Forbes World’s Billionaires List 2021: Jeff Bezos Tops for Fourth Consecutive Year, Elon Musk Ranks Second

From left: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, China’s Kate Wang, Elon Musk, and Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote. MAJA HITIJ/GETTY IMAGES, STEFEN CHOW FOR FORBES, MICHAEL PRINCE FOR FORBES (2)

The number of billionaires on Forbes’ 35th annual ranking swelled by 660 to 2,755 — a roughly 30 percent jump from a year ago — and 493 of them are first-timers. Seven of eight are richer than they were before the pandemic. Forbes calculates net worth by using stock prices and exchange rates from March 5.The number of newly minted and reissued billionaires soared last year, Forbes reported Tuesday in its annual ranking, a staggering accumulation of personal wealth that stands in sharp contrast with the widespread economic struggles unleashed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Forbes' annual world's billionaires list includes a record-breaking 2,755 billionaires, with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos topping it for the fourth consecutive year, the media company said on Tuesday.

The ranks of the ultra-wealthy are expanding after a year in which the coronavirus pandemic upended world economies and threatened the livelihoods of people across the globe.

This year's billionaires are worth a combined $13.1 trillion, up from $8 trillion last year, Forbes said.

"The very, very rich got very, very richer," said Forbes' Chief Content Officer Randall Lane, in an interview with Reuters Video News.

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk jumped into second spot on the list, up from 31st last year.

Bernard Arnault, chief executive of luxury goods firm LVMH, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg round out the top five of the world's richest billionaires.

Investor and business tycoon Warren Buffett fell out of the top five for the first time in over two decades, as tech executives dominate the Forbes rankings.

This year's list has 493 newcomers, including Whitney Wolfe Herd, chief executive of dating app Bumble, which went public this year.

#1 | Jeff Bezos
NET WORTH: $177 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: AMAZON
RESIDENCE: SEATTLE

#2 | Elon Musk
NET WORTH: $151 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: TESLA, SPACEX
RESIDENCE: AUSTIN, TEXAS

#3 | Bernard Arnault
NET WORTH: $150 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: LUXURY GOODS
RESIDENCE: PARIS

#4 | Bill Gates
NET WORTH: $124 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: MICROSOFT
RESIDENCE: MEDINA, WASHINGTON

#5 | Mark Zuckerberg
NET WORTH: $97 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: FACEBOOK
RESIDENCE: PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA

#6 | Warren Buffett
NET WORTH: $96 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY
RESIDENCE: OMAHA, NEBRASKA

#7 | Larry Ellison
NET WORTH: $93 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: SOFTWARE
RESIDENCE: LANAI, HAWAII

#8 | Larry Page
NET WORTH: $91.5 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: GOOGLE
RESIDENCE: PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA

#9 | Sergey Brin
NET WORTH: $89 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: GOOGLE
RESIDENCE: LOS ALTOS, CALIFORNIA

#10 | Mukesh Ambani
NET WORTH: $84.5 BILLION
SOURCE OF WEALTH: DIVERSIFIED
RESIDENCE: MUMBAI, INDIA

L-R: Nicky Oppenheimer of South Africa, Aliko Dangote of Nigeria and Nassef Sawiris of Egypt PER-ANDERS PETTERSSON/ GETTY IMAGES, WEI LENG TAY/BLOOMBERG, STEPHEN YANG/BLOOMBERG

In Africa—as elsewhere in the world—the wealthiest have come through the pandemic just fine. The continent’s 18 billionaires are worth an average $4.1 billion, 12% more than a year ago, driven in part by Nigeria’s surging stock market. For the tenth year in a row, Aliko Dangote of Nigeria is the continent’s richest person, worth $12.1 billion, up by $2 billion from last year’s list thanks to a roughly 30% rise in the share price of Dangote Cement, by far his most valuable asset. The second richest is Nassef Sawiris of Egypt, whose largest asset is a nearly 6% stake in sportswear maker Adidas. At number three: Nicky Oppenheimer of South Africa, who inherited a stake in diamond firm DeBeers and ran the company until 2012, when he sold his family’s 40% stake in DeBeers to mining giant AngloAmerican for $5.1 billion.

The biggest gainer this year is another Nigerian cement tycoon, Abdulsamad Rabiu. Remarkably, shares of his BUA Cement PLC, which listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange in January 2020, have doubled in value in the past year. That pushed Rabiu’s fortune up by an extraordinary 77%, to $5.5 billion. One thing to note: Rabiu and his son together own about 97% of the company, giving the company a tiny public float. The Nigerian Stock Exchange requires that either 20% or more of a company’s shares to be floated to the public, or that the floated shares are worth at least 20 billion naira — about $50 million — a paltry sum, to be sure. A spokesman for the Nigerian Stock Exchange told Forbes that BUA Cement meets the second requirement. (Forbes discounts the value of stakes when the public float of a company is less than 5%.)

While some got richer by the billions, two from the 2020 list of Africa’s richest dropped below the $1 billion mark. In fact, the only two women billionaires from Africa have both fallen off the list. Forbes calculates that the fortune of Folorunsho Alakija of Nigeria, who owns an oil exploration company, dropped below $1 billion due to lower oil prices. And Isabel dos Santos, who since 2013 has been the richest woman in Africa, was knocked from her perch by a series of court decisions freezing her assets in both Angola and Portugal. In January 2020, the attorney general of Angola charged Dos Santos with embezzlement and money laundering. The Angolan court claimed that actions taken by Dos Santos, her husband Sindika Dokolo (who died in October 2020, reportedly in a scuba diving accident) and one other associate caused the Angolan government losses of at least $1.14 billion. Forbes has marked Dos Santos’ frozen assets at zero. Through a spokesperson, Dos Santos declined to comment.

The 18 billionaires from Africa hail from seven different countries. South Africa and Egypt each have five billionaires, followed by Nigeria with three and Morocco with two. Altogether they are worth $73.8 billion, slightly more than the $73.4 billion aggregate worth of the 20 billionaires on last year’s list of Africa’s richest people. See the full list of Africa’s billionaires here.

April 07, 2021