Forbes Real Time Billionaires [12th January]

The World's Billionaires List or Real-Time Billionaires List is an annual ranking of the world's wealthiest billionaires based on their recorded net worth. It is produced and published by Forbes magazine every March. The inaugural edition of the list was released in March 1987.

Based on their reported assets and accounting for debt and other considerations, the net total worth of each person on the list is approximated and given in US dollars. These rankings do not include royalty or dictators whose wealth is derived from their status.

Top 10 Billionaires [January 12, 2024]

Profile of Top Billionaires in the World [January 2024]

If you are curious about the lives of real-time billionaires in the World, read the information we have provided below. Here, check out the Top 10 Billionaires in the World, their net income, lifestyle, and more.

Elon Musk

He ranks 1st in the list of Forbes real-time billionaires. Elon Musk co-founded companies like SpaceX (rocket producer), Tesla (electric car maker), and Boring Company (tunneling startup).

• He owns about 25% of Tesla stock and options.
• SpaceX, a rocket producer company, founded in 2002, is worth $125 billion; it quadrupled its worth in three years.
• Boring Company raised $675 million in April 2022.
• Elon comes at the first position in the real-time billionaires list (2022) and a second position in the real-time billionaires Forbes 400 list (2021).

Personal Details:

Bernard Arnault & family

The one who stands 2nd in the Forbes real-time billionaires list is Bernard Arnault & family. He overlooks LVMH's empire of 70 cosmetics and fashion brands, including Sephora and Louis Vuitton.

• In 2021, LVMH took control over the biggest luxury brand, American jeweller Tiffany & Co, for $15.8 billion, which was a huge brand acquisition ever.
• LVMH paid $3.2 billion for Belmond, a luxury hospitality group, in 2019. It handles 46 hotels, river cruises, and trains.
• Arnault's father was able to constitute small capital in construction, and Arnault took $15 million from his business to purchase Christian Dior in 1985.

Personal Details:

Jeff Bezos

Jeff comes third on the real-time billionaires' list and is popularly known as the CEO of the e-commerce website Amazon. He founded the site in 1994 out of his garage in Seattle. He stepped down to become executive chairman in July 2021.

• Bezos sold $8.8 billion of stock in 2021; he owns even less than 10% of Amazon's shares.
• After divorce, he transferred a 16% share of Amazon to his wife in 2019.
• Bezos owns an aerospace company named The Washington Post and Blue Origin, designing rockets and fled to space in July 2021.
• During the coronavirus pandemic, his e-commerce platform, Amazon, faced complaints about how it treated its storehouse workers.
• Though Jeff ranks second in the list of real-time billionaires (2022), he has occupied the first position in the Forbes 400 real-time billionaires list (2021).

Personal Details:

Gautam Adani & family

The 22nd real-time billionaire in India is Gautam Adani, who controls the largest Mundra Port in Gujarat, India. He is known to be an infrastructure tycoon whose $13 billion revenue is spent on power generation, commodities, real estate and transmission.

• In September 2020, Adani received a 74% share in India's second-busiest International Airport, Mumbai.
• Adani stands as India's biggest operator of the airport.
• His future aim is to become the World's largest producer of green energy, and he wishes to donate upto $70 billion to energy-related projects.
• He won the race to attain Swiss giant Holcim's cement business in India for $10.5 billion in May 2022.

Personal Details:

Bill Gates

Bill has grabbed the 9th position on the real-time billionaire's list. He started gaining wealth from the renowned software firm Microsoft and invested diversely in zero-carbon energy.

• He, along with his ex-wife, co-owns the charitable Gates Foundation. Gate has transferred at least $5.7 billion of public company shares to his ex-wife Melinda.
• Bill co-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975 and owns only 1% of the software company's shares as of March 2020.
• Gates is the largest owner of farmland in the United States and invested in various companies like Canadian National Railway and AutoNation.
• He has been donating $57 billion to the Gates Foundation, including a gift worth $20 billion announced in July 2022.
• Bill occupies the fourth rank in the real-time billionaires' list (2022) and Forbes 400 billionaires list (2021).

Personal Details:

Larry Ellison

Larry Ellison backs the 4th position in the real-time billionaire's list. He owns 35% of software giant Oracle and is its chief technology officer, chairman, and cofounder.

• He left the CEO role at Oracle in 2014.
• Oracle is known for software companies' acquisitions; the famous one was $9.3 billion for NetSuite in 2016.
• Ellison shifted permanently to the Hawaiian island Lanai and bought it for $300 million.
• Larry purchased 3 million Tesla shares and joined its board in December 2018.

Personal Details:

Warren Buffett

Warren is referred to as the "Oracle of Omaha," and one of the most prosperous investors. Buffett runs Berkshire Hathaway, which owns 60 companies or more, including Dairy Queen (restaurant chain), Geico (insurer), and Duracell (battery maker).

• Warren bought a stock at 11 and started filing taxes at 13; he is a U.S. congressman's son.
• He aimed to contribute 99% of his wealth. He has donated more than $45 billion to his kids and Gates Foundation.
• Warren and Bill Gates established the Giving Pledge, requesting the World's billionaires to donate at least half of their funds to charitable organizations in 2010.

