Meet the 17 people in the $100 billion club — who are jointly worth more than Amazon or Google
2024.10.23
Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault, and Bill Gates are all worth more than $100 billion club.Mandel Ngan, Britta Pedersen, Nicholas Kamm/Getty Images; Elaine Thompson/AP
The elite group worth more than $100 billion includes Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates.
The 17 members have grown about $500 billion richer this year and are jointly worth $2.5 trillion.
Walmart heirs Jim, Rob, and Alice Walton joined the club for the first time in September.
Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg are among the handful of people on the planet with a net worth above $100 billion.
Members of this elite group have amassed 12-digit fortunes by owning huge amounts of stock in some of the world's most valuable companies. Most are founders and either current or former CEOs, and some, such as Warren Buffett, would be much richer if they didn't give billions to charity.
There may be only 17 centibillionaires, but their combined wealth is around $2.5 trillion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. They're worth more than Amazon or Google-parent Alphabet, which command market values of around $2 trillion each.
All but one of them have grown richer this year, adding a net $504 billion to their collective fortunes. Oracle ($481 billion), Mastercard ($476 billion), and Home Depot ($404 billion) are all worth less than that.
Walmart heirs Jim, Rob, and Alice Walton joined the exclusive group in September, thanks to their net worths surging by over $30 billion this year.
Here's the list of individuals worth at least $100 billion, showing Bloomberg's estimate of their net worth at the time of publication, how much it's changed this calendar year, and the source of their wealth.
All figures are correct as of October 21, 2024.
1. Elon Musk
REUTERS/Danny Moloshok
Net worth: $241 billion
YTD change in wealth: +$11.5 billion
Source of wealth: Tesla and SpaceX stock
Elon Musk is the CEO of the electric-vehicle maker Tesla and the spacecraft manufacturer SpaceX. He's also the owner of X, the social network formerly known as Twitter.
His other businesses include The Boring Company, Neuralink, and xAI.
2. Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos.Amy Harris/Invision/AP
Net worth: $212 billion
YTD change in wealth: +$35 billion
Source of wealth: Amazon stock
Jeff Bezos is the founder, executive chairman, and former CEO of Amazon, the e-commerce and cloud-computing giant.
He also founded the space company Blue Origin and owns The Washington Post.
3. Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg.Getty
Net worth: $204 billion
YTD change in wealth: +$75.6 billion
Source of wealth: Meta stock
Mark Zuckerberg is the cofounder, chairman, and CEO of Meta Platforms, the social-media titan behind Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads.
Meta's Reality Labs division makes virtual-reality and augmented-reality headsets and experiences.
4. Larry Ellison
Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Net worth: $184 billion
YTD change in wealth: +$61.2 billion
Source of wealth: Oracle and Tesla stock
Larry Ellison is the cofounder, chief technology officer, and former CEO of Oracle, an enterprise software company specializing in cloud computing and database platforms.
He invested in Tesla prior to joining the automaker's board in 2018 and made more than 10 times his money on paper by the time his term as a director ended in August 2022.
5. Bernard Arnault
Reuters
Net worth: $177 billion
YTD change in wealth: -$30.6 billion
Source of wealth: LVMH stock
Bernard Arnault is the founder, chairman, and CEO of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. His conglomerate owns a bevy of luxury brands, including Dior, Fendi, Dom Pérignon, Sephora, and Tiffany & Co.
6. Bill Gates
John Lamparski/Getty Images
Net worth: $162 billion
YTD change in wealth: +$20.9 billion
Source of wealth: Microsoft stock
Bill Gates is the cofounder and former CEO of Microsoft, which makes the Office application suite, the cloud-computing platform Microsoft Azure, and Xbox consoles.
He's renowned for his philanthropic work at the helm of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the world's largest charitable entities.
7. Larry Page
Seth Wenig/AP
Net worth: $149 billion
YTD change in wealth: +$22.5 billion
Source of wealth: Alphabet stock
Larry Page cofounded Google with his Stanford University classmate Sergey Brin in a friend's garage in 1998 and served as CEO until 2001.
