Despite the pandemic, it was a record-setting year for the world’s wealthiest—with a $5 trillion surge in wealth and an unprecedented number of new billionaires.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



It’s been a year like no other, and we aren’t talking about the pandemic. There were rapid-fire public offerings, surging cryptocurrencies and skyrocketing stock prices. The number of billionaires on&nbsp;Forbes’&nbsp;35th annual list of the world’s wealthiest exploded to an unprecedented&nbsp;2,755—660 more than a year ago. Altogether they are worth&nbsp;$13.1 trillion, up from $8 trillion on the 2020 list.&nbsp;



There are a record high&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2021/04/06/nearly-500-people-have-become-billionaires-during-the-pandemic-year/?sh=386c528125c0">493 newcomers</a>&nbsp;to the list—roughly one new billionaire every 17 hours, including 210 from China and Hong Kong and 98 from the U.S. The richest newcomer, at $38.2 billion, is&nbsp;Miriam Adelson&nbsp;of Nevada, who inherited her husband Sheldon Adelson’s casino empire following his death in January. Other notable new entrants include movie and TV producer&nbsp;Tyler Perry, Bumble dating app cofounder&nbsp;Whitney Wolfe Herd—the world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire, and Europe’s&nbsp;Guillaume Pousaz, founder of payments firm Checkout.com. Another 250 people who’d fallen off the billionaires’ list in the past came roaring back. Altogether, a staggering 86% of all billionaires are richer than a year ago.https://embedly.forbes.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fe.infogram.com%2F203c82a4-0962-4ff3-b2f9-883366e688b1%3Fsrc%3Dembed&amp;display_name=Infogram&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Finfogram.com%2Fdesktop-2021-billionaires-recirc-1ho16vojl5w8x4n&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Finfogram-thumbs-1024.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com%2Fd1c81d9b-cd07-4ed9-ae1f-456751923c71.jpg&amp;key=3ce26dc7e3454db5820ba084d28b4935&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=infogram



Jeff Bezos&nbsp;is the world’s richest person for the fourth year running, worth $177 billion, up $64 billion from a year ago as a result of surging Amazon shares.&nbsp;Elon Musk—the biggest gainer in dollar terms—rocketed into the No. 2 spot with a $151 billion fortune, a whopping $126.4 billion more than a year ago, when he ranked No. 31 and was worth $24.6 billion. The main reason: a 705% climb in Tesla shares. French luxury goods tycoon&nbsp;Bernard Arnault&nbsp;holds onto his spot at No. 3 but his fortune nearly doubled to $150 billion, from $76 billion, due to an 86% rise in the shares of LVMH, owner of brands including Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior and cosmetics retailer Sephora.&nbsp;The top ten richest are worth $1.15 trillion, up by two-thirds from $686 billion last year. Altogether,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddawkins/2021/04/06/europes-billionaires-are-1-trillion-richer-than-a-year-ago/?sh=623d979f76e5">Europe’s billionaires</a>&nbsp;are $1 trillion richer than a year ago.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<h3 id="h-net-worth-of-the-world-s-richest-person">Net Worth of the World’s Richest Person</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/606b6013b0a2afc5b16302b6/0x0.png?fit=scale" alt="Richest person net worth"/></figure>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



This year there are four people worth $100 billion or more—up from just one (Bezos) on last year’s list. Besides Bezos, Musk and Arnault, there’s&nbsp;Bill Gates, who ranks No. 4 at $124 billion, buoyed by the strength of shares he owns in Microsoft, Canadian National Railway and tractor maker Deere &amp; Company.



Rounding out the top five is Facebook founder&nbsp;Mark Zuckerberg, at $97 billion. He’s worth an eye-popping $42.3 billion more than a year ago; Facebook’s shares have risen 80% in the past year as people around the world used its social media platforms to stay in touch. (For more on the richest tech billionaires, see&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrickcai/2021/04/06/here-are-the-richest-tech-billionaires-in-2021/?sh=691f42bb4d70">here</a>; and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mominakhan/2021/04/06/the-10-richest-american-billionaires-2021/?sh=7e747aa4d981">here</a>&nbsp;for the richest Americans.) The richest woman this year is cosmetics heir Francoise Bettencourt Meyers of France; see here for the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/denizcam/2021/04/06/the-top-richest-women-in-the-world-in-2021/?sh=59cfe7094598">richest women</a>.



Warren Buffett&nbsp;is the world’s sixth richest person, worth $96 billion. It’s the first year since 1993 that the revered investor running Berkshire Hathaway has not appeared in the top five. Not that the 90-year-old Oracle of Omaha had a bad year—he’s still worth $28.5 billion more than he was on the 2020 list.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<h3 id="h-number-of-billionaires-worldwide-and-combined-net-worth">Number of Billionaires Worldwide and Combined Net Worth</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/606b5e244876c7b64f423816/0x0.png?fit=scale" alt="Number of Billionaires and combined net worth"/><figcaption>Forbs.com</figcaption></figure>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



The&nbsp;U.S.&nbsp;still has more billionaires than any other country, with 724 (up from 614 last year), but China is closing the gap with 698 (including 71 from&nbsp;Hong Kong&nbsp;and 1 from&nbsp;Macao). Last year the U.S. had 614 billionaires and China had 456 (including 66 from Hong Kong and 1 Macao).&nbsp;India&nbsp;has the third highest number of billionaires, with 140. Altogether, the 1,149 billionaires from Asia-Pacific countries are worth $4.7 trillion, while the U.S. billionaires are worth a total $4.4 trillion.&nbsp; (For more on the countries with the most billionaires, see&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomotognini/2021/04/06/the-countries-with-the-most-billionaires-2021/?sh=42c017c0379b">here</a>. Plus&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenniferwang/2021/04/06/the-10-richest-chinese-billionaires-in-2021/?sh=7e5164685ca2">China’s richest</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenniferwang/2021/04/06/asia-ascendant-the-richest-new-chinese-billionaires-in-2021/?sh=3361ff131a1a">China’s newcomers</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/naazneenkarmali/2021/04/06/indias-10-richest-billionaires-2021/?sh=2922cf8359b7">India’s richest</a>.)&nbsp;



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<h3 id="h-the-countries-with-the-most-billionaires">The Countries With The Most Billionaires</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/606b7cca1391bb569e6302b6/0x0.png?fit=scale" alt="Countries With The Most Billionaires"/><figcaption>Forbes.com</figcaption></figure>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



A record 1,975 billionaires are self-made, up from 1,457 last year. That equates to 72% of the list (vs. about 70% in 2020). It’s a marked change from the 2001 list of billionaires, when 49% of the total 565 billionaires were self-made.&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;uses the term “self-made” as a contrast to “inherited” and “inherited &amp; growing;” it’s not meant to indicate that someone created a billion-dollar fortune all on their own. To achieve such a feat takes teamwork.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<h3 id="h-total-number-of-billionaires-and-self-made-status">Total Number of Billionaires and Self-Made Status</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/606c413115a36070b1428bf7/0x0.png?fit=scale" alt="Self-Made Status"/><figcaption>Forbes .com</figcaption></figure>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



One hundred and five of the list members are under 40, two-thirds of whom are self-made. The new youngest self-made billionaire is 26-year-old American&nbsp;Austin Russell,&nbsp;who dropped out of Stanford to found automotive sensor firm Luminar Technologies; he is worth $2.4 billion and ranked No. 1299. There’s a new youngest billionaire as well: 18-year-old&nbsp;Kevin David Lehmann&nbsp;of Germany, whose father Guenther Lehmann transferred his stake in drugstore chain dm-drogerie mkt to him; he’s worth $3.3 billion and ranks No. 925. (Read more about the youngest billionaires&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielshapiro/2021/04/06/the-worlds-youngest-billionaires-2021-include-a-teenager-from-germany-a-crytpo-magnate-and-a-stanford-dropout/?sh=5e87182a509d">here</a>.). At the other end of the spectrum,&nbsp;the oldest billionaire, at age 99, is U.S. insurance tycoon&nbsp;George Joseph.&nbsp;



