Ask anyone who the richest person of all time might be and more often than not, they would name Elon Musk, the new CEO of Twitter. Having a similar query in mind, we decided to take up the challenge to find out who takes the elusive title of being the richest person of all time.
The work and perseverance paid off as we now have the answer, which we have put our own twist. This revised list, as of 2023, below covers 14 individuals, combining both genders, based as far as possible on wealth as represented by current GDP standards. If you’re looking for the current list of the richest women in the world, or the top 10 richest LGBTQ people in the world, we have also updated it.
Jeff Bezos ($116 Billion)
Jeffrey Preston Bezos is an American entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor and commercial astronaut. He is the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon. Bezos has a degree in computer engineering and his net worth is estimated to be $116 Billion as of February 2023.
Genghis Khan (Vast array of land)
An example of how wealth cannot be limited to monetary value is the Mongolian leader at the bottom of this exclusive list. His claim to glory? It happens to be the vast amounts of land he owned from his rule over what would become the world’s largest contiguous empire. To be noted that this formidable ruler built no palace, no temple or tomb, unlike other wealthy rulers of his time.
As a serial tech entrepreneur, Elon Musk is named as one of the “richest man in modern history” by Forbes. His two companies, Tesla and SpaceX have been at the forefront of innovation and overtook Jeff Bezos. Musk bought out Twitter in 2022, a move he wishes can strengthen his influence within the tech world.
The nephew of William the Conqueror, Alan the Red joined his uncle in the Norman Conquest. Upon his death, he is believed to have had a mere £11,000 to his name; however, this amounted to nearly 7 per cent of England’s GDP. On balance, in today’s terms, Alan the Red can legitimately be considered one of the richest of all time.
Bernard Arnault ($202 Billion)
He is the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world’s largest luxury goods company. Arnault has an estimated net worth of US$202 billion as of February 2023, according to Forbes, making him the wealthiest person in the world.
He first built his wealth in 1863 by investing in the petroleum industry at the age of 27. Two decades later, his company was in control of 90 per cent of America’s oil production. By 1918, he was estimated to beworth nearly 2 per cent of U.S GDP. His wealth also includes the iconic Rockefeller Centre in the heart of New York City.
Originally a Scottish immigrant, the steel magnate sold his company to J.P Morgan for $480 Million (2.1 per cent of U.S GDP). In terms of 2014, this makes Carnegie richer than Rockefeller by a little bit over $31 billion, though they are on a level playing field in terms of iconic buildings bearing their name. Carnegie Hall anyone?
Catherine the Great ($1.5 Trillion)
She assumed power after her husband’s assassination in 1762, and from then on, the Russian ruler amassed considerable wealth, land and political power. Withan empire valued at nearly 5 per cent of the global GDP, the longest-reigning female Russian monarch certainly deserves a place among the elite.
Timemagazine stated that it was difficult to differentiate between the wealth of the dictator and that of the Soviet Union. This is simply because his control of the USSR was so complete that he was ableto leverage the country’s economic might for any reason he sawfit. Three years before his death,USSR made up nearly 9.5 per cent of the global GDP, making it one of the richest nations in the world.
Empress Wu (22.7% GDP)
Rising from the ranks as the concubine of two Chinese emperors is no easy feat. Her ruthlessness and desire for power, even extended to her children, whom she was reported to have killed as an infant, to depose the main consort of the King — in short, she would have put Cercsi Lannister to shame. She built the country’s wealth bytrading tea and silk on the Silk Road and expanding Imperial Chinainto central Asia.
He was said to be one of the greatest emperors of India’s Mughal dynasty,accounting for a quarter of the global GDP. With an effective empire that gained its profits by extracting wealth from its population, the Mughal dynasty wealth was said to rival that of Elizabethan England.
Emperor Shenzong (25 – 30% of global GDP)
The third in line to the crown of richest people of all time is Chinese Emperor Shenzong. As the leader of China’s economically powerful Song Dynasty,Emperor Shenzong held considerable control over the economy. A main source of its wealth came from technological innovations and tax collection that were ahead of its time.
Augustus Caesar, also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor, reigning from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. His status as the founder of the Roman Principate has consolidated a legacy as one of the greatest leaders in human history.
To put the Roman Emperor’s wealth into perspective,imagine being in-charge of an empire that produced 25-30 per cent of the world’s economic output. Now imagine having one-fifth of that amount as your personal wealth. As if that wasn’t enough, Stanford professor Ian Morris concluded that Caesar personally owned all of Egypt, for a while.
The top of our list is none other than Mansa Musa. You know you’ve made it when no one can describe how rich you are.The King of Timbuktu from the 14th century presided over what was the largest producer of gold in the world, when gold was in high demand. The best description that has been given is in the form of pictures that depict him holding a sceptre of gold, on a throne of gold, holding a cup of gold with a golden crown.
