Who Are the 10 Richest People In The World in 2018

If you’re curious about who the richest humans on this planet are, we’ve compiled a list of the 10 richest people in the world. Before you read this, make sure you sit down. Hearing about their vast fortunes might make you feel a bit dizzy. Yes, we are talking about humans who have earned tens of billions of dollars. You may wonder how they feel now that they have ‘arrived’. Unfortunately, that question may remain unanswered even after this article. Instead, let’s examine what Earth’s billionaires are currently doing with their wealth and how much they currently acquired.

#1 Bill Gates

2018 Billionaires  Net Value $79.2 Billion

Age: 59

The first place of our list of the richest people in the world is occupied by Bill Gates. Once again, he takes the top spot as the richest human on the planet (a title he received  for 16 of the past 21 years). He return to the coveted top spot back in March 2014 after being displaced during the past four years by Mexico’s Carlos Slim Helu.

Early on, Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft back in 1975. The company performed beyond anyone’s imagination sending his net worth skyrocketing. Gates has slowly sold his shares to Microsoft for the past 15 years. He unloaded 30% of his leftover stake between 2014 to this past February. This included gift shares with the value of $1.5 billion to The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in November 2014. Through his life, he donated roughly $29.5 billion to charity.

Bill Gates spends most of his time focusing on philanthropic actions and released some decisive goals for The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in his yearly January letter. The foundation works to improve the education in the United States, and health of the planet. They also remain committed to providing food for Africa and help the spread of mobile banking so that more impoverished people can transform their living situation.

#2 Carlos Slim Helu

2018 Billionaires Net Value $77.1 Billion

Age: 75

 Carlos Slim Helu is in the top three of richest men in the world despite changes in the Mexican telecom area. He prospered in this industry over the last twenty years.  In June 2014,  Carlos designated $5.6 billion to buy out  AT&T’s 8.3% stake in South America’s wireless  carrier, America Movil. AM proved to be his most valuable resource. Presently, Slim and his children own 62% of the company.

In January 2015, AT&T turned into an American Movil competitor in Mexico after it bought wireless carrier Grupo Iusacell from Mexico’s  billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego.

Apart from telecom, he owns the real estate company Innmeubles Carso. In December 2014, he paid the minority share holders $450 million. A month later, Carlos became the greatest shareholder of The New York Times with a stake of almost 17% by exercising certificates to buy more shares. Slim also holds an influence in the industrial world and owns Grupo Carso, Inbursa, and infrastructure development company Ideal and Grupo Financiero.

#3 Warren Buffett

2018 Billionaires Net Value $72.7 Billion

Age: 84

Warren Buffett became wealthier than ever due to the astronomical performance of his diversified holding company, Berkshire Hathaway. Its enviable Class A stock, is the most upscale stock of any public U.S. company, and has arrived at $200,000 per share for the first time ever in August 2014. Buffed went up to the third place of the worlds richest men, on Forbes’ 2015 top, while in 2014, he was occupying the 4^th place.

With dozens of  auxiliary businesses, which include railroads, energy and insurance, Berkshire Hathaway  posted in 2013, $182 billion earnings and a net profit of $19.5 billion. Still going for the big deals, Berkshire Hathaway acquired battery company Duracell in November 2014 from Procter & Gamble for $4.7 billion.

He is known as a generous philanthropist. In July 2014, he out did his own charitable record by giving away Berkshire shares worth $2.8 billion to both The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and to his children’s foundations.

Buffett admitted that the best investment he has ever done was to buy the book of Benjamin Graham, “The Intelligent Investor,” back in 1949. Later he studied under Graham before he moved back home to Nebraska and purchased a striving textile company in 1962 called Berkshire Hathaway.

At the beginning of February 2015, Buffet’s group was on the fourth place of the most profitable public companies in America with a market capitalization of $355 billion.

#4 Amancio Ortega

2018 Billionaires Net Value $64.5 Billion

Age:78

Another billionaire in the top ten richest people in the world, is Spaniard Amancio Ortega who was the child of a railway worker and has become the richest retailer in the world. In 1975 he cofounded Zara, with bathrobes and lingerie, that were made by him and his wife Rosalia Mera in their personal living room.

By the middle of the ‘80s, he had expanded Zara all over Spain, and was preparing to expand on other continents. As his business was growing, Ortega limited advertising , started an aggressive expansion and controlled much of his own supply chain. The fashion director of Louis Vuitton, Daniel Piette, called Inditex, what might possibly be the most innovative and devastating at the same time, fashion retailer in the whole world.

During the Spanish financial crisis, Ortega hanged in there and made a personal gain of $45 billion from 2009 to 2014, because his Inditex shares, defied the rest of the Spanish stock market.  For the last ten years, he has brought billions to Inditex  and has reinvested the money into city real estates, like Barcelona, Madrid, Chicago, London, New York and Miami.

