1. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, worth $75bn (£54bn) – which is down on his total for last year. Born on the 28th of October 1955, William Henry “Bill” Gates III is one of the wealthiest men in the world and is considered as one of the most influential people of the last century. He is an American business tycoon, investor, philanthropist, inventor, and computer programmer. He is the former chairperson and chief executive of the largest PC software company in the world, i.e., Microsoft Inc. which he founded with Paul Allen.
Bills Gate net worth
As on July 2017, Bill Gates has a net worth of $90 billion. In fact,
he has been making it to the list of the top ten wealthiest people in
the world (Forbes) ever since 1987. As of January 2016, Bill Gates’ was
worth aproximately $87.14 billion according to Wealth X. He held the
top position for the richest person in the world for 12 consecutive
years from 1995 to 2007. He was the wealthiest American in 2011 and the
second richest in the world. He regained the top position in May 2013,
lost out to Carlos Slim in the following months after donating $30
billion of his wealth to charity. Gates rose up as the wealthiest person
in the world in October 2017, a feat that has remain unbroken ever
since.
Contributions to the Computer World
Bill Gates is regarded as the pioneer of the 20th century computer revolution. He was interested in software from a very early age and began programming when he was just 13 years old.His aggressive approach to business and his user-oriented inventions made him the richest entrepreneur in the world. His business tactics, often considered as anti-competitive, were the subject of widespread criticism. Even the judiciary ruled against his company in some cases.Gates was the chief software architect and CEO at Microsoft. He was also the single largest shareholder in the company till May 2014. He stepped down as CEO in Jan 2000, but retained the position of the chairperson. In Feb 2014, he stepped down as chairperson and took the role of a technology advisor to support Satya Nadella, the new CEO of Microsoft.
Towards the end of his career at Microsoft, Gates donated large sums of money to scientific research, improvement of health in poor nations, eradication of poverty and diseases, and to numerous charity organizations via the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which was established in the year 2000. His philanthropic endeavors have encouraged several other corporates to engage and participate in charitable causes. Gates has also co-written and authored many books which include The Road Ahead and Business @ The Speed of Thought.
Money Facts
It is said that Bill Gates earns $250 every second, which means $20 million daily and $7.8 billion annually. So, if he dropped a $250 dollar, he wouldn’t need to waste four seconds to pick up, because by that time, he would have earned $1000. If Bill Gates were a country, he would be the 37th richest nation in the world.Though Mr. Gates has pledged to give away half of his wealth, he still stands humbled as the most generous person on the Earth with life-time donations exceeding $27 billion. He still earns money at a faster rate than he gives away.
Bill and Melinda – Dating and Marriage
Bill and Melinda got married on the Hawaiian island of Lanaiat the 12thtee of the Manele Bay Hotel golf course, on January 1 1994, in the company of family and close friends like Buffet, Allen, Katharine Graham, and Craig McCaw. Gates had booked all the rooms in the hotel as well as chartered all helicopters in the area to ensure the privacy of their wedding celebrations.
Children
Bill Gates has three children, Jennifer Katharine (born in 1996), son Rory John (born in 1999) and daughter Phoebe Adele (born 2002).
The Equestrian House
Bill Gates’ home
Bill Gates resides with his family in a lake-facing house named Xanadu 2.0. Constructed in a Pacific lodge design, the ultra-modern home is spread across more than 66, 000 sq. feet, consists of a waterfront area of about 500 feet, and is carved into a hillside overlooking Lake Washington. The earth sheltered residence, replete with the latest technology, consists of 7 bedrooms, 6 kitchens, 24 bathrooms with 10 full baths, and 6 fireplaces. The interiors of the home are made from 7 different kinds of stones and lots of glass and varied woods. The house address is 835 73rd Ave NE, Medina, WA 98039.
