Here is an overview of the top 10 richest people in the world as of mid-to-late January 2026, drawing from consistent reports across Forbes and related sources (net worths are approximate and fluctuate daily with stock prices and private valuations):
1. Elon Musk (United States) — ~$714–788 billion
Driven by Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, and other ventures, Musk's wealth has set multiple historical records, including becoming the first person to exceed $700 billion and nearing $800 billion amid AI and autonomy hype.
2. Larry Page (United States) — ~$257–277 billion
Google/Alphabet co-founder, benefiting from the company's dominance in search, AI (via Gemini and cloud services), and advertising revenue.
3. Sergey Brin (United States) — ~$249–256 billion
Fellow Google co-founder, sharing similar gains from Alphabet's tech ecosystem.
4. Jeff Bezos (United States) — ~$239–254 billion
Amazon founder, with wealth tied to e-commerce, AWS cloud computing, and Blue Origin space efforts.
5. Larry Ellison (United States) — ~$245–252 billion
Oracle co-founder, boosted by enterprise software, cloud growth, and investments in AI and Tesla.
6. Mark Zuckerberg (United States) — ~$215–235 billion
Meta Platforms CEO, riding gains from social media, AI integrations, and metaverse investments.
7. Bernard Arnault (France) — ~$194–211 billion
LVMH chairman, leading the luxury goods sector with brands like Louis Vuitton and Dior.
8. Jensen Huang (United States) — ~$161+ billion
Nvidia CEO, propelled by explosive demand for AI chips and GPUs.
9. Amancio Ortega (Spain) — ~$147 billion
Zara/Inditex founder, entering the top 10 recently through retail and real estate holdings.
10. Warren Buffett (United States) — ~$146–152 billion
Berkshire Hathaway investor, known for value investing across diverse industries.
The collective net worth of the top 10 often exceeds $2.6 trillion , surpassing the GDP of many major economies and highlighting the concentration of wealth in tech. The broader list of billionaires has grown to around 3,000–3,030 individuals, with total global billionaire wealth nearing $16 trillion , up significantly in recent years due to asset appreciation in stocks, private companies, and emerging sectors like AI.