Mukesh Ambani&nbsp;of India has become the richest person in Asia, ranked No. 10 and worth an estimated $84.5 billion. He nudges out&nbsp;Jack Ma&nbsp;of China, Asia’s richest person a year ago, whose rank dropped to No. 26 (from No. 17 last year) despite a nearly $10 billion jump in his fortune to $48.4 billion. The biggest gainer in percentage terms this year is from China:&nbsp;Zhong Shanshan&nbsp;took his bottled water company Nongfu Spring public last fall on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and shares soared, lifting his net worth to $68.9 billion, up 3,345% from $2 billion a year ago.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<h3 id="h-total-new-billionaires-and-combined-net-worth">Total New Billionaires and Combined Net Worth</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/606b5ea2affa9dd12fb89021/0x0.png?fit=scale" alt="Total Newcomers over the years"/><figcaption>Forbes.com</figcaption></figure>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<h2>#1 | Jeff Bezos</h2>



<h4>NET WORTH:&nbsp;$177 BILLION</h4>



<h4>SOURCE OF WEALTH:&nbsp;AMAZON</h4>



<h4>RESIDENCE: SEATTLE</h4>



<h2>#2 | Elon Musk</h2>



<h4>NET WORTH:&nbsp;$151 BILLION</h4>



<h4>SOURCE OF WEALTH:&nbsp;TESLA, SPACEX</h4>



<h4>RESIDENCE: AUSTIN, TEXAS</h4>



<h2>#3 | Bernard Arnault</h2>



<h4>NET WORTH:&nbsp;$150 BILLION</h4>



<h4>SOURCE OF WEALTH:&nbsp;LUXURY GOODS</h4>



<h4>RESIDENCE:&nbsp;PARIS</h4>



<h2>#4 | Bill Gates</h2>



<h4>NET WORTH:&nbsp;$124 BILLION</h4>



<h4>SOURCE OF WEALTH:&nbsp;MICROSOFT</h4>



<h4>RESIDENCE:&nbsp;MEDINA, WASHINGTON</h4>



<h2>#5 | Mark Zuckerberg</h2>



<h4>NET WORTH:&nbsp;$97 BILLION</h4>



<h4>SOURCE OF WEALTH:&nbsp;FACEBOOK</h4>



<h4>RESIDENCE:&nbsp;PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA</h4>



<h2>#6 | Warren Buffett</h2>



<h4>NET WORTH:&nbsp;$96 BILLION</h4>



<h4>SOURCE OF WEALTH:&nbsp;BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY</h4>



<h4>RESIDENCE:&nbsp;OMAHA, NEBRASKA</h4>



<h2>#7 | Larry Ellison</h2>



<h4>NET WORTH:&nbsp;$93 BILLION</h4>



<h4>SOURCE OF WEALTH:&nbsp;SOFTWARE</h4>



<h4>RESIDENCE:&nbsp;LANAI, HAWAII</h4>



<h2>#8 | Larry Page</h2>



<h4>NET WORTH:&nbsp;$91.5 BILLION</h4>



<h4>SOURCE OF WEALTH:&nbsp;GOOGLE</h4>



<h4>RESIDENCE:&nbsp;PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA</h4>



<h2>#9 | Sergey Brin</h2>



<h4>NET WORTH:&nbsp;$89 BILLION</h4>



<h4>SOURCE OF WEALTH:&nbsp;GOOGLE</h4>



<h4>RESIDENCE:&nbsp;LOS ALTOS, CALIFORNIA</h4>



<h2>#10 | Mukesh Ambani</h2>



<h4>NET WORTH:&nbsp;$84.5 BILLION</h4>



<h4>SOURCE OF WEALTH:&nbsp;DIVERSIFIED</h4>



<h4>RESIDENCE:&nbsp;MUMBAI, INDIA</h4>



By Kerry A. Dolan, Forbes Staff

Billionaire Elon Musk Receives Axel Springer Award

Forbes’ 35th Annual World’s Billionaires List: Facts And Figures 2021

Despite seeing his net worth skyrocket in recent months—and a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-06/musk-close-to-surpassing-bezos-as-world-s-richest-person#:~:text=Elon%20Musk%2C%20the%20outspoken%20entrepreneur,the%20world's%20500%20wealthiest%20people." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>&nbsp;from Bloomberg on Wednesday that he’s now the world’s richest person—<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/?list=rtb/">Elon Musk</a>&nbsp;remains the second-richest person in the world, according to&nbsp;Forbes’ estimates.



Shares of Musk’s electric-vehicle maker Tesla&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/tesla" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">TSLA</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/tesla">+6.9%</a>&nbsp;rose by 7% as of 2:30 p.m. EST on Thursday, pushing Musk’s net worth up by $9.8 billion, to $175.2 billion. That makes him $22 billion richer than the planet’s third-wealthiest person, French luxury tycoon&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/bernard-arnault/?list=rtb/">Bernard Arnault</a>, but still $11 billion behind the world’s number one, Amazon&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/amazon" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AMZN</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/amazon">+1.8%</a>&nbsp;CEO&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/jeff-bezos/?list=rtb/">Jeff Bezos</a>.&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;estimates that Bezos has a net worth of $186.8 billion.



Musk’s net worth has grown at an astronomical clip over the past year. He has added nearly $150 billion to his fortune since March 2020, when he was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/">worth $24.6 billion</a>. Much of that increase comes from Tesla’s skyrocketing share price, which rose more than 720% in 2020. It has gained another 10% so far over the first week of 2021.&nbsp;



As Tesla’s stock soared ahead of its inclusion in the S&amp;P 500 Index on December 21, Musk surpassed Facebook&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/facebook" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">FB</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/facebook">+1.9%</a>&nbsp;CEO&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/mark-zuckerberg/?list=rtb/">Mark Zuckerberg</a>&nbsp;(who is worth $98.2 billion today) to become the world’s fourth-richest person in early November, then leapfrogged Microsoft&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/microsoft" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MSFT</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/microsoft">+3%</a>&nbsp;cofounder&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/bill-gates/?list=rtb/">Bill Gates</a>&nbsp;(worth $121.9 billion today) for the number three spot.



Musk owns around 21% of Tesla’s shares, plus a stake in private rocket company SpaceX. Tesla stock still sits at record highs, now trading for over $800 per share. The company’s $765 billion market cap makes it by far the most valuable car company in the world.



-By Sergei Klebnikov, Forbes Staff

No, Elon Musk Is Not The Richest Person In The World—Yet

THE CHANGING FORTUNES OF THE WORLD’S RICHEST



The super rich are a whole lot richer than they were two months ago. Twenty five of the wealthiest people on Forbes’ list of the world’s billionaires are worth a whopping $255 billion more than when the U.S. stock market hit a mid-pandemic low on March 23. 



Together these 25 folks–Forbes&nbsp;looked at just those on the list with fortunes tied to public stocks–are worth nearly $1.5 trillion, which is about 16% of the total wealth held by the world&#8217;s billionaires.



Facebook CEO <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/mark-zuckerberg/">Mark Zuckerberg</a> is the biggest dollar gainer among this rarified group. Facebook shares surged nearly 60% over the past two months, hitting a record high on Friday May 22.  Investors responded positively to the Wednesday debut of Shops, Facebook&#8217;s effort to host digital storefronts for small business owners. Zuckerberg, now worth $86.5 billion, has become the fourth-richest person in the world, up from the No. 7 richest on Forbes’ 2020 list of the World’s Billionaires, published in early April. The 36-year-old is now richer than <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/warren-buffett/">Warren Buffett</a>, Inditex founder <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/amancio-ortega/">Amancio Ortega</a> and Oracle cofounder <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/larry-ellison/">Larry Ellison</a>.



The second-largest gainer in dollar terms is also the world&#8217;s richest man, Amazon founder and CEO&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/jeff-bezos/?listuri=rtb">Jeff Bezos</a>. Shares of the ecommerce giant have continued on a tear amid increased demand since coronavirus shuttered physical retailers. Amazon stock is up 29% since March 23. As of the end of the day Friday, Bezos was worth $146.9 billion, up $30 billion and 26% since March 23.&nbsp;



The biggest percentage gainer is <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/colin-zheng-huang/">Colin Zheng Huang</a>, the founder of China&#8217;s second largest online marketplace (behind Alibaba), Pinduoduo. Boosted by the firm&#8217;s social shopping model, in which users share purchases with friends and family, and an aggressive campaign offering subsidized deals to consumers, Pinduoduo&#8217;s shares have nearly doubled since March 23, and Huang, its 40-year-old founder and CEO, has added $17.9 billion to his fortune; he&#8217;s now <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenniferwang/2020/05/22/china-has-a-new-third-richest-man-and-hes-only-40-years-old/#70a53212739f">China&#8217;s third-richest person</a>, worth $35.6 billion.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="594" height="396" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/gettyimages-674197340-594x594-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-45538" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/gettyimages-674197340-594x594-1.jpg 594w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/gettyimages-674197340-594x594-1-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px" /><figcaption>Colin Huang, chief executive officer and founder of Pinduoduo, poses for a photograph at the company&#8217;s office in Shanghai, China, on Friday, Feb. 24, 2017. Pinduoduo, or PDD, is a kind of Facebook-Groupon mashup that Huang believes could revolutionize e-commerce. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



Another notable gainer: <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/mukesh-ambani/">Mukesh Ambani</a>, who became Asia&#8217;s richest person in April after Facebook announced a $5.7 billion investment into Mumbai-based Reliance Jio, a telecom subsidiary of the sprawling conglomerate founded by Ambani&#8217;s late father. The company has since raised loads more, including $1.5 billion from private equity giant KKR on Friday and $750 million from investment firm Silver Lake earlier this month. All told, the firm has raked in $10 billion of fresh capital in less than one month. Ambani is now worth $52.7 billion, up nearly $20 billion since the market trough. 