No other house can match the ground breaking technologies available at Gates’ home. Computer-controlled lights slowly turn on after entering the house; the intensity of these lights change as per the intensity of outdoor light. Every gadget in the house, from temperature to TV, can be controlled via portable touch pads. Speakers are hidden inside the walls and music follows you from one room to another. Guests wear a special pin after entering this fascinating home. The pin helps connect to the numerous electronic services in the house which then automatically adjust to the taste of the visitors.
Xanadu 2.0 cost seven years to build and cost $63.2 million. In 2009, property taxes were computed to be at US $1.063 million on a total appraised value of US$147.5 million.
The island of Bill Gates
The fortune made by Gates through Microsoft has allowed him to buy The Grand Bogue Caye, the largest island in the Republic of Belize.This captivating wonder of nature is 314 acres in size and consists of coral flats, large gorgeous beaches, forests, and an incredible assortment of marine life such as tunicates, kaleidoscopic sponges, dolphins, and glistening starfish.
Bill Gates – Car Collection, Collectibles and Hobbies
- Bill is an avid art collector. Over the years, he has purchased ‘Lost on the Grand Banks,’ an oil painting by Winslow Homer for $36 million; ‘Polo Crowd’ by George Bellows for $28 million; ‘Room of Flowers’ by Frederick Childe Hassam for $20 million; ‘The Nursery’ by William Merritt Chase for $10 million; Andrew Wythe’s ‘Distant Thunder’ for $7 million; and the Codex Leicester book for $30.8 million.
Lost on the Grand Banks
Distant Thunder
The Nursery’
Room of Flowers
Polo Crowd
- Bill is a self-professed speed lover. He owns the 1988 Porsche 959 Coupe which was once billed as the fastest street–legal production car in the world; a customized Porsche 911 Carrera, one of the fastest cars in the world; and the Porsche 930, purchased during his early days at Microsoft. All the 3 cars have luxurious deluxe interiors.
- Bill likes listening to music and Frank Sinatra is one of his favorites.
- Gates is a voracious reader and loves reading journals and magazines. No wonder that he has a humungous private library built at his waterfront home.
- Gates is also associated with The Giving Pledge campaign which encourages America’s wealthiest to commit most of their wealth to charitable causes.
- Bill likes to holiday at the Apussuit Adventure Camp, an isolated skiing resort in West Greenland.
Yacht
2.
Amancio Ortega, CEO of Zara owner Inditex Group, worth $67bn
Inside the world of Amancio Ortega, a Spanish billionaire you've probably never heard of who is actually Europe's richest man
Zara's mysterious founder, Amancio Ortega, has just been named as the richest person in Europe, and the second richest in the whole world.
Data from Wealth-X, puts his net worth at more than $65 billion, making him richer than Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
The 79-year old fashion tycoon also has a worth of $27 billion more than his closest European challenger, IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad.
In October 2015, Ortega's net worth climbed to more than $80 billion when Zara's parent company Inditex's stock peaked, and he briefly became the world's richest man, surpassing Microsoft founder Bill Gates, according to Forbes.
Inditex's stock fell soon afterwards, and after just four hours, Ortega went back to being the world's second-richest man, a title he attained in June 2015 by knocking Warren Buffett into third.
But despite his enormous net worth, many people have never heard of him.
Ortega is an incredibly private man, is rarely seen in public, and has given just a handful of interviews throughout his incredibly successful career.
That career began when Ortega founded fast-fashion giant Zara with his then-wife Rosalia in 1975. Today, his retail company Inditex SA — which owns Zara, Massimo Dutti, and Pull&Bear — has over 6,600 outposts around the world. Zara is changing retail forever.
While Ortega is immensely private, we do know a fair amount about him, and Business Insider decided to put together everything we know about Ortega's life. Check it out below.
3.Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, worth $60.8bn
Amancio Ortega, CEO of Zara owner Inditex Group, worth $67bn
Data from Wealth-X, puts his net worth at more than $65 billion, making him richer than Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
The 79-year old fashion tycoon also has a worth of $27 billion more than his closest European challenger, IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad.
