Top 10 Richest People in the World [2022]

Wealth has been at the center of human existence ever since the first humans walked this planet. Earlier it was the number of cows one had, and today it is the number of stocks, real estate, and cash – in dollars – one holds. And no matter what anyone says about material wealth being a vice, deep down, we all know that it is money that ensures our survival.

On a lighter note, the world is full of people who have amassed enough fortune that they can spend in their lifetime. But, even among these rich people, some have reached the pinnacle and are wealthy enough to buy virtually anything in existence today. We call them multi-billionaires and subject them to all kinds of expletives when we stumble upon their net worth on the web.

In this article, we are going to look at the richest multi-billionaires (pun totally intended) alive today and learn how they accumulated their infinite dollars. Hence, if you are looking to become a billionaire yourself or simply want to brush up on your general knowledge, keep reading till the end.

1. Elon Musk, $219 Billion

“What does it take to become the richest man on this planet?” has been a frequently asked question throughout human history. However, only a few have been able to get the answer.

One of them is Elon Musk, currently the world’s, or even the entire known universe’s (because money is a human concept) richest man. The CEO of SpaceX and a majority shareholder in Tesla Inc., Elon Musk began his journey with his debut software company Zip2. An internet-based yellow pages platform for newspaper companies, Zip2 was bought by Compaq for $307 Million in 1999. The deal with Compaq earned Elon his first multi-million check, a significant portion of which he used to found X.com. X.com, later known as PayPal, was one of the first Federally approved internet-based payment services.

PayPal went to eBay for $1.5 Billion in 2002, earning Musk his second multi-million-dollar check worth $175.8 M. After 2001, Musk largely left the software industry to focus on space travel. In 2002, after a tryst with Russian ICBMs, he founded SpaceX to manifest his vision of reusable rockets. Since then, he has gone from founding or investing in several other pathbreaking firms, one of which is Tesla, currently the world’s largest electric car maker.

2. Jeff Bezos, $171 Billion

Experts tout Jeff Bezos as a billionaire with extremely humble beginnings. Associated primarily with Amazon.com, Bezos worked with several big names like Intel and Bell Labs before starting his own thing. In 1993, the internet was fairly new, and Bezos saw potential in running an online bookstore. Subsequently, he founded Amazon in 1994 from his garage (an important detail). Starting as a bookstore, Amazon expanded into an enterprise housing diverse products such as music, videos, electronics, etc. Today, Amazon.com is one of the largest shopping platforms catering to a wide range of audiences, and one of the major income sources for Mr. Bezos.

3. Bernard Arnault (and Family), $158 Billion

If you thought that only the IT sector could produce multi-billionaires, you are not exactly right. Why? Because the next entry on this list is a man who built his empire by selling luxury goods, including handbags and makeup kits. Bernard Arnault is the 73-year-old founder and CEO of LVMH, the world’s largest company in its industry. Arnault sources a major portion of his wealth from his hefty stake in another firm Christian Dior SE, which holds 42.36% of shares in LVMH.

In his initial years, Bernard Arnault worked as a real-estate developer. But it wasn’t until 1984 when he decided to take over Boussacnt-Frères, a retail empire, and owner of Christian Dior, that he got his big break. After selling most of his stakes in Boussac Saint-Frères and laying off thousands of workers, he stuck to Christian Dior and finally profited $112 Million in 1987 from it.

4. Bill Gates, $129 Billion

Bill Gates is probably the most well-known name on this list after Elon Musk. Founder and longest-running CEO of Microsoft, he can be credited with single-handedly changing the face of home computing, thanks to the Windows operating system. The idol of every Harvard dropout, Bill Gates was fond of computers, especially programming, from a very young age. And it is this passion that led him to partner with Paul Allen and launched Mircosoft in 1975. After many trysts with MITS and IBM in the following years, Microsoft finally rolled out its proprietary operating system Windows 1, in 1985. Since then, Microsoft has ventured into building word processors, enterprise software, gaming consoles, smartphones, and more.