Billionaires with net worths tied to stakes in technology companies have led the way for gains amid the pandemic. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index turned positive for the year earlier this month, and it&#8217;s up 37% since March 23. The S&amp;P 500 and Dow Jones, meanwhile, are up about 31% each–still down roughly 10% and 15% for the year, respectively. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="594" height="367" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/gettyimages-965568310-594x594-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-45539" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/gettyimages-965568310-594x594-1.jpg 594w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/gettyimages-965568310-594x594-1-300x185.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px" /><figcaption>FAYETTEVILLE, AR &#8211; JUNE 1: Members of the Walton family (L-R) Rob, Alice and Jim speak during the annual Walmart shareholders meeting event on June 1, 2018 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The shareholders week brings thousands of shareholders and associates from around the world to meet at the company&#8217;s global headquarters. (Photo by Rick T. Wilking/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



Not a single top 25 fortune has fallen since March 23. The fortunes of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/jim-walton/">Jim</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/alice-walton/">Alice</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/rob-walton/">Robert Walton</a>, for example, grew the least percentage-wise, but they&#8217;re still up $3.6 billion each. Walmart shares hit an all-time high in mid-April after the first round of stimulus checks made their way to American bank accounts, and they&#8217;ve managed to stay near their peak. On Tuesday, the firm reported quarterly revenue that surged almost 10% to $134.6 billion, boosted by a 74% increase in online sales. Combined, the three billionaire Walmart heirs are worth close to $165 billion.



The figures stand in stark contrast to those at the other end of the wealth spectrum. In the U.S. total unemployment claims have risen to 39 million since mid-March, affecting about a quarter of the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="http://www.dlt.ri.gov/lmi/laus/us/usadj.htm" target="_blank">U.S. labor force</a>.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<h4>HERE’S HOW MUCH THE WORLD’S 25 RICHEST BILLIONAIRES HAVE GAINED OVER THE PAST TWO MONTHS.</h4>



The net worth change is from Monday, March 23, to Friday, May 22.



1 | JEFF BEZOS



NET WORTH |&nbsp;$146.9 BILLION, UP&nbsp;$29.9 BILLION



COUNTRY |&nbsp;UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | AMAZON



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="594" height="395" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/gettyimages-1171215140-594x594-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-45540" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/gettyimages-1171215140-594x594-1.jpg 594w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/gettyimages-1171215140-594x594-1-300x199.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px" /><figcaption>25 September 2019, US: Jeff Bezos, head of Amazon, can be seen on the fringes of the company&#8217;s novelties event. Photo: Andrej Sokolow/dpa (Photo by Andrej Sokolow/picture alliance via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



2 | BILL GATES



NET WORTH | $106.5 BILLION, UP $11.9 BILLION



COUNTRY | UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | MICROSOFT



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



3 | BERNARD ARNAULT



NET WORTH | $94.1 BILLION, UP $12.8 BILLION



COUNTRY | FRANCE



SOURCE OF WEALTH | LVMH



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



4 | MARK ZUCKERBERG



NET WORTH | $86.5 BILLION, UP $31.4 BILLION



COUNTRY | UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | FACEBOOK



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



5 | WARREN BUFFETT



NET WORTH | $69.2 BILLION, UP $6 BILLION



COUNTRY | UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



6 | LARRY ELLISON



NET WORTH | $66.4 BILLION, UP $10.4 BILLION



COUNTRY | UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | SOFTWARE



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



7 | STEVE BALLMER



NET WORTH | $65.4 BILLION, UP $14 BILLION



COUNTRY | UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | MICROSOFT



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



8 | LARRY PAGE



NET WORTH | $63.6 BILLION, UP $14.2 BILLION



COUNTRY | UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | GOOGLE



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



9 | SERGEY BRIN



NET WORTH | $61.3 BILLION, UP $13.7 BILLION



COUNTRY | UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | GOOGLE



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



10 | AMANCIO ORTEGA



NET WORTH | $60.5 BILLION, UP $5.2 BILLION



COUNTRY | SPAIN



SOURCE OF WEALTH | ZARA



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



11 | JIM WALTON



NET WORTH | $55.2 BILLION, UP $3.6 BILLION



COUNTRY | UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | WALMART



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



12 | ALICE WALTON



NET WORTH | $55 BILLION, UP $3.6 BILLION



COUNTRY | UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | WALMART



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="960" height="641" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/960x0-2.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-45542" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/960x0-2.jpg 960w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/960x0-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/960x0-2-600x401.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/960x0-2-768x513.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" /><figcaption>PHOTOGRAPH BY TIM PANNELL/THE FORBES COLLECTION</figcaption></figure>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



13 | ROB WALTON



NET WORTH | $54.8 BILLION, UP $3.6 BILLION



COUNTRY | UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | WALMART



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



 14 | FRANCOISE BETTENCOURT MEYERS



NET WORTH | $54.2 BILLION, UP $6.4 BILLION



COUNTRY | FRANCE



SOURCE OF WEALTH | L’OREAL



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



15 | MUKESH AMBANI



NET WORTH | $52.7 BILLION, UP $19.9 BILLION



COUNTRY | INDIA



SOURCE OF WEALTH | OIL &amp; GAS, PETROCHEMICALS



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="594" height="434" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/gettyimages-132668970-594x594-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-45543" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/gettyimages-132668970-594x594-1.jpg 594w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/gettyimages-132668970-594x594-1-300x219.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px" /><figcaption>Mukesh D. Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd., attends the World Economic Forum India Economic Summit 2011 in Mumbai, India, on Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011. The annual summit shifted to the country&#8217;s financial capital this year after being held in Delhi for 26 years. Photographer: Adeel Halim/Bloomberg via Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



16 | CARLOS SLIM HELU



NET WORTH | $51.2 BILLION, UP $4.2 BILLION



COUNTRY | MEXICO



SOURCE OF WEALTH | TELECOM



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



17 | MACKENZIE BEZOS



NET WORTH | $47.8 BILLION, UP $10.4 BILLION



COUNTRY | UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | AMAZON



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



18 | MA HUATENG



NET WORTH | $46.4 BILLION, UP $6.8 BILLION



COUNTRY | CHINA



SOURCE OF WEALTH | INTERNET MEDIA



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



19 | JACK MA NET WORTH | $41.3 BILLION, UP $3 BILLION COUNTRY | CHINA SOURCE OF WEALTH | E-COMMERCE



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



20 | PHIL KNIGHT NET WORTH | $37.7 BILLION, UP $9.9 BILLION COUNTRY | UNITED STATES SOURCE OF WEALTH | NIKE



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="594" height="396" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/gettyimages-814600280-594x594-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-45544" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/gettyimages-814600280-594x594-1.jpg 594w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/gettyimages-814600280-594x594-1-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px" /><figcaption>SUN VALLEY, ID &#8211; JULY 14: Phil Knight, co-founder and chairman emeritus of Nike, attends the fourth day of the annual Allen &amp; Company Sun Valley Conference, July 14, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho. Every July, some of the world&#8217;s most wealthy and powerful businesspeople from the media, finance, technology and political spheres converge at the Sun Valley Resort for the exclusive weeklong conference. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



21 | ELON MUSK



NET WORTH | $36.7 BILLION, UP $9.5 BILLION



COUNTRY | UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | TESLA MOTORS, SPACEX



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



22 | COLIN ZHENG HUANG



NET WORTH | $35.6 BILLION, UP $17.9 BILLION



COUNTRY | CHINA



SOURCE OF WEALTH | E-COMMERCE



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



23 | FRANCOIS PINAULT



NET WORTH | $31.8 BILLION, UP $2.1 BILLION



COUNTRY | FRANCE



SOURCE OF WEALTH | LUXURY GOODS



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



24 | SHELDON ADELSON



NET WORTH | $30.7 BILLION, UP $1.4 BILLION



COUNTRY | UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | CASINOS



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



25 | MICHAEL DELL



NET WORTH | $28.3 BILLION, UP $3.5 BILLION



COUNTRY | UNITED STATES



SOURCE OF WEALTH | DELL COMPUTERS



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/">Jonathan Ponciano</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/worlds-billionaires">Billionaires</a>

1920×0

The World’s 25 Richest Billionaires Have Gained Nearly $255 Billion In Just Two Months

People with ten-digit fortunes can live pretty much anywhere they want. As it turns out, many like the same spots.