If we make a small comparison between the different fortunes, Mansa Musa's wealth (400 billion dollars) exceeds that of Elon Musk (219 billion dollars), Jeff Bezos (171 billion dollars) and Bill Gates (118 billion dollars), for example.
Elon Musk, pictured at the 2022 Met Gala, is no longer the richest person in the world. Elon Musk is no longer the world's richest person after being overtaken—again—by French billionaire Bernard Arnault.
Billionaire, businessman and the chairman and chief executive of LVMH (LVMUY), Bernard Arnault holds the crown as the richest person in the world. According to Forbes, Arnault has a fortune of $217.9 billion.
Mansa Musa or Musa I of Mali is considered one of the richest people ever. Musa was the ninth emperor of the Mali Empire, one of the prosperous Sahelian kingdoms that developed along the trans-saharan trade routes in the later medieval period.
Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, an heir to the L'Oreal fortune, fell from No. 9 last month to No. 14. And the world's No. 1 richest, Bernard Arnault, is worth nearly $22 billion less than he was on May 1. That move has narrowed the gap between Arnault and No. 2 Elon Musk to just under $15 billion, Forbes estimates.
Much of the wealth came from plunders, taxes and control of caravan routes along the Silk Road and provide the Mongols with valuable revenue. He owned 270,000 horses and precious stones diamonds worth $1 trillion and gold deposits weighing in at a whopping 2 million tons totaling $11 trillion alone.
Arnault first surpassed Musk in December as the tech industry struggled and luxury showed resilience in the face of inflation. LVMH, which Arnault founded, owns brands including Louis Vuitton, Fendi and Hennessy.
Here is the full ranking of the richest countries in 2023, according to their per capita GDP. Luxembourg, one of the smallest countries in the EU has a population of 634,000 and is the richest country in this ranking with a per capita GDP of nearly $130,000.
The country with the highest number of billionaires is, unsurprisingly, the US. The United States of America has 735 billionaires – same as last year, according to Forbes.
Forbes explained that Musk's wealth had fallen because his $44 billion Twitter purchase, funded by Tesla shares, scared investors and sent Tesla stock sinking sharply last year. Tesla gained much of those losses back this year but is still significantly lower than before Musk bought Twitter.
The Walton Family is the richest family in the world. It owes its wealth to the Walmart company started by brothers Sam & Bud Walton in Northwest Arkansas more than six decades ago.
Richer than Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Mr. Beast combined, Mansa Musa was the richest man who has ever lived with a net worth of 400 billion dollars, and he e... The tale of Mansa Musa's Hajj pilgrimage. In 1324, Mansa Musa embarked on Hajj pilgrimage for Mecca.
In broader terms, the finance and investment profession has the most millionaires. It also has the most billionaires, with 371. Here's a list of the seven best careers if you want to be a millionaire.
The American business magazine Forbes produces a global list of known U.S. dollar billionaires every year and updates an Internet version of this list in real-time. The American oil magnate John D.Rockefeller became the world's first confirmed U.S. dollar billionaire in 1916.
Most sources agree that, adjusting for inflation, John D.Rockefeller (d. 1937) was the richest American in history. He amassed a fortune of more than $41 billion, adjusted to 2022.
There are 337 women on the 2023 World's Billionaires list, including a familiar face as the world's wealthiest. T he reign of Françoise Bettencourt Meyers continues.
It is believed that Genghis Khan was so powerful, and his Mongol empire so wide-reaching, that his DNA can be found in as many as 16 million men today, according to a 2003 scientific report.
The Mongol Empire was one of the largest empires in the history of the world, covering a massive nine million square miles at its greatest extent; approximately a quarter of the world's population were under Mongol rule.
In December 2022, French luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton's founder and CEO Bernard Arnault overtook Elon Musk as the world's richest person. Arnault and his family currently have a net worth of $204 billion, as per Forbes' real-time rich list, whereas Musk's net worth is $146.5 billion.
I write about the world's richest people and their businesses. Fourteen months after he first dethroned Jeff Bezos as the world's richest person, the Tesla and Twitter chief lost his crown Wednesday–at least briefly.
Elon Musk rocketed to billionaire status, after entering the elite club in 2012 just nine years later he tops the list. His wealth is based mainly on his shareholdings in the electric car firm Tesla, of which he is the CEO.
The United States is the richest country in the world with the highest GDP, as of 2021. China is the second richest country in the world with a $17.734 trillion GDP.
New York City wears the crown as the world's top city with the most millionaires in 2023. Seven of the World's Top 10 cities listed are in countries that host formal investment migration programs and actively encourage foreign direct investment in return for residence or citizenship rights.
