The $100 Billion Club: These 14 People Have 12-Figure Fortunes

Forbes

From Bernard Arnault to Carlos Slim Helú, the number of people with dozen-digit fortunes is soaring.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2024/04/02/the-100-billion-club-these-14-people-have-12-figure-fortunes/?sh=66f74c7e2050  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00 Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Saturday, April 6.

00:04 Today on Forbes, the $100 billion club.

00:08 These 14 people have 12-figure fortunes.

00:13 There are some things that only money can buy, such as membership in the $100 billion

00:17 club, the elite class of billionaires who have 12-figure fortunes.

00:23 This year, a record 14 people worldwide qualify.

00:27 That's up from six last year and just one in 2020.

00:31 Many of them struck it rich by starting tech companies.

00:34 As a group, the world's billionaires are 120% richer than they were a decade ago.

00:40 But these 14, whose wealth is up 255% over the same stretch, have done much better than

00:46 the average billionaire.

00:48 Their net worths have far outpaced inflation, which is up 32%, and the broader stock market,

00:54 the S&P 500, is up 182%, placing them in the company of NFL franchises, which are up 257%,

01:02 in terms of skyrocketing value.

01:05 These 14 are worth $2 trillion in all, meaning just 0.5% of the world's 2,781 billionaires

01:12 hold 14% of all billionaire wealth.

01:15 It wasn't long ago that $100 billion seemed out of reach, even for the billionaire set.

01:22 In 1987, when Forbes published its first global wealth ranking, we found just two people,

01:28 both Japanese tycoons, worth more than $10 billion.

01:32 That's about $27 billion in today's dollars, a sum that would rank 69th on the 2024 list.

01:40 It took the dot-com bubble to create the first centibillionaire, Bill Gates, whose Microsoft

01:45 shares briefly pushed him beyond 11 figures in 1999 before the crash chopped his net worth

01:51 nearly in half.

01:53 No one would come close for almost two decades, even as markets soared before and after the

01:58 Great Recession.

02:00 Jeff Bezos finally cracked the code anew in late 2017, becoming the second $100 billionaire

02:06 when Amazon rocketed toward $1 trillion in market capitalization.

02:10 Still, it took until 2021 for the $100 billion club to expand beyond Bezos, when Elon Musk,

02:18 Bernard Arnault, and Bill Gates made the grade.

02:21 Now, with mega-wealth surging around the globe, membership is getting more common by the day.

02:27 A 15th person, L'Oreal heiress Francois Bettencourt-Meyers, worth $99.5 billion, is knocking on the door,

02:36 with tech mogul Michael Dell, worth $91 billion, not far behind her.

02:41 But for the moment, Earth's most exclusive club for the mega-wealthy only has 14 members.

02:47 As a reminder, all net worths on our list are as of March 8, 2024.

02:53 Most of these names will be very familiar to our regular Forbes audience.

02:57 Bernard Arnault is at the top with a whopping $233 billion.

03:01 He's followed by Elon Musk, who is worth $195 billion.

03:05 Right behind him, there's Jeff Bezos at $194 billion.

03:10 At number four is Mark Zuckerberg, worth $177 billion.

03:14 And Larry Ellison rounds out the top five with $141 billion.

03:19 At number six is Warren Buffett, with $133 billion.

03:24 Shares of his Berkshire Hathaway company are at record highs, up 30% from last year.

03:31 Bill Gates is at number seven, with a net worth of $128 billion.

03:36 Despite being nearly the wealthiest he's ever been, Gates ranks the lowest he has since

03:41 1992, thanks to stiff competition at the top, a costly 2021 divorce, and the $59 billion

03:48 he has given to charity.

03:50 The Microsoft co-founder was the world's richest person for 18 of the 23 years from

03:55 1995 to 2017.

03:59 Behind Gates, and also having derived his wealth from Microsoft, is Steve Ballmer, whose

04:04 net worth is $121 billion.

04:07 The Los Angeles Clippers owner will move his team, the NBA's fifth most valuable, to a

04:12 new stadium this summer, the privately financed $2 billion Intuit Dome near LAX Airport.

04:20 Ballmer's fortune surged by $40 billion since last year, due in part to the Clippers' higher

04:24 value but mostly thanks to soaring Microsoft shares.

04:29 At number nine is Mukesh Ambani of India, who is worth $116 billion.

04:34 Ambani became the first Asian member of the $100 billion club this year, thanks to the

04:39 booming shares of his conglomerate, Reliance Industries.

04:43 The Google co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, clock in next at number 10 and 11, with

04:49 $114 billion and $110 billion, respectively.

04:54 The next ranked members of the 12-figure fortunes club are Michael Bloomberg at number 12 with

04:59 $106 billion and Amacio Ortega of Spain at number 13 with $103 billion.

05:07 Ortega's clothing retailer, Inditex, runs the Zara fast fashion chain.

05:13 Finally there's Carlos "Slim" Elu of Mexico, whose net worth is $102 billion.

05:19 He made his fortune in the telecom industry.

05:23 Slim ranked as the richest person in the world from 2010 to 2013, though there are now 13

05:28 others ahead of him, he's still wealthier than he's ever been, thanks to a surge in

05:33 the Mexican peso and a 60% jump in share price for his industrial conglomerate, Grupo Carso.

05:40 For full coverage, check out Chase Peterson Whithorn's piece on Forbes.com.

05:46 This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

05:48 Thanks for tuning in.

05:50 [Music]

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