Mapping The Richest People In The World

A few weeks ago, HowMuch.net detailed the richest person on each continent. Today, we take this one step further to show you the richest person in each country, according to Forbes.

Source: HowMuch.net

First off, Bill Gates is not on our list. Why? Because Jeff Bezos is officially worth more than him. Amazon has made some recent high-profile business decisions, including the acquisition of Whole Foods and announcing a competition for the location of a second headquarters. Bezos’ fortune is specifically tied to the price of Amazon’s stock. He’s been in first place and fallen behind Mr. Gates before, but for now, he remains in the top spot. Carlos Slim Helu ($61.9B) and David Thomson ($26.9B) round out the continent, although we should mention the richest billionaire in the Caribbean too: Jacky Xu, who made his money in the apparel industry.

Turning to Europe gives us a more diverse group of billionaires from a wide range of industries.

Source: HowMuch.net

Amancio Ortega from Spain takes the top spot with a fortune of almost $75 billion, followed by Bernard Arnault at just under $63 billion. These two men are in the top the five richest people in the world. We should note that the countries in what used to be Yugoslavia are missing from our list, as are many places in Eastern Europe. These economies still have a long way to go before they produce ultra-rich billionaires.

The situation in the Middle East and Asia reflects the industries dominating these local economies.

Source: HowMuch.net

Russia’s richest person, Alexey Mordashov, made his fortune in steel and investments, while the richest tycoon in Kazakhstan, Vladimir Kim, made his money in mining. China’s and Japan’s wealthiest billionaires both made their way through technology companies, and Philip Ng from Singapore made his money through real estate. Interestingly, the countries west of China stretching toward Syria don’t have any billionaires on our list.

About half the countries in South America are rich enough to produce multi-billionaires, three of whom come from the finance and banking industries.

Source: HowMuch.net

Jorge Paulo Lemann is the richest among the group with a net worth of almost $30 billion. He made his money by investing in breweries, which through a series of mergers and acquisitions became AmBev.

The situation in Africa is telling.

Source: HowMuch.net

Only eight people make our list of billionaires, many of whom come from old industries like construction, diamonds and food. Only two people are from the banking and investment industries. Most importantly, look at all the countries with a light shade of green. Our map indicates at a quick glance how far Africa needs to go in terms of developing its economies.

Oceana contributes four people to our list, and they all have more than $10 billion through a variety of industries.

Source: HowMuch.net

Budi Hartono for instance boasts a fortune of $11.5 billion and has a background in banking and tobacco, and Gina Rinehart ($16.8B) from Australia made her money in mining.

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Take a look at our list breaking down the ten richest people in the world regardless of where they live, together with their estimated net worth ($ billion), how they made their money, and where they live.

1. Jeff Bezos: $95.1B - Amazon.com in United States ($100.3 Billion as of Friday)

2. Amancio Ortega: $74.4B - Zara in Spain

3. Carlos Slim Helu: $64.9B - Telecom in Mexico

4. Bernard Arnault: $62.9B - LVMH in France

5. Ma Huateng: $43.4B - Internet media in China

6. Mukesh Ambani: $39.2B - Petrochemicals, oil & gas in India

7. Li Ka-shing: $33.8B – Diversified endeavors in Hong Kong

8. Maria Franca Fissolo: $30.2B - Nutella, chocolates in Italy

9. Jorge Paulo Lemann: $30.1B - Beer and Brazil

10. Beate Heister & Karl Albrecht Jr.: $29.2B - Supermarkets in Germany

Consider this fact. If you add together the fortune of these ten people, you’d have over half a trillion dollars. That’s a ton of money, and the big lesson is that billionaires can come from a variety of different industries. But once again, what’s the missing continent with the furthest to grow? Africa. 

Bezos Falls To 3rd Spot Among World's Richest

How fast the fortunes of the world"s richest shift: just two weeks ago, when AMZN hit its all time high on July 27, its CEO Jeff Bezos briefly surpassed Bill Gates as the world"s richest man for the first time ever, despite growing rumors and rumblings of regulatory pushback against Amazon which is rapidly emerging as the biggest monopoly threat to established legacy industries.

Fast forward two weeks and Bezos is no longer the world"s richest man, he isn"t even the world"s second richest man because after yesterday"s market slump and Nasdaq plunge that drained $42.7 billion from the net worth of the world’s 500 richest people, the drop in Amazon stock...

.... was enough to push Bezos from his spot as the world’s second-richest person according to Bloomberg calculations. The worst market rout since May, lopped $2 billion from Bezos’s fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, after AMZN dropped 2.6% to under $957, more than $100 lower than its July 27 all time high of just over $1.080.

As a result, Bezos is now worth "only" $82.2 billion about $600 million behind Spanish retail magnate Amancio Ortega, founder of the Zara clothing chain.