Of the 2,153 members of the 2019 Forbes World’s Billionaires List, 551 live in just 10 of the world’s 1,860 cities. Billionaires living in this relative handful of locations possess a collective $2.3 trillion of wealth, exceeding the GDP of all but seven nations on earth.



New York City again tops the list with 84 billionaires, whose combined net worth of $469.7 billion is greater than the GDP of Austria. The biggest city in the U.S. and home of the world’s two biggest stock exchanges, New York has housed the most billionaires for five years running. 



The streak started in 2015 when it beat out Moscow, which has ranked as No. 3 since 2016. The Russian capital had 85 billionaires in 2014, 14 more than today.



China has the most cities in the top 10, with 145 of the nation’s billionaires living in just three places: No. 4 Beijing, No. 6 Shanghai and No. 8 Shenzhen. While all three Chinese cities have fewer billionaires than last year, they still account for 45% of the country’s list members. 



That percentage may stand to grow even larger as China sprints toward further urbanization; the nation’s city-dwelling population has increased from 48% to 59% since 2009, per Chinese census data.



The same 10 sites were also the most popular on last year’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/luisakroll/2018/03/06/forbes-billionaires-2018-meet-the-richest-people-on-the-planet/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">World’s Billionaires list</a>, albeit with slightly shuffled rankings. San Francisco saw the biggest year-over-year jump, moving up from No. 10 to No. 7 and adding eight billionaires, including Coinbase cofounder&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/brian-armstrong/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Brian Armstrong</a>&nbsp;and Levi Strauss heiress&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/mimi-haas/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mimi Haas</a>.



Mumbai is the biggest loser, dropping from No. 7 to No. 10 with a net loss of eight billionaires. Nine fell off the list, including pharma bigwigs Samprada Singh and Basudeo Singh of Alkem Laboratories, whose stock price fell some 20%. Only one new billionaire emerged in India’s most populous city: paint company heir&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/mahendra-choksi/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mahendra Choksi</a>.



Here are 10 cities with the most billionaires from No. 10 to No. 1:



<h4>10. Mumbai, 37 billionaires (-8 since 2018)</h4>



Total net worth:&nbsp;$184.4 billion



Richest resident:&nbsp;Oil and gas heir&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/mukesh-ambani/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mukesh Ambani</a>, $50 billion



Mumbai is home to what is likely the most expensive residence on earth: Ambani’s $1 billion&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/naazneenkarmali/2018/03/07/mukesh-ambanis-33-billion-bet-on-indias-digital-revolution/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">27-story palace</a>. It was also the site of one of the biggest, costliest weddings ever, again courtesy of Ambani. He hosted the week-long&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/naazneenkarmali/2018/12/11/the-big-fat-ambani-wedding-celebrates-a-match-among-indias-billionaire-elite/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blockbuster celebration</a>&nbsp;for his daughter Isha and the son of fellow billionaire&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/ajay-piramal/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ajay Piramal</a>&nbsp;in December 2018. &nbsp;



<h4>9. Seoul, 38 billionaires (-3)</h4>



Total net worth: $99.9 billion



Richest resident: Samsung chairman&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/lee-kun-hee/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lee Kun-hee</a>, $16.9 billion



All but one of South Korea’s billionaires reside in its biggest city, and all are South Korean citizens. Seoul’s richest people control the nation’s biggest businesses, including global powerhouses <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/lee-kun-hee/" target="_blank">Samsung</a> and <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/chung-mong-koo/" target="_blank">Hyundai</a>. South Korea is also the world’s fourth-largest online gaming market (over $5.7 billion in revenue, per Newzoo), and the sector has produced five Seoul billionaires, including Maple Story-maker <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/kim-jung-ju/" target="_blank">Kim Jung-ju</a>.



<h4>8. Shenzhen, 39 billionaires (-5)</h4>



Total net worth: $190.5 billion



Richest resident: Tencent CEO&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/ma-huateng/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ma Huateng</a>, $38.8 billion



Designated as a “special economic zone” during Chinese economic reforms of the 1980’s, the Hong Kong-bordering city has become an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbestravelguide.com/destinations/shenzhen-china/travel-guide" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">economic and tourist hub</a>. Every listmaker from Shenzhen is a self-made billionaire, with its second-richest resident&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/hui-ka-yan/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hui Ka Yan</a>&nbsp;working as a factory technician for ten years before founding one of China’s foremost real estate developers. Dorm room founder&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/frank-wang/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Frank Wang</a>became the world’s first drone billionaire in 2016, along with an early investor and his marketing chief, both Shenzhen residents.



<h4>7. San Francisco, 42 billionaires (+8) &nbsp;&nbsp;</h4>



Total net worth: $109.2 billion



Richest resident: Facebook cofounder&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/dustin-moskovitz/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dustin Moskowitz</a>, $11.1 billion



The heart of America’s tech revolution, San Francisco is homebase for founders of Uber, Airbnb and Pinterest. The region’s influx of digital-age companies has made it the most expensive city in the U.S. (The entire Bay Area, including San Francisco and nearby cities, has 82 billionaires, still fewer than New York). One escapee: PayPal cofounder and Trump backer <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/peter-thiel/" target="_blank">Peter Thiel</a>, who moved to Los Angeles in 2018, reportedly for its greater political diversity.



<h4>6. Shanghai, 45 billionaires (-5)</h4>



Total net worth: $110.7 billion



Richest resident: Ecommerce entrepreneur&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/colin-huang-1/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Colin Huang</a>, $13.5 billion



As ecommerce surges worldwide, so do fortunes like Huang’s, which is tied to internet retailer Pinduoduo. All those online-purchased items have created a massive package delivery market. Shanghai, also the world’s biggest port, is home to four major package delivery companies, each with a pair each of billionaires. The city’s richest logistics duo is tied to Yunda Express; its cofounding spouses <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/nie-tengyun/" target="_blank">Nie Tengyun</a> and <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/chen-liying/" target="_blank">Chen Liying</a> are worth a combined $5.1 billion.



<h4>5. London, 55 billionaires (+0)</h4>



Total net worth: $226 billion



Richest resident: Russian bank founder&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/mikhail-fridman/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mikhail Fridman</a>, $15 billion



London, with <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://stories.forbestravelguide.com/london-earns-more-five-star-hotels-than-any-city" target="_blank">more five star hotels</a> than any other city, is a mecca for the uber rich. While 20 Brits call the cosmopolitan city home, 35 expatriate billionaires from 23 countries including India, Iceland and Russia have relocated to London. Five, including two Ikea heirs, come from high-taxed Sweden, more than any other nation. Four are Russians, including Russia’s richest woman <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elena-baturina/" target="_blank">Elena Baturina</a>, whose husband was removed as mayor of Moscow in 2010. And though he’s not a resident, Chicago hedge fund head <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/ken-griffin/" target="_blank">Ken Griffin</a> bought <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/oliverwilliams1/2019/01/21/american-billionaire-defies-brexit-by-buying-londons-most-expensive-house/" target="_blank">a $122 million property</a> just a ten minute walk from Buckingham Palace this January.



<h4>4. Beijing, 61 billionaires (-3)</h4>



Total net worth: $193.3 billion



Richest resident: Commercial real estate titan&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/wang-jianlin/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Wang Jianlin</a>, $22.6 billion



Beijing is home to China’s two youngest billionaires, both products of the internet era: 33-year-old cryptocurrency miner&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/jihan-wu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jihan Wu</a>&nbsp;and 35-year-old ByteDance chair&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/zhang-yiming/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Zhang Yiming</a>. The success of his $75 billion&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ywang/2018/10/25/chinas-bytedance-becomes-worlds-largest-internet-startup-after-mega-funding-round/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">internet-era content creation hub</a>&nbsp;has launched Zhang from the city’s No. 13 to No. 2 richest in just a year. He’s only topped by Wang, whose fortune comes from real estate. Tech (17) and real estate (12) are the most popular industries for billionaires in the Chinese capital.



