man, investor, and art collector. He is the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton SE – the world’s largest luxury goods company.
LVMH is a global business empire. It includes seventy fashion and cosmetics brands, including Louis Vuitton and Sephora. In January 2021, LVMH acquired American jeweler Tiffany & Co for $15.8 billion, believed to be the biggest luxury brand acquisition ever.
In addition, LVMH spent $3.2 billion in 2019 for luxury hospitality group Belmond, which owns or manages 46 hotels, trains and river cruises.
Four of Arnault’s five children work in corners of the LVMH empire: Frédéric, Delphine, Antoine and Alexandre.
1. Elon Musk, $223.8 billion
Elon Musk is the world’s richest man for 2022.
He is a business magnate and investor. Elon Musk co-founded six companies including electric car maker Tesla, rocket producer SpaceX and tunneling startup Boring Company. He owns about 25% of Tesla between stock and options, but has pledged more than half his stock as collateral for loans.
SpaceX, founded in 2002, is worth $127 billion. The Boring Company, which aims to defeat traffic, raised $675 million in April 2022 at a $5.7 billion valuation.
In addition, Twitter’s board agreed to sell the company to Musk for $44 billion in April 2022, after he disclosed a 9.1% stake. In July 2022, Musk announced he was terminating the deal over spam concerns. Twitter sued and the parties were supposed to go to court in October.
Yet, on October 27, Musk acquired Twitter. He also fired its CEO Parag Agrawal before firing other top executives.