1. Bill Gates, $79,2 Billion
It's a landmark year for the world's richest man. Bill Gates and his
friend Paul Allen launched Microsoft 40 years ago with the goal of
getting a computer on every person's desk. Now, 84% of U.S. households
own a computer. Fifteen years ago, Bill and Melinda Gates started their
charitable foundation with the goal of reducing inequity, and have put
more than $30 billion to work toward that end. Early in 2015 the couple
picked a big bet for the foundation's next stage: "The lives of people
in poor countries will improve faster in the next 15 years than at any
other time in history. And their lives will improve more than anyone
else's." In May Gates said his foundation would back a disease
surveillance network in Africa and South Asia to be on the lookout for
the next Ebola or SARS. The following month Melinda Gates announced a
$776 million investment over the next 6 years to improve nutrition and
reduce child mortality caused by malnutrition.
The Top 15 Billionaire in The World
2. Carlos Slim Helu & family, $77.1 Billion
Telecom magnate Carlos Slim Helu has some 300 million mobile phone and
land-line subscribers in 19 countries through America Movil, which he
controls. His lock on Mexico's telecom market -- America Movil units
have had a 70% share of the mobile phone market and 80% of landlines --
will be loosened under a Mexican law passed last year that forbids
companies from controlling more than 50% of telecom and broadcast
markets. Slim has been buying assets in Spain and has bid on oil
production contracts in Mexico, which opened to private and foreign
capital for the first time in 8 decades. On the philanthropic side, in
July his Carlos Slim Foundation partnered with the nonprofit Autism
Speaks to translate information and tools into Spanish.
The Top 15 Billionaire in The World
3. Warren Buffet, $72.7 Billion
Revered as a corporate deity for his decades-long reputation for smart
investing, Warren Buffett pulled off his biggest deal ever in August,
when his Berkshire Hathaway agreed to pay a record $37 billion for
Precision Castparts, a maker of aerospace and industrial parts. Lately
he's also teamed up in various ways with 3G Capital-a firm run by
several Brazilian billionaires-in deals for Kraft Foods, Heinz, Burger
King and coffeehouse chain Tim Hortons. Berkshire Hathaway, which owns
companies like Geico, Dairy Queen and Fruit of the Loom, is now the
fourth most valuable public company in the U.S. Going into the 2016
presidential elections, Buffett is one of Hillary Clinton's biggest
proponents. He has long supported the former First Lady's bid to return
to the White House-donating to her campaign and, perhaps more crucially,
adding his stamp of approval. He has quietly become a big backer of
Planned Parenthood and gun-control group Everytown for Gun Safety. In
July Buffett gave away Berkshire stock worth more than $2.8 billion,
bringing his lifetime giving to nearly $25.6 billion. Buffett says his
best ever investment was buying Benjamin Graham's legendary book, "The
Intelligent Investor," in 1949. He later studied under Graham at
Columbia Business School. Buffett is known for his relative frugality,
still living in the Omaha home he purchased for $31,500 in 1958.
The Top 15 Billionaire in The World
4. Amancio Ortega, $66,8 Billion
Spaniard Amancio Ortega grew up the son of a railway worker and is now
the world's richest retailer. He cofounded Zara in 1975 with lingerie
and bathrobes he and his former wife Rosalia Mera made in their living
room. By the mid-1980s, he had taken Zara all over Spain and was ready
to expand overseas. As his empire grew, Ortega caught the retail
establishment by surprise, limiting advertising, expanding aggressively,
and controlling much of his own supply chain. Louis Vuitton fashion
director Daniel Piette once called Inditex "possibly the most innovative
and devastating retailer in the world." Ortega powered through the
Spanish financial crisis, personally gaining $45 billion from 2009 to
2014 as his shares of Inditex defied the rest of the Spanish stock
market. In the last decade, he has taken billions in Inditex dividends
and reinvested the money into real estate in marquee cities, including
Madrid, Barcelona, London, Chicago, Miami and New York.
The Top 15 Billionaire in The World
5. Larry Elison, $54,3 Billion
Though he stepped down as Oracle CEO in September 2014, Larry Ellison
still calls some of the shots at the database-software giant. In June
2015 he announced that Oracle was expanding its cloud-computing
business, putting it in direct competition with Amazon.com's Web
Services unit. Oracle could use a new source of growth. Revenues this
year through May fell slightly from the previous year to $38.2 billion.
After building databases for the CIA, Ellison founded Oracle in 1977 and
tapped into businesses' growing need for customer relationship
management databases. Both of his children are looking to leave their
mark on Hollywood. Daughter Megan has financed films such as "Zero Dark
Thirty" and "American Hustle"; son David is a producer of mainstream
franchises like "The Terminator" and "Mission: Impossible".