Personal Details:

Mukesh Ambani

Mukesh Ambani heads Reliance Industries, which has stakes in telecom, petrochemicals, retail, oil and gas with $74 billion (revenue). Reliance was established by his late father, Dhirubhai Ambani, a yarn trader, in 1966.

• In 2022, after his father's death, Ambani and his sibling Anil divided the family empire.
• Reliance flashed a telecom price war with the launch of the 4G phone and broadband service Jio in 2016. Today, Facebook and Google invested in Jio.
• Ambani is shifting its Reliance on green energy. The company has aimed to invest $80 billion in renewable energy in the coming 10-15 years.
• Ambani became India's Richest man in 2021.

Personal Details:

Steve Ballmer

The 10th real-time billionaire in the World is Steve Ballmer. He led Microsoft company from 2000 to 2014 as a former CEO. He entered Microsoft in 1980 after dropping out of Stanford's MBA program.

• He purchased the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion in the same year he retired from Microsoft.
• He has boosted his humanitarianism since 2014 and invested $2 billion into a donor-advised fund. His main goal was to raise Americans out of poverty.
• In 2018, Steve donated $59 million to a company that makes software for government and nonprofit agencies called Social Solutions.
• He has ranked ninth on the real-time billionaires' list (2022) and Forbes 400 real-time billionaires (2021).

Personal Details:

Michael Bloomberg

The 11th person on the Forbes real-time billionaires list is Michael Bloomberg. He cofounded financial details and media company Bloomberg LP in 1981. He currently owns 88% of the business, with revenues north of $10 billion.

• A major philanthropist or supporter, he has donated more than $12.7 billion to climate change, gun control, and other causes.
• He announced a presidential run in November 2019 and paid hundreds of millions to overpower Donald Trump in 2020.
• Bloomberg is one of the four people to serve as the mayor of New York City for 12 years.

Personal Details:

How are the Rankings Determined?

Each year, Forbes hires a team of more than 50 correspondents from worldwide to follow the activities of the world's richest individuals and organizations or families who share the fortune.

Those who may be eligible for the list are issued preliminary questionnaires. After that, business transactions are investigated, and valuations of valuable assets – land, residences, vehicles, artwork, and so on – are made. Interviews are conducted to verify the data and determine the estimation of a person's assets. Finally, about a month before publication, holdings in a publicly-listed company are priced to market.

The current price-to-sales and perhaps price-to-earnings ratios are used to price privately-held enterprises. Existing debts are deducted from assets to determine the evaluation results of an individual's projected value in US dollars. Due to the quick fluctuation of stock prices, an individual's genuine fortune and rank at the time of publishing may differ from their condition at the time the list was prepared.

Only if the holdings of multiple relatives are valued at over a billion dollars are they included in the family fortune. However, if a living person has distributed their fortune to immediate relatives, it is combined into a single listing as long as the person is still alive. Royals and dictators whose wealth is linked to their position are always excluded.

Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List

On Forbes' 35th annual ranking of the world's wealthiest people, the number of billionaires rose to an all-time high of 2,755, up 660 from a year earlier. A record of 493 people was added to the list for the first time, roughly one every 17 hours, including 210 from China and Hong Kong. Another 250 people who had previously fallen off returned with a vengeance. A whopping 86 percent are now wealthier than they were a year ago.

Elon Musk rose to second place with a net worth of $181.4 billion, while Bernard Arnault's family rose to first place with $210.7 billion. Jeff Bezos shifted to the third position with a net worth of $117.1 billion. Larry Ellison continued in the fourth position with $112.4 billion.

Bloomberg Real-Time Billionaires

The Bloomberg Real-Time Billionaires uses the Billionaires Index to calculate the daily ranking of the world’s most prosperous people. The main difference between Forbes real-time billionaires and Bloomberg real-time billionaires is that Forbes calculates the billionaires ranking every year, whereas Bloomberg calculates the billionaire's position daily.

Billionaires Index is a dynamic measure of individual wealth based on evolutions in markets, the economy, and Bloomberg reporting. Each net worth figure is revised every business day after the close of trading in New York.

FAQs on Real-Time Billionaires

Who publishes the Real-Time Billionaires List?

Forbes magazine launches the World's, Billionaires List. The Real-Time Billionaires list depicts the annual ranking of the world’s richest billionaires depending on their calculated net worth. The Billionaires List is created and issued by Forbes magazine. The inaugural edition of the Real-Time Billionaires List was performed in March 1987.

When are the Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires rankings published?

The Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires rankings are published every year in March. The list includes top billionaires of the world based on their net income.

When was the inaugural edition of the list released?

The Forbes real-time billionaires list showcases an annual hierarchy of the wealthiest billionaires in the world. An American business magazine released this yearly ranking of the world's real-time billionaires in March 1987.

Who is the No.1 Rich Man in the World?

Elon Musk is the no.1 rich man in the world, with a net worth of $244.3 billion. He surpassed Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, who was in the number one position in 2021. He is ranked in the first position on Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires List and the Bloomberg real-time billionaires list, though his net worth is observed to have been fluctuating. Elon Musk is the founder of The Boring Company and SpaceX. Additionally, he co-founded the brain technology company PayPal and Neuralink.

Name the Top 3 Richest People in the World in 2023?

The Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault family, and Jeff Bezos are the Top 3 Richest People in the World in 2023. The other richest person in the world in 2023 is - Gautam Adani & family, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Warren Buffett, and Mukesh Ambani.