Forbes magazine released the list of the richest people in the world in 2019 this Wednesday. See here who the ten wealthiest personalities in the world are – from the owner of Amazon to the former mayor of New York.
- Jeff Bezos and family ($ 131 billion)
The 55-year-old businessman, founder and chief executive of e-commerce giant Amazon, and his family have grossed $ 19 billion in the past 12 months, setting his fortune at $ 131 billion. Jeff Bezos owns the American newspaper “The Washington Post” and the aerospace company Blue Origin, famous for developing a rocket for commercial flights, but Amazon is its goose that lays the golden eggs, even though it only holds one 16% share. - Bill Gates ($ 96.5 billion)
The Microsoft co-founder nowadays acts more as a philanthropist than as an entrepreneur. Currently, he chairs the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest private charitable foundation in the world, with a $ 35.8 billion grant, with his wife Melinda Gates. As an entrepreneur, Bill Gates invests in several types of companies, with only about 1% of Microsoft’s shares. - Warren Buffet ($ 82.5 billion)
The “oracle of Omaha” is one of the most successful investors in the world. From Berkshire Hathaway, Buffer owns more than 60 companies. - Bernard Arnault and family ($ 76 billion)
The president of LVMH manages an empire of 70 brands and is the patron behind the Louis Vuitton Foundation museum. - Carlos Slim Helu and family ($ 64 billion)
The richest man in Mexico and his family control South America’s largest telecommunications company, America Movil. Slim also holds stakes in the Mexican construction, consumer goods and mining and real estate sectors. This businessman also controls 17% of the American newspaper “The New York Times”. - Amancio Ortega ($ 62.7 billion)
Ortega is the wealthiest retailer in Europe, being considered a pioneer of the so-called “ready-to-wear”. Founder and owner of 60% of Inditex, which controls the chain of stores Zara, Amancio Ortega usually earns 400 million euros annually, in dividends. This entrepreneur invests his earnings, according to “Forbes”, in real estate in the cities of Madrid, Barcelona, London, Chicago, Miami and New York. - Larry Ellison ($ 62.5 billion)
Ellison co-founded Oracle in 1977 and only left the leadership of the software company in 2014 – he still holds the position of chief technology officer. Its investments include the $ 9.3 billion invested in the purchase of Netsuite in 2016 and the acquisition of 3 million Tesla shares in early 2018 – since December last year, which is part of the board of directors of Elon Musk’s company. - Mark Zuckerberg ($ 62.3 billion)
The creator of the social network Facebook managed to maintain its heritage after the scandal with Cambridge Analytica, the consultancy that improperly used the private information of millions of Facebook users. - Michael Bloomberg ($ 55.5 billion)
Bloomberg was once the mayor of New York – a position identical to mayor of town hall – and now his name is mentioned for the race for the White House in 2020. Michael Bloomberg is co-founder of the financial information agency Bloomberg, holding 88 % of media company. - Larry Page ($ 50.8 billion)
Larry Page is the leader of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, which he co-founded in 1998.
The top 10 richest people in the world amount for almost 1 trillion in total assets. That’s almost 1/5 of the physical money in the world.