The Top 15 Billionaire in The World
6. Charles Koch, $42.9 Billion
One of the most politically influential billionaires in the U.S.,
Charles Koch compares his crusade for smaller government and economic
liberty to the civil rights campaign. "Will you stand with us to help
save our country?" Koch asked the crowd gathered in August at the
Koch-backed Freedom Partners Policy Leaders conference in California. In
attendance were Republican hopefuls Jeb Bush, Florida Senator Marco
Rubio and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, all there to pay their respects to the
Kochs. Donald Trump wasn't invited. Funding for the Koch influence
machine comes from $115 billion (sales) Koch Industries, which Charles
continues to steer as chairman. He's held that job since 1967 when the
company was worth $50 million. Now the second largest private company in
America, it's valued at $100 billion. He owns the vast majority of the
business with his brother, David Koch, who runs its chemical technology
business.
The Top 15 Billionaire in The World
6(2). David Koch, $42.9 Billion
New York City's richest resident David Koch shares control of $115
billion (sales) Koch Industries, the second largest private company in
the U.S., with his older brother Charles. Koch Industries has interests
in oil pipelines, refineries, building materials, paper towels and Dixie
cups, and is growing with acquisitions fueled by the company's
prodigious cash flow. Charles is chairman, while David runs its chemical
technology business. The brothers' fortunes fell slightly in the past
year owing to weakness in the manufacturing and pipeline sectors. He's
also joined his brother's campaign to raise and spend almost $900
million on political activity, education and issues like criminal
justice reform in the run-up to the 2016 election. He is an active
philanthropist, having doled out $1.2 billion so far. The Metropolitan
Museum of Art has the David H. Koch Plaza, part of a $65 million
renovation he funded, and Koch, who has battled prostate cancer, paid $4
million of a $150 million pledge to build a new facility at Memorial
Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
The Top 15 Billionaire in The World
8. Christy Walton & family, $41.7 Billion
Christy Walton married into what became the richest family in the world
-- the Waltons, owners of the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart. She
inherited her fortune when her husband John Walton, a former Green Beret
and Vietnam war medic, died in an airplane crash in 2005. She also owns
a stake in solar panel maker First Solar that in mid-September 2015 was
worth about $1.3 billion. The bulk of her holdings are in Wal-Mart,
which her father-in-law Sam Walton and his brother James founded in
1962. Forbes estimates that Christy owns an 11% stake in the company,
lower than previous estimates as a result of new public filings by
Wal-Mart. She leads a very private life in Jackson, Wyoming, but in 2013
had a rare bit of publicity when she was given an award by the Imagen
Foundation for producing the film "Bless Me, Ultima," based on the book
by Rudolfo Anaya, who is considered the father of Chicano literature.
Her son battled cancer when he was just three years old and she fought a
case of pneumonia that nearly killed her, according to the Imagen
Foundation.
The Top 15 Billionaire in The World
9. Jim Walton, $40.6 Billion
Jim Walton is the youngest of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton's four
children. Jim sits on the board of the $486 billion (sales) retailer,
which has more than 11,000 stores worldwide. His brother Rob Walton
stepped down as chairman of the company in June 2015 after 23 years on
the job. The heirs of Sam Walton together own 51% of Wal-Mart's stock
through two entities: Walton Enterprises and Walton Family Holdings
Trust. Forbes estimates that Jim's stake in Wal-Mart is 12.8%. The stock
price fell 15% in the past year, owing in part to a slowdown in key
markets like Brazil and China. In February 2015, Wal-Mart announced it
would raise its wages in the U.S. to at least $9 an hour in 2015 and at
least $10 an hour in 2016. Labor advocates had called for a jump to $15
an hour. Outside of Wal-Mart, Jim Walton is chairman and CEO of the
family-founded Arvest Bank, which has branches in Arkansas, Kansas,
Oklahoma and Missouri. The bank has assets of nearly $16 billion and had
net profits of nearly $105 million in 2014.
The Top 15 Billionaire in The World
10. Liliane Bettencourt & family, $40.1 Billion
L'Oreal grand dame Liliane Bettencourt grew even richer in 2014 thanks
to a deal in which she purchased an additional 8% stake in the cosmetics
empire from Nestle, raising her and her family's chunk of L'Oreal stock
to 33%. Her father, Eugene Schueller, founded L'Oreal in 1907.
Bettencourt has not been involved in running the company for several
years; a legal battle with her daughter Françoise Bettencourt Meyers
proved Liliane unfit to manage affairs in 2011. The elderly widow, who
suffers from dementia, was replaced on the company's board by her
25-year-old grandson Jean-Victor Meyers in 2012. A trial of ten people
who allegedly stole hundreds of millions of euros from Bettencourt began
in January 2015. She remains the richest woman in Europe.
The Top 15 Billionaire in The World
11. Alice Walton, $39.4 Billion
Alice Walton's fortune stems from her stake in mega-retailer Wal-Mart,
which her father Sam founded back in 1962. Unlike her siblings Rob and
Jim -- also billionaires -- Alice hasn't taken an active role in the
company, instead focusing on collecting and curating art. Her work
culminated in the opening of the Crystal Bridges Art Museum in her
hometown of Bentonville, Ark., in 2011. In 2013, she purchased a New
Jersey home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and had it moved down to the
museum's campus; it opens for tours in fall. Other staples of the
collection include works from the likes of Andy Warhol, Norman Rockwell
and Georgia O'Keeffe. Some of the pieces in the museum she donated from
her personal collection, which is valued in the hundreds of millions of
dollars. She put her Texas ranch up for sale in September, asking nearly
$20 million for the 1,432-acre estate along the Brazos river near Fort
Worth. She's also dabbled in political spending, mostly to the
Republican party. In 2014 she donated $25,000 to establish a political
super-PAC supporting a U.S. presidential bid by Hillary Clinton.