<h4>3. Moscow, 71 billionaires (-6)</h4>



Total net worth: $336.5 billion



Richest resident: Natural gas oligarch&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/leonid-mikhelson/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Leonid Mikhelson</a>, $24 billion



Nearly 80% of all billionaires in Russia live in its capital, which is also its most populous city. Moscow is home to five billionaires sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in April 2018: suspected election meddler <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/oleg-deripaska/" target="_blank">Oleg Deripaska</a>, Michael Cohen-tied <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/viktor-vekselberg/" target="_blank">Viktor Vekselberg</a>, legislative official <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/andrei-skoch/" target="_blank">Andrei Skoch</a>, former Putin judo partner <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/arkady-rotenberg/" target="_blank">Arkady Rotenberg</a> and trained economist <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/suleiman-kerimov/" target="_blank">Suleiman Kerimov</a>. Russia’s Great Gatsby (<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2018/06/06/2018-global-2000-how-the-biggest-russian-companies-have-weathered-sanctions/" target="_blank">as he’s been called</a>) Kerimov faced money-laundering charged in France that were dropped in June.



<h4>2. Hong Kong, 79 billionaires (+2)</h4>



Total net worth: $355.5 billion



Richest resident: Conglomerate kingpin&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/li-ka-shing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Li Ka-shing</a>, $31.7 billion



Housing prices in the city have quadrupled since the Great Recession, thanks to its government’s tight grip on supply. The booming market has vaulted the fortunes of developers like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/lee-shau-kee/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lee Shau Kee</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/peter-woo/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Peter Woo</a>, and 29 Hong Kong billionaires (and half of its top-ten richest) count real estate as their chief source of wealth. But a correction may be imminent—a Citigroup survey says that 57% of Hongkongers&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonburgos/2019/02/13/hong-kongs-richest-2019-correction-fears-spook-property-markets/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">anticipate a drop</a>&nbsp;in residential real estate prices during 2019.



<h4>1. New York, 84 billionaires (+1)</h4>



Total net worth: $469.7 billion



Richest Resident: Media magnate&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/michael-bloomberg/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Michael Bloomberg</a>, $55.5 billion



Some Big Apple billionaires were born and raised in New York, including Estee Lauder heir&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/ronald-lauder/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ronald Lauder</a>, JPMorgan Chase chief&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/jamie-dimon/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jamie Dimon</a>&nbsp;and Highbridge Capital cofounder&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/henry-swieca/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Henry Swieca</a>. Dimon and Swieca are two of 40 billionaires in the city whose fortunes were built in finance, the richest of whom is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/carl-icahn/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Carl Icahn</a>, one of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2019/03/04/carl-icahns-comeback-the-raider-rebounds-after-a-tough-stretch/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">few hedge fund managers</a>&nbsp;to make money in 2018. And though&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/donald-trump/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the city’s most famous landlord</a>&nbsp;now calls the White House home, 17 other real estate billionaires live in New York City. That includes native New Yorker&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/steven-roth/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Steven Roth</a>, whose real estate company Vornado&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2019/03/07/trumps-secret-windfall-the-crown-jewels-of-his-fortune-are-2-skyscrapers-he-didnt-wantand-doesnt-control/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">owns 70% of Trump’s skyscraper</a>&nbsp;at 1290 Avenue of Americas. But just like in London, NYC’s priciest residence, a $238 million&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/samanthasharf/2019/01/23/most-expensive-us-home-sale-ever-billionaire-ken-griffin-closes-on-238-million-new-york-penthouse/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Central Park penthouse</a>, is owned by out-of-towner Ken Griffin (he calls Chicago home).



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/cartercoudriet/">-Carter Coudriet</a>Forbes Staff

Features of New York – New York City – USA

Richest Cities In The World: The Top 10 Cities With The Most Billionaires

Amazon, the global e-commerce behemoth, has brought incomparable scale to online retailing. In turn, it has brought incomparable wealth to its founder, Jeff Bezos.
As of Monday&#8217;s market close, Bezos was worth more than $104 billion, making him the world&#8217;s richest person—at least when not factoring in inflation—since Forbes began tracking global wealth 30 years ago. In two years, his net worth has risen over $50 billion, more than the <a href="https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2001rank.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gross domestic product</a> of Iceland, Belize or Monaco over the same period.
Yet Bezos is not truly the wealthiest person ever, despite numerous reports to the contrary. On an inflation-adjusted basis, Bill Gates has previously been worth far more. In April 1999, for instance, Gates’ net worth eclipsed $100 billion for the first time when Microsoft shares topped out at the apex of the dot-com bubble. That fortune would be worth roughly $150 billion in today’s dollars.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/billionaires/2017/10/31/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-richest-person-world/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Is The Richest Person In The World &#8211; Again</a>
Gates, who is now worth an estimated $92 billion, would also be far richer if he had not given about $36 billion of Microsoft stock to charity over time, mostly to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the planet’s largest private philanthropic foundation.
Bezos’ fortune is nonetheless staggering, and he may well top the list of<a href="https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/list/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> The World’s Billionaires</a> for the first time when Forbes unveils the 2018 ranking in March. Unless Amazon’s share price unexpectedly collapses, he will have the highest-ever net worth of anyone to appear on the ranks, and by a wide margin.
For context, here are the top members of Forbes&#8216; list of The World&#8217;s Billionaires in each of the last 20 years. Also included are their net worths adjusted for inflation through November 2017, based on the most recent data available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
2017
Name: Bill Gates
Net worth: $86 billion
Net worth adjusted for inflation: $87 billion
2016
Name: Bill Gates
Net worth: $75 billion
Adjusted for inflation: $77.7 billion
2015
Name: Bill Gates
Net worth: $79.2 billion
Adjusted for inflation: $82.7 billion
2014
Name: Bill Gates
Net worth: $76 billion
Adjusted for inflation: $79.3 billion
2013
Name: Carlos Slim Helú
Net worth: $73 billion
Adjusted for inflation: $77.4 billion
2012
Name: Carlos Slim Helú
Net worth: $69 billion
Adjusted for inflation: $74.2 billion
2011
Name: Carlos Slim Helú
Net worth: $74 billion
Adjusted for inflation: $81.7 billion
2010
Name: Carlos Slim Helú
Net worth: $53.5 billion
Adjusted for inflation: $60.6 billion
2009
Name: Bill Gates
Net worth: $40 billion
Adjusted for inflation: $46.4 billion
2008
Name: Warren Buffett
Net worth: $62 billion
Adjusted for inflation: $71.6 billion
2007
Name: Bill Gates
Net worth: $56 billion
Adjusted for inflation: $67.3 billion
2006
Name: Bill Gates
Net worth: $50 billion
Adjusted for inflation: $61.7 billion
2005
Name: Bill Gates
Net worth: $50 billion
Adjusted for inflation: $63.8 billion
2004
Name: Bill Gates
Net worth: $46 billion
Adjusted for inflation: $60.6 billion
2003
Name: Bill Gates
Net worth: $40.7 billion
Adjusted for inflation: $54.5 billion
2002
Name: Bill Gates
Net worth: $52.8 billion
Adjusted for inflation: $72.8 billion
2001
Name: Bill Gates
Net worth: $58.7 billion
Adjusted for inflation: $82.2 billion
2000
Name: Bill Gates
Net worth: $60 billion
Adjusted for inflation: $86.5 billion
1999
Name: Bill Gates
Net worth: $90 billion
Adjusted for inflation: $134.6 billion
1998
Name: Bill Gates
Net worth: $51 billion
Adjusted for inflation: $77.6 billion
&#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/noahkirsch/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Noah Kirsch</a>, FORBES STAFF

