Forbes released its 2020 list of the world’s richest people Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos’ net worth hits new highs $188.8 billion, according to Bloomberg’s latest estimates.
The richest man in history is set to defend his online retail empire in front of Congress Wednesday.
If you want to get a little closer to making Forbes’ richest billionaires list, then you might need to become a technological innovator or a retail king.
1. Jeff Bezos
Jeffrey Preston Bezos born January 12, 1964 is an American internet entrepreneur, industrialist, media proprietor, and investor.
He is best known as the founder, CEO, and president of the multinational technology company Amazon.
The first centi-billionaire on the Forbes wealth index, Bezos has been the world’s richest person since 2017 and was named the “richest man in modern history” after his net worth increased to $150 billion in July 2018.
While Bezos has added $63.6 billion to his net worth in 2020 alone, per Bloomberg estimates, the coronavirus crisis has been an economic disaster for the rest of America, as an unprecedented 49 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits in recent months.
Bezos isn’t the only billionaire getting richer during the pandemic. Tesla’s Elon Musk and Zoom’s Eric Yuan both saw their net worths grow by more than $2 billion between March and June, Business Insider previously reported.
On January 9, 2019, Bezos and MacKenzie announced on Twitter their intent to divorce after a “long period” of separation.
On April 4, 2019, the divorce was finalized, with Bezos keeping 75% of the couple’s Amazon stock and MacKenzie getting the remaining 25% ($35.6 billion) in Amazon stock. However, Bezos would keep all of the couple’s voting rights.
On February 7, 2019, Bezos published an online essay in which he accused American Media, Inc. owner David Pecker of “extortion and blackmail” for threatening to publish intimate photos of Bezos and Lauren Sánchez, if he did not stop his investigation into how his text messages and other photos had been leaked to the National Enquirer.
- Jeff Bezos Net Worth $188.7 billion
- Bezos Founder: Amazon
2. Bill Gates
Bill Gates, the founder and chairman of Microsoft, was the year’s biggest gainer.
Gates recaptured the title of world’s richest person on May 2020 from Mexican investor Carlos Slim.
Bill Gates born on October 28, 1955, is an American business magnate, software developer, investor, and philanthropist. He is best known as the co-founder of Microsoft Corporation.
Top Five, Bill Gates’ knack for increasing wealth is staggering, even for an already wealthy guy. The Microsoft co-founder’s net worth has more than doubled since 2009.
Most of his assets are held in Cascade Investment, an entity through which he owns stakes in about three dozen publicly traded companies and several closely-held businesses, including Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts and Corbis, a photo archive company.
Bill Gates stepped down from the boards of Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway on March 13, 2020.
- Bill Gates Net Worth: $113.6 billion
- Bill Gates Co-Founder: Microsoft Corp.
3. Bernard Arnault
Bernard Jean Étienne Arnault born 5 March 1949 is a French billionaire businessman and art collector.
He is the chairman and chief executive of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, the world’s largest luxury-goods company.
The company owns some of the biggest brands on earth including Louis Vuitton, Hennessey, Bulgari, Marc Jacobs, Dior, Sephora, and many more.
Bernard Jean Étienne Arnault was born on 5 March 1949, in Roubaix, France.
His father, manufacturer Jean Léon Arnault, was a graduate of École Centrale Paris.
- Bernard Arnault Net Worth 2020: $105.9 billion
4. Mark zuckerberg
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg born May 14, 1984, is an American media magnate, internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist.
He is known for co-founding Facebook, Inc. and serves as its chairman, chief executive officer, and controlling shareholder.
Zuckerberg began using computers and writing software in middle school. His father taught him Atari BASIC Programming in the 1990s, and later hired software developer David Newman to tutor him privately.
Zuckerberg started Facebook at Harvard in 2004 at the age of 19 for students to match names with photos of classmates.
He took Facebook public in May 2012 and still owns about 15% of the stock.
In December 2015, Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, pledged to give away 99% of their Facebook stake over their lifetimes.
In one program, since his father’s dental practice was operated from their home, he built a software program he called “ZuckNet” that allowed all the computers between the house and dental office to communicate with each other.
It is considered a “primitive” version of AOL’s Instant Messenger, which came out the following year.
- Mark zuckerberg Net Worth: 97.6 billion USD
5. Warren Buffett
The Oracle of Omaha, Warren E. Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, stood at the fourth position with a wealth of $60.3 billion. Buffett is well known for his phenomenal market intuition and faultless economic forecasts.
Warren Buffett was born in Omaha, Nebraska. He developed an interest in business and investing in his youth, eventually entering the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1947 before transferring and graduating from the University of Nebraska at the age of 19.
He first bought shares in a textile company called Berkshire Hathaway in 1962, becoming the majority shareholder by 1965.
He expanded the company to the insurance and other investments in 1967.
Now, Berkshire Hathaway is a half-trillion-dollar company, with a single share of a stock trading at over $300,000 per share in early 2019.
- Warren Buffett Net Worth $70.5 billion.
6. Larry Ellison
Larry Ellison is the largest shareholder in Oracle and the fifth richest person in the world.
Larry Ellison co-founded a database software company, Oracle, in 1977. He stepped down as CEO in 2014 but is still CTO and chairman of the board. He has also served on the board of Tesla since December 2018.
Aside from his focus on Oracle and several other corporations he has stakes in, including Salesforce.com, NetSuite, Quark Biotechnology, and Astex Pharmaceuticals, Ellison has been recognized for his commitment to philanthropic efforts and was also one of the billionaires in 2019 to sign the “The Giving Pledge,” a campaign that emboldens the wealthiest people in the world to make a commitment to give most of their wealth to philanthropic causes. The campaign was made public by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
- Larry Ellison Chief Technology Office and Founder of Oracle
- Net Worth: $62.4 billion
