‘Shift at the top’ among billionaires: Jeff Bezos reclaiming the title of the world’s richest person, ahead of Elon Musk after spending a period away from the top spot between 2018 and 2021. Bezos’s net worth is calibrated at around 200 billion euros according to Bloomberg’s billionaire index, buoyed by the rising value of Amazon shares. He stepped back from daily leadership of the retail giant in early 2021 to focus more on philanthropy and other ventures, yet he remains executive chairman and the largest shareholder with an estimated 9.3% stake. Musk’s wealth has slipped mainly due to Tesla’s share price decline, bringing his fortune to roughly 198 billion dollars.
Bezos has moved steadily forward in recent years, securing the crown of the world’s wealthiest person. The iconic American newspaper The Washington Post is owned by Nash Holdings LLC, a Bezos-controlled entity, and Bezos also runs the space company Blue Origin. Since July of 2023, Blue Origin has been seeking partnerships in Europe and other markets to establish a launch site, signaling a broader push beyond the United States to advance space exploration. Bezos has also invested in high-profile ventures such as the media outlet Business Insider, Airbnb, and Uber Technologies, and his real estate portfolio is valued in the hundreds of millions, including notable properties like a textile museum district and historic estates on the West Coast.
In the last month, Bezos faced scrutiny after selling around 4 billion dollars in Amazon shares as part of a plan to divest up to 50 million shares before January 31, 2025. This marked the most aggressive stock sale by Bezos since 2021. Reports from the Financial Times indicated that the cash generation was intended to fund the latest Blue Origin programs to outpace SpaceX and Starlink, both of which belong to Elon Musk.
By the close of 2023, Musk also owned X (formerly Twitter) and held a net worth of about 232 billion dollars. Bloomberg’s latest figures show a reduction to around 198 billion, driven largely by Tesla stock declines, but also by a Delaware court ruling that affected compensation. A late-January decision voided a 56 billion-dollar compensation package that Tesla granted to Musk when he allegedly wielded outsized influence over the board at the time the package was approved.
Amancio Ortega, the lone Spaniard among the top 20 wealthiest globally
Amancio Ortega, founder of Inditex, sits as the 16th richest person in the world, with a fortune approaching 89 billion dollars. He stands as the first Spaniard in Bloomberg’s top 20 and the sole representative from Spain in that elite group. Ortega sits just behind the world’s wealthiest woman, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, heiress to L’Oréal, who is valued at about 97.1 billion dollars. The list remains dominated by American elites, with a few notable European names breaking through the usual pattern, including the French magnate Bernard Arnault.
Arnault, chairman and chief executive of LVMH, rounds out the top tier with a patrimony around 197 billion euros. Close on his heels is Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, with an estimated fortune of 179 billion dollars, followed by Bill Gates, the long-standing tech pioneer and co-founder of Microsoft, valued at about 150 billion dollars. In contrast, Gautam Adani, who briefly ranked fourth last year, fell to the 20-something position with an estimated 104 billion dollars after exposing concerns raised in a critical report by Hindenburg Research alleging accounting and asset-movement irregularities spanning decades.