Here’s Why Jeff Bezos Is Not Truly The Richest Person In History

The Last Jedi grossed a staggering $450 million at the worldwide box office its opening weekend, but George Lucas won’t be cashing in—he sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 for $4.1 billion in cash and stock after decades of lofty annual hauls from the Star Wars franchise he created. Yet the force is still strong with his bank account: Lucas’ fortune now stands at $5.5 billion, making him America’s wealthiest celebrity.
Billion-dollar exits and money-spewing assets are part of the territory in the upper reaches of our list. Steven Spielberg (No. 2, $3.6 billion) has been a director for half a century, but saved one of his biggest highlights for last year with the $3.8 billion sale of DreamWorks Animation, the studio he cofounded. Oprah Winfrey (No. 3, $2.8 billion) continues to build her fortune through the OWN network but banked the bulk of her bucks from her years as a talk show host.
&#8220;What I learned in all of those thousands of interviews is that there is a common denominator in our human experience,&#8221; she once <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/moiraforbes/2012/09/18/oprah-winfrey-talks-philanthropy-failure-and-what-every-guest-including-beyonce-asks-her/#1b314e486bc0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> FORBES. &#8220;Everybody wants to know: &#8216;Did you hear me, and did what I say matter?'&#8221;
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2017/10/16/oprah-keeping-promise-made-mandela/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Oprah Keeping The Promise Made To Mandela</a>
All in all, America’s 10 wealthiest celebrities boast a combined fortune of $18 billion, up 7.8% from last year’s $16.7 billion. To compile our list, we looked at each candidate’s entire empire. We valued private company stakes by speaking with an array of experts and by considering public competitors; for publicly-traded companies, we used stock prices as of December 15, 2017.
For entertainers without private companies, we based our estimates on net lifetime earnings after taxes. Real estate, art and other assets were also factored in where applicable. Eligibility was limited to American citizens who’ve gotten rich off their fame, rather than become famous for their wealth (sorry, <a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2017/12/07/donald-trumps-real-estate-business-losing-one-important-tenants/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>).
This list includes a much more diverse range of names than other wealth rankings like our flagship Forbes 400: though just one of America’s 10 wealthiest celebrities is a woman, six of the figures are people of color. The list members’ areas of expertise range from Hollywood to sports to magic, and all have found ways of monetizing their respective corners of the entertainment business.
Michael Jordan (No. 4, $1.4 billion) earned $94 million on the court during his career, but has made $1.4 billion elsewhere, most notably Nike, which generates some $3 billion annually from his Jordan brand; the superstar’s 90% stake in the Charlotte Hornets has grown fourfold in value since 2010. David Copperfield rounds out the top five with a fortune of $875 million, accumulated by playing upwards of 600 shows in Las Vegas annually; his collection of more than 650,000 magical artifacts is the world’s largest.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/sport/2017/12/14/25-highest-paid-athletes-time/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The 25 Highest-Paid Athletes Of All Time</a>
Hip-hop is especially well-represented thanks to Diddy (No. 6, $820 million), Jay-Z (No. 7, $810 million) and Dr. Dre ($740 million), all of whom are among the youngest names on the list. Though all three got their start as artists, their empires now revolve around non-musical ventures like Diddy’s Revolt cable channel, Jay-Z’s Armand de Brignac champagne and Dr. Dre’s Beats headphones, sold to Apple for $3 billion in 2014 (for more, check out my upcoming book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kings-Diddy-Jay-Z-Hip-Hops-Multibillion-Dollar/dp/0316316539/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">3 Kings</a>).
&#8220;They said we couldn&#8217;t start businesses outside of hip-hop,&#8221; Kendrick Lamar <a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2017/12/05/kendrick-lamar-conscious-capitalist/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> FORBES earlier this year. &#8220;These are the three individuals that showed us [how].&#8221;
<h3>The 10 Richest Celebrities In America</h3>
<ol>
<li>George Lucas ($5.5 billion)</li>
<li>Steven Spielberg ($3.6 billion)</li>
<li>Oprah Winfrey ($2.8 billion)</li>
<li>Michael Jordan ($1.4 billion)</li>
<li>David Copperfield ($875 million)</li>
<li>Diddy ($820 million)</li>
<li>Jay-Z ($810 million)</li>
<li>Tiger Woods ($750 million)</li>
<li>Dr. Dre ($740 million)</li>
<li>James Patterson ($730 million)</li>
</ol>
&#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Zack O&#8217;Malley Greenburg</a>, FORBES STAFF

America’s Wealthiest Celebrities 2017: The Top 10 By Net Worth

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos&#8217; two day streak as the world&#8217;s only centi-billionaire is over &#8211; for now.
Bezos&#8217; net worth topped $100 billion for the first time on Cyber Monday as Amazon shares soared. On Wednesday, his net worth fell $2.2 billion to $98 billion, as Amazon stock dropped more than 2% from Tuesday&#8217;s close as of 1:45 p.m. Eastern Time. Because Bezos owns more than 16% of Amazon, small fluctuations in Amazon&#8217;s stock have billion-dollar consequences for his net worth.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/billionaires/2017/07/31/besides-jeff-bezos-6-people-whove-also-worlds-richest/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Besides Jeff Bezos: 6 People Who&#8217;ve Also Been The World&#8217;s Richest</a>
While he no longer has a twelve-digit fortune, Bezos is still the richest person in the world by an $8.6 billion margin. The second richest person is Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, who has an $89.4 billion fortune and has been at the top of the Forbes&#8216; annual Billionaires List for 18 of the last 23 years. On October 27, Bezos surpassed Gates on Forbes&#8216; Real-Time Rankings and has held onto the top spot ever since. Three months earlier, Bezos briefly passed up Gates, but dropped into second place after only four hours.
The nearly 60% rise in Amazon stock this year to date has added $33.1 billion to Bezos’ fortune. His net worth has more than doubled since Forbes published the 2016 Billionaires List in March 2016. At that time, he had a net worth of $45.2 billion and had just joined the ranks of the 10 richest people in the world for the first time.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/cover-story/2017/11/03/lessons-ideas-100-greatest-living-minds/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Lessons And Ideas By The 100 Greatest Living Business Minds</a>
After graduating from Princeton, Bezos worked at hedge fund D.E. Shaw before leaving to start an online bookstore from a garage in Seattle in 1994. He took Amazon public in 1997 and one year later joined Forbes&#8216; ranking of the 400 richest Americans with a $1.6 billion fortune. In the two decades since, Amazon has grown into an e-commerce giant and one of the most valuable companies in the world, propelling Bezos to the top of Forbes&#8217; Real-Time Billionaires List. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/katevinton/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Kate Vinton</a>, FORBES STAFF

As Amazon Shares Fall, Jeff Bezos Is No Longer A Centi-Billionaire

This past weekend, audiences were treated to the debut of CBS special Michael Jackson’s Halloween, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2017/10/27/michael-jacksons-halloween-claiming-another-crown-for-the-king-of-pop/#2938a5a143dc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an hourlong magical adventure</a> in which the King of Pop comes to life in animated forms including that of a dancing pumpkin, an arachnid security guard and a feline scientist, set to a soundtrack of Jackson’s music.
“Michael&#8217;s songs are very important to people,” says Mark Dippé, the program’s director. “We just wanted to sort of tell a story that was based around the world that Michael had created with his music, and his dancing, and his performances.”
That level of continued interest is precisely why Jackson tops our Halloween-spooky list of the 13 highest-paid dead celebrities for the fifth year in a row &#8211; with earnings of $75 million. His postmortem empire is going strong, boosted by the Halloween special and new album Scream joining a list of ventures including a Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas and a stake in the EMI music publishing catalogue.
Golf legend Arnold Palmer claims the No. 2 spot with $40 million. Barely a year after his death, more than 400 stores still sell Palmer-branded apparel in Asia, and AriZona Beverages produces 400 million cans of its Arnold Palmer line annually. Peanuts creator Charles Schulz ranks third with income of $38 million—MetLife recently retired Snoopy and Charlie Brown from its ad campaigns, but the cartoonist’s contract does not expire until 2019.
Elvis Presley finishes fourth with $35 million, up from last year’s $27 million sum thanks to the new $45 million Elvis Presley’s Memphis entertainment complex and recently-opened hotel The Guesthouse at Graceland. Bob Marley rounds out the top five with $23 million, boosted by sustainability-focused House of Marley audio products and the Marley Beverage Co.
“When we decided to start that movement, it was [to] add relevancy to who we are as a family,” says Marley’s son Rohan. “We started that to really hone in on our legacy and protect what our father has given us.”
<a href="https://www.forbes.com/pictures/59ee26294bbe6f37dda0f050/highest-paid-dead-celebri/#415eeb85324f" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GALLERY: Highest Paid Dead Celebrities Of 2017</a>
Our list measures pretax income from October 15, 2016 through October 15, 2017 before deducting cuts for agents, managers and lawyers. Sources include Nielsen SoundScan, IMDB, Pollstar Pro and interviews with celebrity estate experts.
Some names on the list passed just before the end of our scoring period—namely, rocker Tom Petty, who died on October 3. His inclusion on the list (No. 6, $20 million) reflects earnings from the past year on the road, where his band was grossing north of $1 million per night. Petty and fellow musicians Prince (No. 7, $18 million) and David Bowie (No. 11, $9.5 million) also got a boost from increased music consumption in the wake of their relatively-recent passing.
There are more ways than ever to earn money from beyond the grave, as our list members can attest. Elizabeth Taylor (No. 12, $8 million) lives on through top-selling fragrances such as White Diamonds, while Albert Einstein (No. 10, $10 million) lends his name and likeness to products ranging from dorm-room posters to tablets designed by Israeli tech company Fourier Systems.
Frank Zappa didn’t make the list, but perhaps he will soon. His son Ahmet recently announced <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2017/10/30/rock-is-dead-zappa-dio-and-the-burgeoning-business-of-postmortem-touring" target="_blank" rel="noopener">plans</a> to bring the rock star back in the form of a hologram-like illusion. The phantom Zappa will hit the road, most likely in 2018, in partnership with the firm Eyellusion. The goal is to make “the bizarre world of Frank come to life,” says the younger Zappa. “And I wake up every single day excited.”
To be fair, Frank Zappa won’t be the first celebrity to perform in such a manner. Tupac Shakur started the trend at Coachella in 2012, and Jackson currently appears in similar style in the grand finale of his Vegas show.
As for the King of Pop, his 2017 earnings pale in comparison to last year’s $825 million haul—the highest annual total for any entertainer dead or alive—mostly from the sale of his half of the Sony/ATV catalogue. But his $75 million tally this year still places him on par with the seventeenth-best-paid living entertainer, Bruce Springsteen. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Zack O&#8217;Malley Greenburg</a>, FORBES STAFF

