RANK NAME 2014 WEALTH (BILLIONS) COUNTRY SELF-MADE? SECTOR 1 Bill Gates $76 USA ✓ Tech 2 Carlos Slim Helu $72 Mexico ✓ Telecom 3 Amancio Ortega $64 Spain ✓ Retail 4 Warren Buffett $58 USA ✓ Finance 5 Larry Ellison $48 USA ✓ Tech 6 Charles Koch $40 USA Diversified 7 David Koch $40 USA Diversified 8 Sheldon Adelson $38 USA ✓ Entertainment 9 Christy Walton $37 USA Retail 10 Jim Walton $35 USA Retail 11 Liliane Bettencourt $35 France Product 12 Stefan Persson $34 Sweden Retail 13 Alice Walton $34 USA Retail 14 S. Robson Walton $34 USA Retail 15 Bernard Arnault $34 France Luxury 16 Michael Bloomberg $33 USA ✓ Finance 17 Larry Page $32 USA ✓ Tech 18 Jeff Bezos $32 USA ✓ Retail 19 Sergey Brin $32 USA ✓ Tech 20 Li Ka-shing $31 Hong Kong ✓ Diversified 21 Mark Zuckerberg $29 USA ✓ Tech 22 Michele Ferrero $27 Italy Food 23 Aliko Dangote $25 Nigeria ✓ Commodities 24 Karl Albrecht $25 Germany ✓ Retail 25 Carl Icahn $25 USA ✓ Finance 26 George Soros $23 USA ✓ Finance 27 David Thomson $23 Canada Media 28 Lui Che Woo $22 Hong Kong ✓ Entertainment 29 Dieter Schwarz $21 Germany Retail 30 Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud $20 Saudi Arabia ✓ Finance 31 Forrest Mars Jr. $20 USA Food 32 Jacqueline Mars $20 USA Food 33 John Mars $20 USA Food 34 Jorge Paulo Lemann $20 Brazil ✓ Drinks 35 Lee Shau Kee $20 Hong Kong ✓ Diversified 36 Steve Ballmer $19 USA ✓ Tech 37 Theo Albrecht Jr. $19 Germany Retail 38 Leonardo Del Vecchio $19 Italy ✓ Luxury 39 Len Blavatnik $19 USA ✓ Diversified 40 Alisher Usmanov $19 Russia ✓ Extractives 41 Mukesh Ambani $19 India Extractives 42 Masayoshi Son $18 Japan ✓ Telecom 43 Michael Otto $18 Germany Retail 44 Phil Knight $18 USA ✓ Retail 45 Tadashi Yanai $18 Japan ✓ Retail 46 Gina Rinehart $18 Australia Extractives 47 Mikhail Fridman $18 Russia ✓ Extractives 48 Michael Dell $18 USA ✓ Tech 49 Susanne Klatten $17 Germany Cars 50 Abigail Johnson $17 USA Finance 51 Viktor Vekselberg $17 Russia ✓ Metals 52 Lakshmi Mittal $17 India Metals 53 Vladimir Lisin $17 Russia ✓ Transport 54 Cheng Yu-tung $16 Hong Kong ✓ Diversified 55 Joseph Safra $16 Brazil ✓ Finance 56 Paul Allen $16 USA ✓ Tech 57 Leonid Mikhelson $16 Russia ✓ Extractives 58 Anne Cox Chambers $16 USA Media 59 Francois Pinault $16 France ✓ Retail 60 Iris Fontbona $16 Chile Extractives 61 Azim Premji $15 India Tech 62 Mohammed Al Amoudi $15 Saudi Arabia ✓ Extractives 63 Gennady Timchenko $15 Russia ✓ Extractives 64 Wang Jianlin $15 China ✓ Real Estate 65 Charles Ergen $15 USA ✓ Telecom 66 Stefan Quandt $15 Germany Cars 67 Germán Larrea Mota Velasco $15 Mexico Extractives 68 Harold Hamm $15 USA ✓ Extractives 69 Ray Dalio $14 USA ✓ Finance 70 Donald Bren $14 USA ✓ Real Estate 71 Georg Schaeffler $14 Germany Product 72 Luis Carlos Sarmiento $14 Colombia ✓ Finance 73 Ronald Perelman $14 USA ✓ Finance 74 Laurene Powell Jobs $14 USA Entertainment 75 Serge Dassault $14 France Aviation 76 John Fredriksen $14 Cyprus ✓ Transport 77 Vagit Alekperov $14 Russia ✓ Extractives 78 John Paulson $14 USA ✓ Finance 79 Rupert Murdoch $14 USA ✓ Media 80 Ma Huateng $13 China ✓ Tech ********* Eighty people hold the same amount of wealth as the world’s 3.6 billion poorest people, according to an analysis just released from Oxfam. The report from the global anti-poverty organization finds that since 2009, the wealth of those 80 richest has doubled in nominal terms — while the wealth of the poorest 50 percent of the world’s population has fallen. To see how much wealth the richest 1 percent and the poorest 50 percent hold, Oxfam used research from Credit Suisse, a Swiss financial services company, and Forbes’s annual billionaires list. Oxfam then looked at how many of the world’s richest people would need to pool their resources to have as much wealth as the poorest 50 percent — and as of March 2014, it was just 80 people. Four years earlier, 388 billionaires together held as much wealth as the poorest 50 percent of the world. Thirty-five of the 80 richest people in the world are U.S. citizens, with combined wealth of $941 billion in 2014. Together in second place are Germany and Russia, with seven mega-rich individuals apiece. The entire list is dominated by one gender, though — 70 of the 80 richest people are men. And 68 of the people on the list are 50 or older. If those 80 individuals were to bump into each on Svenborgia, what might they talk about? Retail could be a good conversation starter — 14 of the 80 got their wealth that way. Or they could discuss “extractives” (industries like oil, gas and mining, to which 11 of them owe their fortunes), finance (also 11 of them) or tech (10 of them). There might be some quiet voices in the room, though, because 11 of the wealthiest people on the planet were simply born into their money (19 others inherited their wealth and then made it grow). The remaining 50 names on the list, according to Forbes, are self-made billionaires. Oxfam notes that global wealth inequality is increasing while the rich get richer. If trends continue, the organization projects that the richest 1 percent of people will have more wealth than the remaining 99 percent by 2016. Here’s the list of the 80 people with as much wealth as the world’s poorest 3.6 billion people:
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 19:34:46 +0000
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