Three of the four biggest clusters of billionaires in the world are classic US destinations for the uberwealthy: New York City, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area, which includes the neighboring tech hubs of San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Nearly 163 billionaires reside in those three hot spots alone.
New York City came out on top of the world's wealthiest cities list with 340,000 millionaires, ahead of Tokyo with 290,300, and San Francisco's Bay Area with 285,000. San Francisco had the most billionaires, with 63, compared with New York's 58.
He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner, CTO and chairman of Twitter; founder of the Boring Company and X Corp.; co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI; and president of the philanthropic Musk Foundation.
Elon Musk has reclaimed his title as the world's richest person, knocking the boss of luxury goods giant LVMH, Bernard Arnault, off the top spot. His net worth has soared by $55.3bn (£44.44bn) since January to $192bn, after a rise in the value of his electric car company Tesla.
Some estimate he lost up to $200 billion, Guinness says. Before him, the record was set by Japanese tech investor Masayoshi Son, who lost $58.6 billion in 2000, according to Guinness.
The top 10 richest families in 2022 by estimated wealth are: The Walton family with $224.5 billion. The Mars family with $160 billion. The Koch family with $128.8 billion.
Princess Charlotte has been refered as "the richest kid in the world" due to her status as a member of the British royal family, which is one of the wealthiest and most prominent royal families in the world.
But Son's fairytale didn't last long. After the dot-com bubble burst, his company Softbank's shares plunged 75 percent in two months and was 93 percent lower by the end of 2000. The business almost went bankrupt and Son ended up losing USD 70 billion, the highest ever recorded financial loss for a person in history.
Bill Gates became the world's youngest-ever billionaire at the age of 31 in 1987. In 1995, he became the world's richest man with a net worth of $12.9 billion.
Max Fosh soon realised that he needed to dissolve his company immediately as he was being accused of fraud by authorities in the UK. He has shared a video of how he made this happen and also why he had to shut his company down. Though he claims, he was the world's richest person for 7 minutes on paper.
It is believed that Genghis Khan was so powerful, and his Mongol empire so wide-reaching, that his DNA can be found in as many as 16 million men today, according to a 2003 scientific report.
Much of the wealth came from plunders, taxes and control of caravan routes along the Silk Road and provide the Mongols with valuable revenue. He owned 270,000 horses and precious stones diamonds worth $1 trillion and gold deposits weighing in at a whopping 2 million tons totaling $11 trillion alone.
So consider Mansa Musa vs. Genghis Khan: Who Is The Richest Man in History? One of the most popular emperors (Mansa) in 1324, several studies–The Daily News, The Daily Mail, The Independent–of the richest people to have ever walked the earth point to Mansa Musa as the one person with the most wealth ever known.
A trillionaire is an individual with a net worth equal to at least one trillion in U.S. dollars or a similarly valued currency, such as the euro or the British pound. Currently, no one has yet claimed trillionaire status, although some of the world's richest individuals may only be a few years away from this milestone.
It was in fact Jeff Bezos who was set to become the first trillionaire. However, he is now forecasted to reach US$1.06 trillion in 2030, six years behind Musk in sixth place. Gautam Adani and Zhang Yiming are anticipated to be the next to amass more than US$1 trillion after Musk, according to the study.
quadrillionaire (plural quadrillionaires) Somebody whose wealth is greater than one quadrillion units of the local currency. quotations ▼ (by extension) An extremely wealthy person.
At $224.5 billion, the Waltons are the richest family in the world thanks to their massive stake in Walmart, the world's largest company by revenue. The fourth generation of the Mars family, the second-richest clan after the Waltons, currently runs the eponymously named Mars candy company.
According to historians, the richest person ever to walk the earth was a man named Mansa Musa, a 14th century West African ruler, whose wealth was simply “indescribable” and “incomprehensible”, per the BBC.
Rockefeller atop the list of the richest Americans in history, followed by Cornelius Vanderbilt and John Jacob Astor. Bill Gates was the top living person, coming in fifth.
Khan was a major powerhouse in military history, and continues to be martially studied and referred to today. However, he's also recognized for the strength of his genes, and the fact that around 0.5 percent of today's men seem to carry his Y chromosome today – 750 years after his death.
That translates to 0.5 percent of the male population in the world, or roughly 16 million descendants living today. The spread of the chromosome could be the result of natural selection, in which an extremely fit individual manages to pass on some sort of biological advantage.
8% of Asian men amounts to 0.5% of the world's population. This Y-chromosomal haplogroup carries unique signatures that originated in Mongolia about 1000 years ago (1000 CE-ish). The rapid spread of this haplogroup can only be attributed to one thing -- conquest by Genghis Khan.
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