He took the reins again between 2011 and 2015 after Google was restructured as a subsidiary of Alphabet alongside other businesses such as YouTube and Waymo.
8. Warren Buffett
Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO Warren Buffett enjoys an ice cream treat from Dairy Queen before the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.Reuters/Rick Wilking
Net worth: $147 billion
YTD change in wealth: +$27 billion
Source of wealth: Berkshire Hathaway stock
Warren Buffett acquired Berkshire Hathaway when it was a failing textile mill in 1965 and has since grown it into one of the world's largest companies. His nearly 15% stake is worth around $145 billion.
The famed investor's conglomerate owns scores of businesses, including GEICO, See's Candies, and BNSF Railway, and holds multibillion-dollar stakes in public companies such as Apple and Coca-Cola.
Buffett has gifted around half of his Berkshire shares to the Gates Foundation and four family foundations since 2006. All else being equal, if he'd retained all his stock he would be the world's wealthiest person with a net worth over $300 billion.
9. Steve Ballmer
Microsoft CEO Steve BallmerREUTERS/Lee Jae-Won
Net worth: $146 billion
YTD change in wealth: +$14.7 billion
Source of wealth: Microsoft stock
Steve Ballmer served as Microsoft's CEO between 2000 and 2014. He joined the company in 1980 as Bill Gates' assistant, initially negotiating a profit share which he later swapped for an equity stake when it became excessively large.
Ballmer retired as CEO in 2014 with a 4% stake — a position now worth more than $120 billion. He promptly bought the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion and remains the basketball team's owner.
10. Sergey Brin
REUTERS/Ruben Sprich
Net worth: $140 billion
YTD change in wealth: +$20.4 billion
Source of wealth: Alphabet stock
Sergey Brin cofounded Google with Page in 1998 and served as the search-and-advertising titan's first president.
He and Page stepped down from their respective roles as Alphabet's president and CEO in 2019.
11. Jensen Huang
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.Mohd Rasfan/AFP/Getty Images
Net worth: $125 billion
YTD change in wealth: +$81.5 billion
Source of wealth: Nvidia stock
Jensen Huang cofounded Nvidia in 1993, but the microchip maker has become a market darling within the past two years as its semiconductors have proven pivotal to developing artificial intelligence.
Nvidia's stock price has skyrocketed from under $15 at the end of 2022 to over $140, valuing the business at about $3.5 trillion and making Huang one of the richest people in the world.
12. Michael Dell
John Locher/AP
Net worth: $116 billion
YTD change in wealth: +$37.5 billion
Source of wealth: Dell stock
Michael Dell is the founder, chairman, and CEO of the eponymous computer maker. Dell stock has ballooned from below $40 in March last year to north of $120, valuing the company at around $90 billion, as investors wager it will be a key beneficiary from the AI boom.
Dell owns about 46% of his company, and pocketed well over $10 billion from the sale of Dell-backed VMware to Broadcom last year.
13. Amancio Ortega
how-rich.org
Net worth: $115 billion
YTD change in wealth: +$28 billion
Source of wealth: Inditex stock
Amancio Ortega is the founder and former chairman of Inditex, a fashion retail group home to brands such as Zara, Bershka, and Massimo Dutti.
The billionaire philanthropist and real-estate investor stopped running Inditex in 2011. His daughter Marta Ortega Pérez was appointed chair at the end of 2021.
14. Mukesh Ambani
REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
Net worth: $104 billion
YTD change in wealth: +$7.25 billion
Source of wealth: Reliance Industries stock
Mukesh Ambani is the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries and Asia's richest person.
His father, Dhirubhai Ambani, founded Reliance and trusted Mukesh to grow the conglomerate's petrochemicals business and expand into new areas such as telecommunications.
Jim Walton is the youngest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton, who gave each of his four children a 20% stake in the budding retail business over 70 years ago. Jim and his two surviving siblings, Rob and Alice, each still own over 11% of the company.