The losses, which came following the escalating jawboning and war of words between President Trump North Korea, spanned multiple regions and industries, but tech billionaires were hit the hardest, accounting for seven of the 10 biggest declines. NetEase Chairman Lei Ding incurred the second-largest loss, dropping $1.8 billion to $16.8 billion, followed by Facebook"s Mark Zuckerberg, whose net worth slid $1.6 billion to $71.2 billion, rounding off the list of the Top 5 richest people in the world.

Meanwhile, the top spot once again belongs to Bill Gates, who briefly ceded the No. 1 spot to Bezos on an intraday basis two weeks ago; Gates lost $848.5 million on Thursday which however was not nearly enough to dethrone him from the rank of world"s richest, with a net worth of $90 billion.

Bezos Bursts Above Buffett To Become World's Second Richest Man

On the heels of the melt-up in US mega-cap tech stocks, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has leapt past Amancio Ortega and Warren Buffett to become the world’s second-richest person.

As Bloomberg reports, the 53-year-old founder of Amazon.com Inc. added $1.5 billion to his net worth on Wednesday, the day after the e-commerce giant announced it will buy Dubai-based online retailer Souq.com, and has added over $7 billion since the global equities rally began following the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president on Nov. 8.

Bezos has a net worth of $75.6 billion on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That’s $700 million more than Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Buffett and $1.3 billion above Ortega, the founder of Inditex SA and Europe’s richest person. Buffett, who’s added $1.7 billion in 2017, has shed $4.7 billion since his fortune peaked at $79.6 billion on March 1. Ortega is up $2.1 billion year-to-date.

Bezos remains $10.4 billion behind Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, the world’s richest person with $86 billion.

If AMZN topped $1000 - while MSFT flatlined - Bezos would take Gates.

How 8 Men Have Become Richer Than Half of the Entire World’s Population

January 18, 2017   |   Shaun Bradley

(ANTIMEDIA) Research and advocacy group Oxfam International released a new report on Monday that outlines the latest developments in global economic inequality. Unfortunately, the results validate previous concerns that these massive imbalances would only accelerate. The number of people who control more wealth than the poorest 50% went from 62 to 8 in just one year. With half the world’s net worth now in such few hands, it should be easier than ever to bring awareness to this ongoing trend — but finding a solution is far more complicated.

Oxfam used Forbes’ list of billionaires and new information from Credit Suisse to reach their conclusion. The eight individuals named are Bill Gates; Amancio Ortega, founder of fashion house Inditex; Warren Buffett; Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim Helu; Jeff Bezos; Mark Zuckerberg; Oracle’s Larry Ellison; and Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York.

Although many people with resources like these have made tremendous contributions to society, the question of how obligated they are to contribute to the common good still remains. After all, their fortunes have the potential to completely reshape the world for the better, but the problem arises when government dictates how much should be taxed and where that money will go. The public sector’s track record of wasting and mismanaging funds is unmatched and can only be rationalized by the economically illiterate. In an ideal world, bureaucrats would be fiscally responsible and impervious to corruption, but reality is never so utopian.

The rapid consolidation of wealth by so few showcases who the current government policies have benefited most. Artificially low interest rates and money printing, which have sent stock markets soaring for nearly eight years, have only helped solidify the elite’s hold on the financial world. They can borrow money for next to nothing and buy up huge stakes in companies, all while enjoying profits courtesy of the Federal Reserve’s stimulus programs.

Government regulations may stem from good intentions, but they can easily create a dragnet that ends up targeting those they were intended to help. While normal people are losing their jobs, seeing rent skyrocket and health care costs explode, the State has been propping up those it really serves.

In the report, Oxfam vaguely lays the blame at the feet of corporations:

“Businesses are the lifeblood of a market economy, and when they work to the benefit of everyone they are vital to building fair and prosperous societies. But when corporations increasingly work for the rich, the benefits of economic growth are denied to those who need them most. In pursuit of delivering high returns to those at the top, corporations are driven to squeeze their workers and producers ever harder – and to avoid paying taxes which would benefit everyone, and the poorest people in particular.”

Since the financial crisis began, the 1% has been scapegoated continuously, but complaining about an abstract hierarchy won’t help the millions of people living on less than $2 a day. If substantial changes are going to be made, the focus needs to be on finding hard evidence of tax evasion and unethical business practices on an individual level rather than demonizing anyone with substantial wealth. Verifiable information is what sways public opinion, just like the Panama Papers did by taking the first step in exposing some of the world’s richest people for utilizing tax havens and loopholes to avoid being held responsible. Instead of indiscriminately blaming all those who have achieved success, reports like this could act as a blueprint to help put names and faces to those anonymous adversaries who have avoided accountability.

In this age of information, the opportunity to seek individual justice lays with every journalist and activist. When people group others into left-right, rich-poor, or privileged-oppressed, for example, the uniqueness of each individual experience is lost. The inequality seen across the planet is heartbreaking, and any person with a shred of empathy should want to help. Unfortunately, the solution is rarely State intervention. The tool used to remedy this situation must come from grassroots origins. As government’s management of resources demonstrates, there is no other viable alternative. By inspiring others to take action voluntarily, we can build a foundation that doesn’t rely on the threat of violence and use of force for progress.

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