In October 2015, Ortega's net worth climbed to more than $80 billion when Zara's parent company Inditex's stock peaked, and he briefly became the world's richest man, surpassing Microsoft founder Bill Gates, according to Forbes.
Inditex's stock fell soon afterwards, and after just four hours, Ortega went back to being the world's second-richest man, a title he attained in June 2015 by knocking Warren Buffett into third.
But despite his enormous net worth, many people have never heard of him.
Ortega is an incredibly private man, is rarely seen in public, and has given just a handful of interviews throughout his incredibly successful career.
That career began when Ortega founded fast-fashion giant Zara with his then-wife Rosalia in 1975. Today, his retail company Inditex SA — which owns Zara, Massimo Dutti, and Pull&Bear — has over 6,600 outposts around the world. Zara is changing retail forever.
While Ortega is immensely private, we do know a fair amount about him, and Business Insider decided to put together everything we know about Ortega's life. Check it out below.
Amancio Ortega is the second-richest man in the world, with a net worth estimated at $65 billion. He was born in the town of Busdongo de Arbas, Spain, in March 1936.
In August 2013, his ex-wife and Zara cofounder, Rosalia Mera, died at 69. She was Spain's richest woman. Ortega and Mera married in 1966, and were divorced in 1986.
This is one of his daughters, Marta. The socialite is married to Spain's top showjumper Sergio Álvarez Moya.
Ortega and his wife, Flora live in a discreet apartment building in La Coruña, Spain, near a major port of the Atlantic Ocean.
The Duchess of Cambridge is a huge fan of Zara's designs and is often photographed in its clothing.
Ortega is known for being immensely private. In 2012, Bloomberg noted that he had only granted interviews to three journalists.
He also dresses modestly. He usually wears a simple uniform of a blue blazer, white shirt, and grey trousers — none of which are Zara products.
He goes to the same coffee shop every day and eats lunch with his employees in the company cafeteria. Here's a picture of one of Zara's shops:
In his free time, Ortega is known to enjoy horseback riding and owns an equestrian centre in Finisterre in Galicia, Spain.
His immense wealth has allowed him to hobnob with celebrities and royalty. Here he is pictured with Princess Letizia and Crown Prince Felipe of Spain in 2008. The pair are now King and Queen of the country.
He also bought one of the tallest skyscrapers in Spain, the Torre Picasso in Madrid. The building stands 515 feet and cost $536 million.
Famed investor and CEO Warren Buffett has reached a new pinnacle of wealth, with a significant increase coming over the past five years alone.
The Berkshire Hathaway chief now has a net worth of $81.5 billion, according to Bloomberg, putting him at third on the outlet’s “billionaires index” behind only Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, the world’s richest people.
Perhaps the only thing more astonishing than Buffett’s total net worth is the rate at which he’s increased it over the past five years. According to Bloomberg, the 87-year-old’s net worth has risen by $35 billion over the past five years alone. That’s a rate of just over $7 billion per year or, on a micro level, a blistering $222 per second.
Buffett recently also took the number three spot on another wealth-measuring list—the Forbes 400—which ranked him as the third richest person in America. Bezos and Gates once again took No. 2 and No. 1, respectively. Forbes‘
list only values Buffett’s net worth at $78 billion, however, but was
published a week before Bloomberg updated its list Tuesday.
The Berkshire Hathaway chief now has a net worth of $81.5 billion, according to Bloomberg, putting him at third on the outlet’s “billionaires index” behind only Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, the world’s richest people.
Perhaps the only thing more astonishing than Buffett’s total net worth is the rate at which he’s increased it over the past five years. According to Bloomberg, the 87-year-old’s net worth has risen by $35 billion over the past five years alone. That’s a rate of just over $7 billion per year or, on a micro level, a blistering $222 per second.
4.
Carlos Slim, telecoms magnate, worth $50bn
5.
Carlos Slim, telecoms magnate, worth $50bn
5.
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is now the richest person in the world, with a current net worth of $90.7 billion, according to Forbes. When his Amazon shares hit $1,065.92 each on Thursday, reports Bloomberg, Bezos knocked Microsoft founder Bill Gates (current net worth: $90.1 billion) out of the top spot.