5. Warren Buffett, $118 Billion

Warren Buffett holds special significance for virtually every investor on this planet. Regarded as the humblest billionaire ever, Warren Buffet was all about earning money since his school days. Very early in his life, Warren realized his skills of investment and has since used it to garner much of his billions. Initially, Warren Buffet made money by selling chewing gums, and newspapers and then working as a stockbroker. In 1962, he made his first serious foray into the world of investments with his purchase of shares in a then-failing textile firm, Berkshire Hathway. Buffet then extended the scope of Berkshire to insurance and banking after purchasing National Indemnity Company. Since then, Buffet has invested in several big names like Duracell, Dairy Queen, American Express, the Coca-Cola company, etc.

6. Larry Page, $111 Billion

Millions across the world use the Google search engine and the Android operating system to carry on with their lives. But these two entities and many more would not have been possible if not for Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Larry Page, another tech billionaire on this list and a computer scientist, rose to fame when he, along with Sergey Brin, founded Google in 1998. An alumnus of Stanford University, he and Sergey decided to formulate a better way to traverse the web and came up with BackRub. BackRub, Google’s predecessor, worked on ranking the importance of a website by analyzing its backlinks. BackRub, from 1996 to 1998, metamorphosed into what we know as the first iteration of Google and propelled Larry and Sergey to new heights.

7. Sergey Brin, $107 Billion

When Sergey Brin emigrated from Russia to the United States at the age of six, little he would have known that he would go on to become the eighth richest person in the world. The co-creator of Google, he too earned his billions as Google went on to become the world’s staple search engine. Sergey served as the president of Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent firm until 2019. However, it is not just Google that interests him. Page and Brin are also working on solving the energy and climate troubles as well as venturing into artificial intelligence.

8. Larry Ellison, $106 Billion

What are the odds that you will become a billionaire if your name is Larry? We should ask Larry Ellison, the second Larry on this list. Larry Ellison, a pioneer of Database Management Systems (DBMS), earned his fortune as the top executive and majority shareholder of one of the largest tech firms in the world, Oracle Corp. Oracle, Larry Ellison’s, Bob Miner’s, and Ed Oates’ brainchild, started under the name of Software Development Laboratories (SDL). Oracle, a database vendor in the 1980s, frequently began to appear in the ranks of Sybase and Microsoft SQL Server. Gaining popularity among low and mid-range systems, Oracle became successful as a firm offering enterprise data management. This led to Forbes listing Larry Ellison on its Forbes Four Hundred list alongside Bill Gates.

9. Steve Ballmer, $91.4 Billion

The only sports guy on this list – he owns the NBA team Los Angeles Clippers – Steve Ballmer began his climb towards his massive fortune after joining Microsoft as a business manager in 1980. Subsequently, he became a top executive in the company, replacing Bill Gates as the CEO in 2000 – a post he held on to for 14 years. Apart from earning much of his net worth from Microsoft, he also earned the trust of Bill Gates, becoming almost a brother to him until his retirement.

10. Mukesh Ambani, $90.7 Billion

Mukesh Ambani is India’s Elon Musk. No, not in terms of money but as the most popular business mogul in the country. He is the Chairman, MD, and majority stakeholder in Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), a Fortune 500 company and the most valuable in India. Mukesh Ambani earned his first paycheck by helping in the family business, RIL, founded by his father. Over the years, RIL expanded its reach into the refining, petrochemical, and retail sectors, transforming into a conglomerate. Until recently, he was the richest Indian and Asian. However, in February, Adani took over the title.

Wrapping Up:

So there you have it, a list of the richest individuals in the world as of April 2022. This list is, of course, tentative and the order as well the names on it might change, even just one minute before this article is published. But that must not bother us much.

What interests us more is the pattern that this list follows. This list essentially tells us that either you need to be a techie or have a sense of investment to become rich. So if you possess any of these two attributes or both, you should try your hand at becoming a billionaire. Who knows when your name might appear on any such lists.