Just two years ago, it seemed inconceivable that anyone could have a net worth of $100 billion. Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, crossed the mark on November 24, 2017. Amazon’s stock had soared as its lead at the top e-commerce company was buttressed by its world’s largest cloud computing business. As of Sunday, the number of people with $100 billion in net worth had risen to eight.
Bloomberg monitors net worths on its Billionaire Index, which tracks the 500 richest people in the world. Bezos tops the list at $197 billion. Amazon’s stock has been pushed even higher by the growth of online shopping during the pandemic.
Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Tesla, ranks second at $175 billion. The company’s share price has risen 491% in the past year.
Next on the list, Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, has a net worth of $147 billion. He left the Microsoft board a year ago to concentrate on philanthropy. However, shares in the company have surged over the past year.
Bernard Jean Étienne Arnault is the only non-American on the list. He is CEO and controlling shareholder of the world’s largest luxury goods company, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. Bloomberg puts his net worth at $132 billion.
Fifth on the list is Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, with a net worth of $118 billion.
Warren Buffett, “the greatest investor in history” and founder and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, is also on the list with a net worth of $101 billion.
These six were just joined by the two founders of Google, which is now called Alphabet. Larry Page just topped the $100 billion net worth number to reach $103 billion. Sergey Brin’s net worth is $100 billion. Alphabet’s stock has been rising steadily over the course of the five-year tech rally. It reached an all-time high last week. The company’s market cap sits at $1.54 trillion.
Neither Brin nor Page is involved in the day-to-day management of the company. Alphabet looks little like the company they founded as Google in 1998. While it maintains its status as the largest search engine in the world, it operates businesses as widespread as the Android operating system, YouTube and the Waymo driverless car initiative.
Click here to see the city in each state with the most billionaires.
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