NEW YORK: Elon Musk is the richest person in the world, a title he’s held since May 2024. Whole Amazon founder and chairman Jeff Bezos fell to the world’s No 3 richest from No 2 in late February conceding the position to Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg, according to Forbes latest list.Microsoft chairman Bill Gates dropped out of the top 10 richest in October 2024 after Forbes obtained new information about a significant contraction in his fortune.
Eight out of 10 of the richest people in the world are Americans. The two non-US citizens France’s Bernard Arnault and Spain’s Amancio Ortega. All of the top ten richest people as of March 1 are men. Each of them is worth $118 billion or more.
While the Trump administration spent much of February working to slash federal employment, stocks sagged–and the world’s ten richest people collectively got $140 billion poorer. Elon Musk was the biggest loser of the bunch. Though he still holds onto his spot as the world’s wealthiest person, a sharp downturn in Tesla shares shaved $62 billion off his fortune, as the electric vehicle maker shed a remarkable one-quarter of its market valuation in February.
Mark Zuckerberg had a better month, in net worth terms, becoming the world’s second richest person–a first for him. Zuckerberg has weaker Amazon shares to thank for his move into the No 2 spot. A nearly 11 percent drop in Amazon’s stock price in February erased more than $23 billion from Amazon Chairman Jeff Bezos’ fortune, dragging him down to the No 3 rank and making way for Zuckerberg to move ahead of him. Zuckerberg’s fortune also fell last month, but not as much as Bezos’. The Meta Platforms CEO starts off March worth an estimated nearly $231 billion. Bezos is not far behind, worth nearly $227 billion.
Warren Buffett was the only one of the world’s top 10 richest whose fortune grew last month. Shares of Berkshire Hathaway, the investing conglomerate he leads, ticked up about 10 percent, adding nearly $15 billion to Buffett’s fortune, which now clocks in at $161 billion.
Altogether the top ten richest are worth a notable $1.89 trillion, down from $2.03 trillion at the start of February. At No 4 on the list is Oracle boss Larry Ellison with net worth $204.6 billion.
Ellison kept his No 4 rank from the prior month despite an $8.8 billion dip in his fortune. Oracle shares fell about 2 percent in the past month. Luxury goods brand LVMH chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault of France is on No 5 with net worth $186.4 billion.
Bernard Arnault got $2.8 billion poorer amid a slight decline in the group’s share price. Arnault’s father made millions in the construction business; to get his start, Arnault used $15 million of that fortune to buy Christian Dior. He has since built the largest luxury goods company in the world with some 70 fashion and cosmetics brands, including Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Moet & Chandon, Sephora and jeweler Tiffany & Co.
Ninety-four years old Warren Buffett of investment conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway is at No 6 with net worth $161.1 billion. Buffett was the only on of the top 10 with a fortune that increased in the past month, rising $14.9 billion during February. The A shares of Berkshire Hathaway closed at a record high $775,000 on Friday, February 28.
Known as the “Oracle of Omaha,” Buffett is one of the most successful investors of all time. He runs Berkshire Hathaway, which owns dozens of companies, including insurer Geico, battery maker Duracell and restaurant chain Dairy Queen. The son of a US congressman, he first bought stock at age 11 and first filed taxes at age 13.
Alphabet, Google parent company, founder Larry Page is at 7th position on list of rishest people with net worth of $141.5 billion. Page’s fortune fell by $26 billion in the past month, as Alphabet’s shares tumbled more than 13 percent during the month.
Page cofounded search engine Google with fellow Stanford PhD student Sergey Brin in 1998 and served as CEO until 2001 and from 2011 to 2015. He now serves as a board member of Google’s parent Alphabet and continues to be a controlling shareholder.
Page was a founding investor in asteroid mining company Planetary Resources, which was acquired by blockchain firm ConsenSys in 2018.
Google cofounder Sergey Brin is at 8th position with net worth of $135.4 billion. Like Larry Page, Brin’s fortune also declined in the past month —down $24.4 billion—as Alphabet shares tumbled.
Founder of Zara fashion stores Amancio Ortega is at No 9 with net worth $121.9 billion. Spanish Amancio Ortega keeps his No 9 rank for the second month in a row. His fortune declined $1.4 billion in the past month.
Ortega, one of the pioneers of fast fashion, founded Inditex—parent of the Zara chain of stores—in 1975 with his then-wife Rosalia Mera. (They later divorced and she died in 2013.) He owns about 60 percent of Madrid-listed Inditex, which has eight brands including Massimo Dutti and Pull & Bear, and 5,000 stores around the world. In 2022, after working at Inditex for 15 years, his daughter Marta Ortega Pérez became chairperson of the company.
Microsoft, LA Clippers, investments boss Steve Ballmer hold the 10th place with net worth of $118.9 billion. A drop in Microsoft shares led to a $4 billion decline in Ballmer’s fortune. In late January, Microsoft issued weaker-than-expected guidance for the next quarter.
Ballmer, a classmate of Bill Gates’ at Harvard University, joined Microsoft as employee number 30 in 1980 after dropping out of the MBA programme at Stanford University. He ran Microsoft as its CEO from 2000 to 2014. When Ballmer retired from Microsoft, he purchased the Los Angeles Clippers team for $2 billion—a record high for an NBA team at the time. Forbes now values the team at $5.5 billion. The new home for the Clippers, the Intuit Dome in Inglewood—not far from Los Angeles International Airport—opened in August 2024.