The Top-Earning Dead Celebrities Of 2017

She is often portrayed as a tough and ruthless businesswoman, who doesn’t take prisoners. But face-to-face, Wendy Appelbaum shows she is anything but. Open, warm and witty, she makes it clear that being rich comes with the heavy responsibility of giving back to society.
With an estimated net worth of $183 million, Appelbaum is said to be the wealthiest woman on the continent. It’s a ballpark figure she dismisses as “complete rubbish”, while declining to comment further.
“I don’t think the point is how much you’ve got. The point is what you choose to do with it,” she says in her deep, guttural voice. “The more you have, the more responsibility you have to share it with those who don’t.”
She certainly takes this responsibility seriously. Philanthropy has been her focus and passion for years, with a large proportion of her charity work targeting women. Appelbaum has her fingers in many pies. She is a member of the Global Philanthropists’ Circle run by David Rockefeller’s daughter, Peggy, through her New York-based Synergos Institute; a member of Harvard University’s Women’s Leadership Board; the Helen Suzman Foundation as well as the International Women’s Forum and Women Moving Millions, an initiative started by Swanee Hunt, one of oil tycoon H.L. Hunt’s daughters, who motivated 100 women from all over the world to commit a minimum of $1 million for women’s causes, raising a total of $187 million in only a few months.
“For me it’s a no-brainer. It’s an honor and a privilege to give back to the society in which I live,” says Appelbaum, noting her surprise at how few rich women are involved in the world of philanthropy.
“If you look at Harvard’s reserves, or elsewhere, it’s an old boys’ club. It’s because for most of the world’s rich, charity is much more about status than helping the less privileged. Philanthropy is a sign of success. A sign that you have spare capacity. It’s what I call a pissing contest. Pure ego coming back in chunks.”
That needed to change, Appelbaum thought and co-founded the Women’s Investment Portfolio Holdings (Wiphold) in the 1990s, soon after the end of apartheid. A South African woman-controlled company that raises capital for major investments in large corporations, like Old Mutual and Nedbank, with the profits accruing to the trust.
“We were 11 women on the board. The timing was perfect. BEE [black economic empowerment] was becoming the sexy thing of the day. And when you coupled that with women… the deal flow was extraordinary,” Appelbaum recalls.
In just four years, Wiphold turned from an initial $60,000 investment into a $120 million debt-free enterprise listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
Part of Wiphold’s business philosophy is to benefit poor women. The management team tutored women in townships and rural areas in basic finance and business skills and helped them to form groups to buy shares. Her peers of that time describe Appelbaum as an astute businesswoman, who poured lots of energy into finding solutions to complex matters and new investment opportunities.
“Failure did not exist in her books,” remembers Wiphold group CEO Louisa Mojela.
“Beneath that toughness there is an element of softness, kindness and a huge heart to give to the previously disadvantaged. She treats her colleagues with a lot of respect and humility.”
Appelbaum left Wiphold shortly after it listed, selling her own shares so that previously disadvantaged women could fill her space.
“I thought there was enough strength in the company to continue without me. Although a white woman fell into the previously disadvantaged group at that time, I certainly didn’t feel it myself. I didn’t think I should benefit,” she explains.
Appelbaum looks back at that time with utter satisfaction.
“It was probably one of the most effective boards I have ever sat on. There is no bullshit with women. We don’t waste time out of politeness,” she says.
Men, by contrast, operate in business with an entirely different strategy to women, she believes.
“Men look at life differently. They are not as upfront and as honest as women. They compete in a relatively underhand kind of way.”
It is exactly this different approach to doing business that companies could enormously benefit from if they only realized how much a combination of men and women’s different visions enhances corporate environments, Appelbaum says.
“Women have intuition, which men don’t have, and probably a softer side to us, on a certain level, where compassion does come in, it gives you a much more interesting and varied vision of the world. Men see the big picture, women see detail. And it’s when the two work together that you get a much better outcome for the business. That’s why congruent boards are much more successful.”
Appelbaum, who is often described as being frank to the point of being blunt, certainly knows what she is talking about. In the past 25 years, she has sat on countless boards—most of them dominated by men. She was deputy chair of IT and retailing company Connection Group Ltd and is still a trustee of investment holding trust The Tribune Trust as well as director of Sphere Holdings Ltd, to name a few. Her very first seat, however, was on the board of her father, Donald Gordon’s Liberty Group, when she was made director of Liberty Investors Ltd, the group’s previously listed holding company.
When Gordon appointed his daughter in the early 1990s, he certainly didn’t expect to be challenged by her. You can be sure the feisty Appelbaum had no intention of a subservient role. She piped up at her very first Liberty board meeting, raising questions. Gordon kept a straight face but took his daughter aside as soon as the meeting was over, firmly instructing her never to question him in his boardroom again. Appelbaum remembers how she stood up to him.
“I said: ‘What do you think I’m doing here? If you want a rubber stamp go to the post office. I’m not here to rubber stamp everything’. Nobody else would take him on. I was always the one who had to do it.”
One of the things that irked her most about her father was that “he was a sexist”, she frankly admits. Apart from his own daughter, Gordon never appointed a woman to a management position. He also described businesswomen who didn’t speak much as “very clever”.
“I thought to myself, ‘Oh no, you have a problem.’ I never saw him put a woman in an important position, ever. It frustrated me,” says Appelbaum.
Her father’s condescending attitude was an eye-opener that led her to become a feminist, she says, with American women’s rights activist and author Gloria Steinem, one of her role models, who later became a friend.
“I’m not a bra-burning feminist. I associate closely with Gloria because she has been able to maintain her femininity despite her belief in equality. I believe that women are equal to men if not better. There is nothing, aside from perhaps hard physical labor, that women can’t do as well as men. Many women just haven’t had opportunities.”
South Africa has had a slow start to acknowledging women’s rights and equality. The first recorded woman to work in an office was Miss Letty Impey, who was employed as a secretary by Johannesburg solicitor Henry Lindsay in 1894. Her employment caused such scandal that Impey had to work behind a screen in the open-plan office because it was regarded as “not quite proper” for her to be seen. She even became somewhat of a showpiece as curious men visited the solicitor’s office, peeking behind the screen to catch a glimpse of the female staff member.
Much has changed since then for women, but not nearly enough. South African women continue to struggle for equity in both their personal and business lives. This becomes particularly apparent at management level and in boardrooms, says Appelbaum, who to this day often remains the only female representative: “There are still some boards who really believe that women should be seen but not heard and who are taken aback when you give them an opinion.”
It takes someone of Appelbaum’s poise and unshakable self-confidence to operate and make her mark in those corporate patriarchal environments. Perhaps it is the constant head butting with her father that taught her how to stand up for herself. Perhaps it is the security of her family background and wealth that make her undefeatable—although Appelbaum, who is in her early 50s, says she never once in her life felt she had to prove herself for being more than “just Donald Gordon’s heiress”.
She believes what made her strong and independent is that, apart from her stint as one of her father’s directors at Liberty, she was always an entrepreneur who worked for herself.
“I’ve never felt like a quota. If I wish something to be offensive, I make it offensive. Sitting on boards is not about making friends. It’s about doing the right thing for your shareholders. Corporate governance, for me, is absolutely paramount. But I think it does bother other women in that they feel marginalized.”
And so it became a vital imperative in Appelbaum’s life to help close the gender gap by blazing a trail for other women, something that is done far too little, she says, noting that few women who have made it in the business world care to promote their peers.
“You just have to take a look at some of the women-headed companies in this country and their female representation. You’d be deeply disappointed. Perhaps women don’t want to be seen as rocking the boat or showing prejudice.”
