Top ten richest person in the world

1. Jeff Bezos – $112 billion

• Responsible for the growth of online shopping and e-commerce, Jeff Bezos made his fortune by founding Amazon.com.
• The 53-year-old CEO of Amazon, launched the retail giant in 1994 after leaving his New York hedge fund job.
• Initially an online book retailer operated out of Bezos’s garage in Seattle, Amazon.com grew to become the world’s largest online shopping retailer, now worth over $430 billion, according to CNBC.
• Bezos also owns a private space company Blue Origin and purchased The Washington Postin 2013 for $250 million.
• Amazon bought the upscale grocery chain Whole Foods in June for an estimated $13.7 billion.
• Bezos’s parents, Jackie and Mike Bezos, operate the Bezos Family Foundation, which supports youth education.

2. Bill Gates – $92.2 Billion

• Bill Gates is the founder of Microsoft, and was the richest man in the world for several years running.
• Gates founded Microsoft in 1975 with Paul Allen, and has since become the largest PC software company worldwide.
• Last year, Bill Gates has gained an incredible $10 billion in additional net worth!
• This has put him at an estimated net worth of $92.2 billion overall. However, he’s recently been overtaken by the next man on this list…

3. Warren Buffett – $81.7 billion

• After getting rejected from Harvard Business School, Warren Buffett went to Columbia instead where he studied under Benjamin Graham, who would become his mentor.
• He later bought Berkshire Hathaway in 1969 and transformed it into a powerhouse holding company.

4.  Amancio Ortega — $75.8 billion

• Amancio Ortega is the wealthiest man in Europe, and co-founded fashion retailer Zara’s parent company Inditex in 1975.
• His real-estate portfolio includes properties in London, New York, Madrid.

5. Bernard Arnault – $75.7 Billion

• Bernard Arnault is the CEO of LVMH (Louis Vitton Moet Hennessey).
• Ultimately, the company was formed from merging the two businesses together.
• Louis Vitton is the very successful luxury fashion brand, and Moet Hennessey is the merged champagne and cognac manufacturers.
• Bernard has been making serious movements up this list in the past year. In fact, at the beginning of 2017, he was at 14th. Now, a year later, he’s placed at 4th on the list of the 20 richest people on earth in 2018.

6. Mark Zuckerberg– $72.3 billion

•  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg founded the website in his Harvard dorm room 13 years ago and has since become one of the richest people in the world.
•  He and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have committed to give away 99% of their wealth before they die.

7. Carlos Slim – $63.5 billion

•  Carlos Slim Helu controls Latin America’s largest mobile telecom firm, América Móvil, of which he is a chairman.
•  Helu also owns stakes in various mining, real estate, and consumer goods businesses — including The New York Times. He is the richest man in Mexico.

8. Larry Ellison – $60.4 billion

• In 1977, Larry Ellison co-founded the software company Oracle, which originally was launched with $2,000 of funding, $1,200 of which came out of Ellison’s own pocket.
• Ellison stepped down as CEO in 2014, but continues to be involved with the company.

9. Charles Koch – $55.2 billion

• American businessman, political donor and philanthropist Charles Koch is the fifth richest person in the world.
• He is co-owner, chairman of the board, and chief executive officer of Koch Industries, famous also for its mention in an popular American TV show The Newsroom.
• He owns 42% of the shares of the conglomerate.

10. Ingvar Kamprad – $50.7 billion

•  Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA, powerhouse furniture retailer, when he was 17.
•  He moved IKEA and his family out of Sweden in the 1970s in order to avoid its taxes.