#5 Larry Ellison

2018 Billionaires Net Value $54.3 Billion

Age: 70

 Larry Ellison is certainly the first Silicon Valley technology entrepreneur who has made it big.  Ellison has never met his real father and was raised by his great aunt in a middle class Chicago home. At the beginning, he built databases for the CIA. Then he created his own database software firm, Oracle, in 1977. Ever since then, he has witnessed the company’s impressive growth.

Earnings in the fiscal year of 2014 reached $38.3 billion. In September 2014, Ellison made a shocking announcement by saying that he planned to back away from the position of CEO and remain as the chairman/chief technology officer of Oracle.

Ellison went on handling properties on the Hawaiian island, Lanai, which he reportedly bought for the amount of $300 million in 2012, and it has been said that he owns every single hotel room on that island. Megan Ellison, his daughter, has gone on to become a very successful film producer as her company, Annapuma Pictures, produced movies like Zero Dark Thirty and American Hustle.

 #6 Charles Koch

2018 Billionaires Net Value $42.9 Billion

Age: 79

The areas of influence of Charles and David Koch are surrounding business, politics and philanthropy. The two brothers continue to increase their empire. In 2014, they spent $5 billion on new acquisitions.

Ever since 1967, Charles has been the chair of Koch Industries. He has been front and center behind all of this massive growth and what has presently become  the second biggest private group in the United States (first being placed commodities mogul Cargill). Their areas of business extends at a much larger level, starting from oil pipelines to paper towels, among many other areas of interest.

During the 2014 elections, they spent around $2.5 million each on Republican party. But, according to the Washington Post, they seem to have extorted their  conservative compatriots  to raise up to $1 billion for the presidential election of 2018.

The Kochs brothers are also very involved in philanthropic actions. In 2014, Koch Industries  and The Charles Koch Foundation, gave away $25 million  to the United Negro College Fund which created a lot of discussions.

#8 Christy Walton

2018 Billionaires Net Value $41.7 Billion

Age: 60

Th next person among the richest people in the world is a woman. Christy Walton  is the wealthiest woman on the planet, a title which she has been given for 5 times for the past 6 years. She married into the Walton family, which became the prosperous family on Earth, and became the inheritor of its fortune in 2005, after her husband John Walton, died in an airplane crash.

She has become the wealthiest out of all the Waltons family members, due to an investment her husband had made in solar panel manufacturer First Solar. Most of her holdings remain in Wal-Mart, the giant retailer which was created by her father in law Sam Walton and his brother in 1962. After taxes, in 2014, Christy, received $470 million from Wal-Mart profits.

She lives in Jackson, Wyoming and leads a very private life. In 2013 she came in the eye of the public when she received an award by the Imagen Foundation for the production of the movie “Bless Me, Ultima” which was based on the book written by Rudolf Anaya. According to the Imagen Foundation, she was almost killed by a severe case of pneumonia and her son fought cancer when he was only three years old.

 #9 Jim Walton

2018 Billionaires Net Value $40.6 Billion

Age: 67

Jim Walton,  is the youngest child of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, and is a board member of the giant retail company. In 2014, Wal-Mart has generated $437 billion in earnings, from over 11,000 stores from 27 countries.  The company, announced in February 2015 that it would raise the salaries  in the United States, to at least $9 per hour in 2018, and by 2016, they will pay at least $10 per hour.

However, labor advocates have asked for a raise of $15 per hour. Apart from Wal-Mart, Jim Walton is also the chairman and CEO of the Arvest Bank, founded by his family, which has branches in Kansas, Alaska, Missouri, Oklahoma. The capital of the bank is of almost $15 billion, and in 2013, its profit was close to $130 million.

#10 Liliane Bettencourt

2015 Bilionares  Net Value $40.1 Billion

Age: 92

On the 10th position of the top 10 richest people in the world is another woman. The great lady behind L’Oreal, Liliane Bettencourt, became even richer, in 2014, when she bought an additional 8% stake in the cosmetic giant from Nestle, which raised hers and her family’s part of L’Oreal stock, to 33%. Her father, Eugene Schueller, was the founder of L’Oreal in 1907.

Liliane Bettencourt has not taken part in running the company for several years, because after a legal battle with her daughter, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers from 2011, she was declared mentally incapable to handle affairs.

Bettencourt, who is a widow and suffers from dementia, has been replaced in the company, in 2012, by her grandson, Jean-Victor Meyers, who is 25 years old.

In January 2015, started a trial which included ten people who reportedly have stolen hundreds of euros from Bettencourt. However, she is still the richest woman in Europe.

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