Appelbaum also complains about what she calls “repeat board seats”, where a number of select few women sit on multiple boards, causing the false impression that the gender glass ceiling has shifted upwards.
“If you look at how many women are exposed, it’s very low. There’s no point in one woman sitting on 10 corporate boards and filling out long forms of conflicts of interest prior to meetings. That’s nonsense. Women must get to the point where they widen the spread of individuals exposed at those levels. We’re making slow progress in giving women the equal opportunities they so rightly deserve.”
She believes the 2008 global financial crisis from which the world is struggling to recover offers an opportunity to women to re-position themselves in business and get breaks that usually wouldn’t be accessible to them.
“Companies are struggling due to the recession, and women tend to be much cheaper hires,” Appelbaum explains.
“One of the reasons for that is that women don’t have the confidence to negotiate for themselves. So they tend to get bullied. But they are getting the hires at the moment because their cost to company is lower. There’s a gap and they seem to be taking it. I think the glass ceiling is finally shifting a bit.”
Appelbaum had the benefit of growing up in a family environment where the glass ceiling didn’t exist, where entrepreneurial spirit and business acumen were passed down to her and her brothers, Richard and Graeme, every day.
“My father had a wonderful way of verbalizing what he was doing,” she says, joking that every dinner table conversation in the Gordon’s family home was like being at Harvard Business School: “It was like living in an MBA class.” It was her father who taught her how to identify opportunity and maximize its benefit.
Although a great admirer of her father, Appelbaum is keenly aware that he was far from perfect and has no illusions that her free business education came at a price.
“He wasn’t interested in your opinion; he was interested in you as an audience. My father needed to be told how clever he was all the time. There was that need for affirmation, which most serious executives need. They really need their ego stroked. That’s why, when you look at corporations, very often the succession is not there because they had a bunch of yes-men behind them, telling them that no matter what they did, they were marvelous. And they love that. My father was no different.”
While her brothers found their father intimidating, Appelbaum insists she never did: “I’m not easily intimidated, by anybody. In fact I can’t think of anybody that I find intimidating.”
It thus comes as no surprise that it is her—and not her two older brothers—who tends to be described as a chip off the old block.
“It’s not a bad old block to be a chip of. I am definitely the most similar to my father,” she laughs.
Coming from a family of European immigrants who arrived in South Africa in the mid-1920s with absolutely nothing, Donald Gordon knew from an early age he wanted to make money. Although his dream was to be a scientist, he decided to become an auditor instead, and one day, when auditing an insurance company, he noticed the firm was making profit despite the fact that it was badly run. ‘Surely I can do a much better job,’ he thought… and started the Liberty Group, which later became a major insurance and investment emporium.
Decades later, Gordon sold the Liberty Group to Standard Bank. All three of his children pursued their own business interests, but business associates say he would have handed the firm over to his daughter instead of one of his sons, had he not sold it. Appelbaum, however, says she has no regrets about the sale of the group and is skeptical that a close working relationship with her father—necessary to build up her succession—could have worked out in the long-term.
“I would have found it almost impossible to work for my father; because we are so similar, we used to argue a lot,” she admits.
Since then, she has proven herself many times as a businesswoman in her own right, with pretty much all of her ventures ending in success. She bought De Morgenzon—the Morning Sun—a wine estate in midst of the Stellenbosch winelands, 45 minutes from Cape Town, with her husband, Hylton. Their maiden vintage, a 2005 Chenin Blanc, became the first wine to get five stars in South Africa’s leading Platter’s Wine Guide.
“I’m an absolute perfectionist,” Appelbaum, who also breeds racehorses, describes her modus operandi.
“Whatever I decide to do, I will drive myself insane until it’s right.”
A game player at heart, which she says is based on her deep competitiveness, she was a provincial tennis player as a child and a provincial golfer as an adult, although she only took up the sport at the age of 30. Business to her is like a game, too, one that demands strategic thinking, passion, skill and stamina.
Going into the wine business has been one of the greatest challenges of her career. To produce a top quality organic wine, she has planted wildflowers between the vines for natural pollination, while Baroque music softly floats throughout the vineyard to bio-dynamically support plant growth. Appelbaum has also taken utmost care in selecting the right winemaker for the estate.
“I had four or five winemakers making wine for me. Not only did I look at the quality of the wine they made, but for a number of years, I interacted with them to see who I would get on best with. The winemaker is the one who grows the grapes to their best advantage. What I have to do as the entrepreneur is to give him every single opportunity to make the very best wine he can,” she says.
But there is one major component to wine making that is out of every farmers’ control: the weather. It’s an aspect, Appelbaum admits, she struggles with.
“For a control freak like me, the wine business is a hell of a challenge. It’s very frustrating,” she says.
That’s why she is as hands-on with the day-to-day running of her wine farm as her time allows. The Appelbaums live in a beautiful mansion on top of the highest point of the farm, overlooking the vineyards and the far-reaching, picturesque views of Stellenbosch’s rolling hills.
From here, Appelbaum manages the estate, admitting that she can be a little bit authoritarian.
“It’s my way or the highway. But only because I’m so sure of what I want.”
Her staff appear to appreciate her driven, forthright management style.
“What you see is what you get. She has a very transparent management style. She tells you things straight. She leads with integrity,” says De Morgenzon tasting room manager, Diana Renke.
Integrity is a trait Appelbaum rates highly, and it was when she auctioned a second wine estate, Quoin Rock Winery and Manor Estate, for $6.5 million in December and sniffed corruption that she decided to publicly take on a multi-million dollar industry—to protect her own integrity while fighting a battle for South Africa’s greater good. She laid a complaint with the National Consumer Commission (NCC) after discovering she had competed for the estate with a ghost bidder, someone hired by South Africa’s largest auction group, Auction Alliance, to drive up the price.
Suddenly, Appelbaum, who doesn’t like the limelight and chose not to keep her maiden name because she “did not want to be just associated as Donald Gordon’s daughter”, suddenly found herself in a very public spat with Auction Alliance CEO Rael Levitt.
“Mr. Levitt took me out of my comfort zone because he chose to fight me in the media. That fight with Mr. Levitt was a fight for good. For me, there’s either right or wrong. There’s nothing grey in matter. I believe that I have done South African society a great service because corruption is rife in this country.”
The outcome proved her right: in March, the NCC found Auction Alliance guilty of contravening the Consumer Protection Act by conducting a mock auction and fined it 10% of its annual turnover.
Appelbaum’s love for a “good” fight stems from a friendship with well-known anti-apartheid activist and politician Helen Suzman, who was a family friend of the Gordons and later in life became one of Appelbaum’s mentors.
“She was a no-bullshit woman; tough, clever and not intimidated by anybody. She encouraged me to be feisty and cheeky. She’d fight anybody as long as it was for somebody’s benefit,” remembers Appelbaum.
Appelbaum is a woman without regrets. If there were one, it would be that she never became a doctor—a profession her father, who wanted her to take up accounting, didn’t approve of. When she wasn’t accepted into medical school due to strict quotas on women at that time, she studied psychology instead, with economics as one of her subjects. But her interest in medicine became a lifelong passion, with a large chunk of Appelbaum’s philanthropic investments going towards health.
She is a trustee of her father’s Donald Gordon Foundation, one of the largest private charitable foundations in Southern Africa, which includes the Donald Gordon Medical Centre in Johannesburg. She is also a trustee of CHOC (Children’s Haemotology Oncology Clinics) and recently founded the Wendy Appelbaum Women’s Health Institute for the advancement and improvement of treatment for disorders affecting women.
Only now, much later in her life, has she found time to pursue her childhood dream somewhat: She recently enrolled in a course at Harvard Medical School to learn about the connection between human rights and healthcare.

Tag: Richest

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA