One billion dollars is difficult for most of us to envision. It’s a thousand million dollars. Yet some billionaires have more than a hundred billion dollars.
What could you do with that kind of money?
Build the most expensive home in every country on earth? Pay off the mortgages and other bills of everyone you’ve ever called a friend plus a few random acquaintances? Load up on sports cars and pricey Champagne? You could do all that and more.
For nearly 40 years, Forbes has released an annual list of the wealthiest people in the world. In addition to listing the richest of the rich, it also briefly explains where their money came from. Here’s a look at the top 10 for 2023, beginning with No. 10.
10. Steve Ballmer
Net worth of this person in 2023 according to Forbes: $80.7 billion
Primary source of this person’s wealth: Microsoft
Think of Microsoft billionaires, and Bill Gates probably comes to mind first. But his Harvard pal Steve Ballmer, who stood as best man in Gates’ 1994 wedding, took over as the tech company’s CEO in 2000, retiring in 2014. And as with many billionaires, the world of professional sports beckoned. Ballmer earned enough from his Microsoft stake to buy the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion that same year he retired.
9. Mukesh Ambani
Net worth of this person in 2023 according to Forbes: $83.4 billion
Primary source of this person’s wealth: Reliance Industries
Americans may not know Mukesh Ambani’s name, but he’s well-known in India, where the billionaire heads up Mumbai-based multinational conglomerate Reliance Industries. The company evolved from its beginnings as a textile and polyester company into today’s multinational firm, with business interests in energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, retail, telecommunications, mass media and more. Ambani, who owns the Mumbai Indians cricket team, lives with his family in a private 27-story building named Antilia, which is reportedly the world’s first billion-dollar home.
8. Carlos Slim Helu and family
Net worth of this person in 2023 according to Forbes: $93 billion
Primary source of this person’s wealth: America Movil
“Slim” sure doesn’t describe his wallet. Carlos Slim Helu, the richest person in Mexico, and his family own the telecommunications giant America Movil as well as other businesses. But he has something in common with American billionaire Warren Buffett. Like Buffett, he has lived in the same house for more than 40 years.
7. Michael Bloomberg
Net worth of this person in 2023 according to Forbes: $94.5 billion
Primary source of this person’s wealth: Bloomberg LP
Michael Bloomberg was elected to three terms as New York City mayor, spanning from 2002 to 2013. Outside New York, he may be best known for his unsuccessful 2020 run for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States. As NYC mayor, he rejected the $2.7 million salary to which he was entitled, accepting only $1 a year. He didn’t need it: He’s the CEO and co-founder of Bloomberg LP, a privately held financial, software, data and media company.
6. Bill Gates
Net worth of this person in 2023 according to Forbes: $104 billion
Primary source of this person’s wealth: Microsoft
Quick, name a billionaire! Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates may be most people’s first answer although he’s at No. 6, not No. 1, on the world’s richest people list these days. Anything Gates does makes news, whether it’s his work fighting poverty as co-founder of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation or the recent birth of his first grandchild. He’s also made headlines as an early player of pickleball, a sport that’s become more and more popular lately and was invented by family friends of Gates’ father in the 1960s.
5. Warren Buffett
Net worth of this person in 2023 according to Forbes: $106 billion
Primary source of this person’s wealth: Berkshire Hathaway
Bill Gates and Warren Buffett could star in a billionaire buddy movie. They’ve been friends for over three decades, play golf and bridge together, and co-founded The Giving Pledge, in which wealthy people commit to giving most of their wealth to charity. Although he’s in his 90s, the investor known as “the Oracle of Omaha” is still CEO and chair of the multinational conglomerate holding company Berkshire Hathaway. But even with more than $100 billion to his name, he can still teach the rest of us a few things about living frugally.
4. Larry Ellison
Net worth of this person in 2023 according to Forbes: $107 billion
Primary source of this person’s wealth: Oracle
What’s the ultimate indulgent purchase for a billionaire? Sure, cars and mansions are nice, but how about buying your own tropical island? Larry Ellison, former CEO of Oracle Corporation, a multinational computer technology company, must think so. He owns 97% of Lanai, the sixth-largest of the Hawaiian islands.
3. Jeff Bezos
Net worth of this person in 2023 according to Forbes: $114 billion
Primary source of this person’s wealth: Amazon
Jeff Bezos, founder of e-commerce giant Amazon, originally called the company “Cadabra,” taking the name from the magical word “Abracadabra.” But when his lawyer told him that company name was too obscure, he changed it to Amazon, after the world’s largest river. (Also, some people were reportedly confusing “Cadabra” with “cadaver,” meaning a dead body.) Bezos founded spaceflight company Blue Origin, and also owns The Washington Post newspaper.
2. Elon Musk
Net worth of this person in 2023 according to Forbes: $180 billion
Primary source of this person’s wealth: Tesla, SpaceX
Elon Musk has been making headlines lately for the changes he’s brought to the social media company formerly called Twitter, which he bought in 2022 for $44 billion and renamed “X.” But before he began messing around with blue checkmarks, Musk was well-known as the founder and CEO of SpaceX, CEO of electric car company Tesla and other business ventures.
1. Bernard Arnault and family
Net worth of this person in 2023 according to Forbes: $211 billion
Primary source of this person’s wealth: LVMH
If luxury goods are your indulgence, you’ve probably slipped a few dollars into the pockets of French billionaire Bernard Arnault and his family. Arnault may not have as well-known a name as Elon Musk or Bill Gates, but he tops the Forbes list of richest people in the world thanks to his work as founder of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, often just known as LVMH. The company controls subsidiaries that manage 75 high-end brands, including jeweler Tiffany & Co., designer Christian Dior, watchmaker TAG Heuer, Princess Yachts and more.
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