1. Elon Musk – $353 billion
Elon Musk owns a large proportion of X, formerly Twitter – the social media platform he bought it for $44billion in late 2022
The South African businessman’s wealth is tied up in the success of Tesla, his electric car firm.
Musk also owns the majority of X, formerly Twitter – the social media platform he bought it for $44billion in late 2022.
He also owns a large portion of Space X, and has stakes in brain implant company Neuralink and The Boring Company.
2. Jeff Bezos – $238 billion
Bezos owns retail giant Amazon as well as The Washington Post and Blue Origin
The American businessman is the chairman and founder of Amazon, which he launched out of his Seattle garage in 1994.
The retail giant is now considered a tech company because a lot of its profits are generated through its cloud computing service AWS.
Bezos also owns The Washington Post and Blue Origin, an aerospace company developing rockets.
During a 2022 interview with CNN, the tycoon revealed his intention to donate the majority of his wealth while he is alive, although he refrained from sharing specific details.
3. Mark Zuckerberg – $217 billion
Mark Zuckerberg, 40, is among the youngest of the billionaire tech tycoons
The Facebook founder started the social media platform as a 19-year-old college student at Harvard in 2004.
Among the youngest of the tech tycoons, the 40-year-old took his business public in 2012.
The company took over Instagram, and Zuckerberg changed its name to Meta in 2021 to shift the its focus to the metaverse.
Zuckerberg part-owns Meta, and shares in the company almost tripled in value last year.
4. Larry Ellison – $203 billion
Larry Ellison began his career working as a programmer but soon decided he wanted to work for himself
Another tech founder, Larry Ellison accrued his wealth thanks to Oracle, one of the largest software companies in the world.
The New York native began his career working as a programmer but soon decided he wanted to work for himself.
He worked with two friends to establish a new kind of database management system that would be more efficient than its competitors.
In the 1980s, Oracle quickly gained popularity and has since remained a prominent player in the software industry, achieving a revenue of $53 billion in the fiscal year 2024.
Ellison also has a business that owns two luxury resorts on the Hawaiian island of Lanai and has invested heavily in Tesla.
5. Bernard Arnault – $187 billion
Bernard Arnault, 75, is the CEO of French luxury conglomerate LVMH
In addition to his commitments at Oracle, Arnault holds the positions of CEO and chair at the prestigious French luxury conglomerate LVMH, which boasts ownership of renowned brands such as Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co, and Dom Pérignon.
But the majority of his fortune is driven by his 97.5 percent stake in Christian Dior, according to Bloomberg.
In 2022, the 75-year-old entrepreneur raised LMVH’s mandatory retirement age to 80 which gives him another five years in control.
His five children all work across LVHM and its brands.
Source: Bloomberg Billionaires Index
Note: The list of billionaires can change daily as the ranking is based on stock valuations.
