05/26/2024 – 9:00
The sum that the biggest billionaires in the world manage goes up and down every day, mainly because it often depends on the price of their companies’ shares.
Despite daily fluctuations, the origin of their fortunes is distant and the solidity of their businesses ensures that they continue to hold the greatest wealth on the globe.
+ See the list of the 10 richest people in Brazil, according to Forbes ranking
Check out, below, who occupies the top of Forbes magazine’s daily ranking of billionaires and the origin of their capital.
1 – Bernard Arnault and family – US$ 206 billion (R$ 1 trillion)
President of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the French tycoon owns 75 fashion and cosmetics brands, including Louis Vuitton, Sephora and Tiffany & Co. In addition to the luxury market, Arnault also has a holding company with investments in companies such as Netflix and Byte Dance (TikTok’s parent company). Despite having started alone in the world of fashion, the fortune runs in the family, as his father consolidated his capital in the construction industry.
2 – Jeff Bezos – US$ 199 billion (R$ 1 trillion)
President of Amazon, Bezos founded the company in his garage in Seattle, United States, in 1994. Today he owns 10% of the company. The billionaire also owns the newspaper The Washington Post and the space flight company Blue Origin.
3 – Elon Musk – US$ 194 billion (R$ 997 billion)
Musk is the co-founder of six companies, but his greatest successes are Tesla, an electric car manufacturer, and SpaceX, a rocket producer – according to Forbes magazine, the company’s shares have quintupled in value in four years. The billionaire also purchased the social network Twitter in 2022, now called X.
4 – Mark Zuckerberg – US$ 163 billion (R$ 838 billion)
Co-founder of Facebook, Zuckerberg today owns a social media and messaging empire, with Instagram and WhatsApp being part of Meta.
5 – Larry Ellison – US$ 153 billion (R$ 786 billion)
Now president and technology director of the software, hardware and database company Oracle, the American founded the company in 1977. Oracle grew by buying other software companies and its biggest acquisition happened in 2021, when it purchased the electronic records company of Cerner healthcare for more than $28 billion.
6 – Larry Page – US$ 143 billion (R$ 735 billion)
The computer scientist is a co-founder of Google. He and the next person on this list, Sergey Brin, started the search engine in 1998 while they were pursuing their doctorates at Stanford. Currently, Page is a controlling shareholder and board member of Alphabet, Google’s parent company.
7 – Sergey Brin – US$ 137 billion (R$ 704 billion)
Sergey Brin is also a controlling shareholder and board member of Alphabet, as well as a co-founder of Google. Born in Russia, Brin moved to the United States at age six.
8 – Warren Buffett – US$ 134 billion (R$ 689 billion)
CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, Buffett is considered one of the most successful investors of all time, according to Forbes. His company controls several other companies, such as the insurance company Geico and the battery manufacturer Duracell.
9 – Bill Gates – US$ 130 billion (R$ 668 billion)
Probably one of the most famous billionaires in the world, Gates is the founder of Microsoft. But his fortune goes beyond the software company, as he invests in several holding companies, according to Forbes. Gates gave up his studies at Harvard to create Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975.
10 – Steve Ballmer – US$ 126 billion (R$ 648 billion)
Another Microsoft billionaire. Steve Ballmer led the company from 2000 to 2014, but joined the company in 1980 after dropping out of his studies at Stanford. Ballmer retired from the company in 2014 and purchased the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers basketball team.
The values of the fortunes refer to the ranking of May 23rd.
#origin #fortune #companies #richest #people #world