Together Alice, her two brothers siblings and their sister-in-law
Christy (widow of their brother John, who died in a plane crash) own 51%
of Wal-Mart, with 11,000 stores.
The Top 15 Billionaire in The World
12. S. Robson Walton, $39.1 Billion
After nearly a quarter-century Rob Walton stepped down in June 2015 as
Wal-Mart chairman, a position he had held since his father Sam's death
in 1992. The eldest son, he remains on the board with his brother Jim.
Rob's son-in-law Gregory Penner succeeded him as chairman. Rob and Jim's
sister, Alice, and sister-in-law Christy have no role at Wal-Mart and
generally maintain low profiles. Christy married Sam's second son, John,
who died in a plane crash in 2005. Together the 3 siblings and their
sister-in-law Christy own 51% of Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer,
with 11,000 stores. The stock price fell 15% in the past year, erasing a
combined $16 billion from the 4 Waltons' fortunes, owing in part to a
slowdown in key markets like Brazil and China. Dad Sam started Wal-Mart
in 1962 in Rogers, Ark. with brother Bud. They quickly charmed Americans
with their bargain prices and down-home attitude, including the moment
in 1984 when Sam made good on a bet with his employees and danced the
hula on Wall Street after Wal-Mart achieved strong financial results.
The Top 15 Billionaire in The World
13. Bernard Arnault & family, $37.2 Billion
Considered one of the world's ultimate taste-makers, Bernard Arnault
oversees an empire of 70 brands including Dom Perignon, Bulgari, Louis
Vuitton, Fendi and Sephora, as well as 3,700 retail stores, all under
the umbrella of $34 billion (sales) luxury goods powerhouse LVMH, where
has been CEO since 1989. The bulk of his fortune is tied up in Christian
Dior stock, through which Arnault holds a controlling interest in LVMH.
He also has billions of dollars in LVMH stock directly, in supermarket
chain Carrefour and, most recently, in Hermes, which he got after LVMH
agreed in 2014 to relinquish its stake in the rival fashion house and
distribute the shares to its shareholders, including to Arnault. He got
his start in luxury in 1984 when he paid $15 million to buy a business
that included Christian Dior (his family owned a successful construction
company at the time). Today his two older children, Delphine and
Antoine, are intimately involved in expanding his vision. Antoine chairs
high-end Italian knits company Loro Piana and runs shoemaker Berluti.
Delphine serves as executive vice president at Louis Vuitton, LVMH's
biggest and most profitable brand. He is married to Helene Mercier, a
concert pianist, with whom he has three younger children.
The Top 15 Billionaire in The World
14. Michael Bloomberg, $35.5 Billion
Formerly America's richest politician as New York City mayor, Michael
Bloomberg is mostly occupied with reinvigorating the financial data and
media company bearing his name. Since returning as CEO in early 2015,
he's shaken up Bloomberg News, replacing its top editor and move to get
back to basics and focus on core business news. Bloomberg, a lifelong
Democrat before running on the Republican ticket as mayor and serving
three terms, still wields enormous political clout, spending millions of
dollars supporting progressive issues such as gun control and women's
economic development. His work has earned him some powerful supporters:
In August conservative Rupert Murdoch publicly urged him to run for
President. The former mayor has remained silent. So far Bloomberg has
not officially endorsed anyone but has told the New York Times that
"Hillary and Jeb are the only two who know how to make the trains run." A
major philanthropist, he announced a $100 million donation in June to
Cornell's New York City technology campus, bringing his overall lifetime
giving to $3.7 billion. In April Mike Bloomberg reportedly paid $25
million for a second London home; he owns a variety of properties around
the globe, including in the Hamptons, Manhattan, Westchester County,
Colorado and Bermuda.
The Top 15 Billionaire in The World
15. Jeff Bezos, $34.8 Billion, $34.8 Billion
Things are humming at Amazon.com under the leadership of Jeff Bezos. In
July the company announced a better-than-expected profit -$92 million-
for the second quarter. That news boosted the stock considerably, and
the gains have mostly stuck, making Bezos, who owns 18% of Amazon, the
fifth richest man in the world. It hasn't been all rosy. In August The
New York Times published a scathing story detailing the high-pressure,
long-hour work environment inside the retailer. In a letter to employees
in response, the Washington Post owner wrote that he didn't recognize
the company described but said that anyone working in a company like
that "would be crazy to stay." Bezos continues to make bold bets on new
technologies. In late July the company proposed a plan for
high-speed-drone airspace that would enable flying robots to carry
packages to consumers. In September Bezos announced that his aerospace
company, Blue Origin, would spend over $200 million to build reusable
rockets and launch them into orbit from a site at Cape Canaveral by the
end of the decade.
End of The Top 15 Billionaire in The World
source from Fobes.com
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