Technologies Rule the List of Billionaires

Investors in technologies start to dominate the rankings of the world’s billionaires. A comparison of this year’s data with figures from five years ago (2016) shows a clear shift from traditional industries and diversified portfolios towards a bet on new technologies. While five years ago, the top five richest people in the world according to the Forbes ranking included just Bill Gates (1) and Jeff Bezos (5), this year’s TOP5 only comprises one person not concentrating on technologies - Bernard Arnault who controls the luxury brand Luis Vuitton. In the top ten, ‘technologists’ have taken seven positions compared to minority four places five years ago. This is the result of the industry analysis of billionaires’ wealth made by Gulf Brokers.

In 2016, Forbes estimated Gate’s fortune at USD 75 billion, he was on the top of the world’s billionaire ranking. Another technology entrepreneur was on the fifth spot, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, being about USD 30 billion behind Gates. The six technology billionaires in the top twenty in 2016 also included Mark Zuckerberg (USD 44.6 billion), Larry Ellison (43.6) and Google co-owners Larry Page (35.2) and Sergey Brin (34.4).

Today, technologies absolutely dominate the rankings of the richest people on the planet. Nine technology billionaires appeared in the top twenty. The richest man is Jeff Bezos with his wealth estimated at USD 177 billion by Forbes.

However, an absolute technology comet is a man whom practically nobody knew ten years ago. Even five years ago, he could only dream of top spots. Last year, he ‘only’ took 31st position on the Forbes list. This year, he is the second with USD 26 billion behind Jeff Bezos. We are talking about Elon Musk whose name is connected with two famous companies that can undoubtedly rank among the key technology players: the car company Tesla and the spacecraft manufacturer SpaceX.

Musk’s wealth has grown from USD 24.6 to 151 billion within a year. This is largely caused by the unprecedented growth in Tesla’s shares. Last year, one share could be bought for about USD 145 while today it is over USD 730, which is about five times more.

Syam KP
Chief Analyst
Gulf Brokers

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