World Richest Man and Their Business
Are you curious to know who the world’s richest man is? Well, brace yourself because we’re about to unveil a list of some of the wealthiest individuals on the planet. But it doesn’t end there – we’ll also delve into their business empires and how they built their fortunes. From tech giants to fashion moguls, these billionaires have created some of the most successful companies in history. So sit back, grab a cuppa, and take a closer look at the world’s richest man and their business ventures!
Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos is the founder and CEO of Amazon.com, the world’s largest online retailer. He started Amazon in 1994 as an online bookstore, but it quickly expanded to sell a wide variety of items, including electronics, clothing, and home goods.
Bezos has a long history of entrepreneurism. He started his first business, an airfreight company called Blue Origin, in 2000. He also owns The Washington Post, which he purchased in 2013. In 2018, Forbes estimated Bezos’ net worth to be $112 billion, making him the richest man in the world.
Bill Gates
Bill Gates is an American business magnate, software developer, and philanthropist. He is the co-founder of Microsoft Corporation. Gates has held the top spot on the Forbes list of The World’s Richest People for 18 out of the past 23 years, between 1995 and 2018. In October 2017, Gates was surpassed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as the richest person in the world. As of June 2019, Gates had a net worth of $106.8 billion, making him the second-richest person in the world, behind Bezos.
Gates was born in Seattle, Washington, on October 28, 1955. He showed an early interest in computer programming, which he began exploring at age 13 on his school’s Xerox Sigma V mainframe computer. When he was 17 years old, Gates formed a company called Traf-O-Data with his friend Paul Allen to make traffic counters based on the Intel 8008 processor chip. Gates left Harvard University after two years to work full-time at Microsoft, a company he and Allen had founded in 1975.
Microsoft became successful with personal computer operating systems and programming languages such as MS-DOS and C++. The company went public in 1986, making Gates and Allen multimillionaires overnight. In subsequent years they continued to develop new products for Microsoft Windows and Office software suites. By 1996, Microsoft was earning annual revenues of more than US$8 billion; by 2012, its revenues had reached US$78 billion.
Bernard Arnault
Bernard Arnault is the Chairman and CEO of LVMH, the world’s largest luxury goods company. He is also the richest man in France and the fourth richest man in the world, with a net worth of $84.6 billion as of March 2019.
Arnault was born in 1949 in Roubaix, France. He began his career working for his father’s construction company, Ferret-Savinel. In 1976, he joined the French conglomerate Boussac, overseeing several businesses, including Dior Couture. In 1984, he became chairman of Financiere Agache, a holding company controlling several fashion and retail brands.
In 1987, Arnault acquired control of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton through a hostile takeover and merged it with his own holding company to form LVMH. Under his leadership, LVMH has become the largest luxury goods company in the world, with over 70 brands in its portfolio, including Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Fendi, Marc Jacobs, and Givenchy.
In addition to his business accomplishments, Arnault is an art collector and patron. He sits on the board of trustees of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Pompidou Centre Foundation. He has also been active in philanthropy, donating €200 million to rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral after it was damaged by fire in April 2019.
Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and is considered one of the most successful investors in the world.
Buffett was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and began his career as a paperboy at age thirteen. He later worked various jobs, including selling insurance and as an investment analyst. He eventually started his investment firm, Berkshire Hathaway, in 1962.
Buffett is known for his value investing strategy, which involves buying stocks undervalued by the market and holding onto them for long-term growth. He has also been a major contributor to philanthropic causes, donating billions of dollars to organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Amancio Ortega
Amancio Ortega is the world’s richest man, and he’s most well-known for his fashion empire, Inditex. Ortega started out as a clerk in a clothing store in Spain and eventually rose to become the owner of the store. He then founded Inditex in 1984, and it has since become one of the largest fashion retailers in the world. In addition to his fashion businesses, Ortega has investments in real estate and other industries. He is currently worth an estimated $85 billion.
Larry Ellison
Larry Ellison is an American businessman and the founder of Oracle Corporation, one of the world’s leading enterprise software companies. He is also one of the richest men in the world, with a net worth of over $50 billion.
Ellison was born in New York City in 1944 but was raised in Chicago. His father died when he was just nine years old, and his mother later remarried and moved to Southern California. Ellison dropped out of college after just one semester and then moved to Northern California in 1967 to work as a programmer for Ampex Corporation.
In 1977, Ellison founded Oracle Corporation with two partners. Oracle quickly became successful, and Ellison became known as a visionary leader in the tech industry. Under his guidance, Oracle has grown to become one of the largest software companies in the world, with annual revenues of over $38 billion.
Ellison is also known for his philanthropy; he has donated billions of dollars to charitable causes. In 2010, he signed The Giving Pledge, committing to donate at least half of his fortune to philanthropic causes during his lifetime or after death.
Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg is an American computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur. He is the chairman, chief executive officer, and co-founder of the social networking website Facebook. His net worth is estimated to be US$61.4 billion as of March 2017, making him the fifth richest person in the world.
Zuckerberg was born in White Plains, New York, to Karen (née Kempner), a psychiatrist, and Edward Zuckerberg, a dentist. He and his three sisters were brought up in Dobbs Ferry, New York. Zuckerberg attended Ardsley High School before transferring to Phillips Exeter Academy, where he won prizes in science (maths, astronomy) and classical studies (Latin) and was captain of the fencing team.
In early 2004, while at Harvard, Zuckerberg launched Facebook from his dorm room. The site was initially only open to Harvard students but soon expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League schools, Stanford University, and most universities in the United States and Canada. In June 2004, Facebook moved its base of operations to Palo Alto, California. The company held its initial public offering (IPO) in February 2012, valued at $104 billion at IPO time. Facebook makes most of its revenue from advertisements that appear onscreen. However, it has also started experimenting with other business models, such as premium membership fees for extra features not available for free users or micropayments for virtual goods within games on its site like Farmville.