More than 90 percent of the billionaire's wealth is tied up in Amazon stock, since he owns about 80 million shares. The rest is in cash or comes from proceeds from investments, salary and bonuses, according to research firm Wealth-X.
So how does the world's new wealthiest man spend his money?
More than 90 percent of the billionaire's wealth is tied up in Amazon stock, since he owns about 80 million shares. The rest is in cash or comes from proceeds from investments, salary and bonuses, according to research firm Wealth-X.
So how does the world's new wealthiest man spend his money?
Real estate
Bezos has homes across the U.S.
His home base, a lake house in Medina, Wash., is estimated to be worth $25 million, according to Wealth-X. Neighbors include the now No. 2 richest guy in the world, Bill Gates.
His home base, a lake house in Medina, Wash., is estimated to be worth $25 million, according to Wealth-X. Neighbors include the now No. 2 richest guy in the world, Bill Gates.
Ricky Carioti | The Washington Post | Getty Images
The old Textile Museum which was recently
purchased by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is photographed in the Kalorama
neighborhood of Northwest on January 13, 2017 in Washington, D.C.
In Washington D.C., Bezos owns a 27,000-square-foot home that, with a purchase price of $23 million, according to the Washington Post, is the most expensive house in his fancy Kalorama neighborhood. President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama just bought the second-most expensive house in the enclave, and Ivanka Trump is also a neighbor.
Bezos's mansion was formerly a museum.
The Amazon founder also owns a 2.03-acre property in Beverly Hills, Calif., worth about $25 million. And in Manhattan, Bezos' three linked apartments in The Century building on Central Park West are worth $17 million, according to Wealth-X.
Bezos's mansion was formerly a museum.
The Amazon founder also owns a 2.03-acre property in Beverly Hills, Calif., worth about $25 million. And in Manhattan, Bezos' three linked apartments in The Century building on Central Park West are worth $17 million, according to Wealth-X.
The space race
Justin Solomon / CNBC
Elon Musk's SpaceX and Richard Branson's Virgin
Galactic are famous for their otherworldly missions. But space travel is
a passion for Jeff Bezos too. He founded aerospace company Blue Origin to make space tourism more affordable.
Bezos is selling about $1 billion in Amazon stock a year to fund the venture, reports The New York Times. He believes Blue Origin could have "paying customers" on short trips to space by 2018.
For his love of space, Bezos also financed the recovery of "the remains of several Apollo booster-rocket engines from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean 14,000 feet down," starting in 2013, according to the Seattle Times. NASA donated a restored F-1 booster to the Museum of Flight in Seattle in 2015 at the CEO's request.
Bezos is selling about $1 billion in Amazon stock a year to fund the venture, reports The New York Times. He believes Blue Origin could have "paying customers" on short trips to space by 2018.
For his love of space, Bezos also financed the recovery of "the remains of several Apollo booster-rocket engines from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean 14,000 feet down," starting in 2013, according to the Seattle Times. NASA donated a restored F-1 booster to the Museum of Flight in Seattle in 2015 at the CEO's request.
Expensive toys
Bezos is famous for having his wife drive him to
work in a 1996 Honda Accord long after he became a multimillionaire. But
he does have some more expensive vehicles.
Source: Gulfstream
Gulfstream G-650ER jet.
For example, he owns a top-of-the-line, $65 million
private jet, the 2015 Gulfstream G-650ER, via his holding company,
Poplar Glen, says Wealth-X. The model is the "longest range business jet
and has a top speed of Mach .925, according to the Robb Report.
Inside a mountain on Bezos's property in Texas, workers are constructing one of several 10,000-year clocks. The clock, which is meant to run for 10,000 years, is the brainchild of The Long Now foundation, and Bezos has invested a reported $42 million into the project.
Inside a mountain on Bezos's property in Texas, workers are constructing one of several 10,000-year clocks. The clock, which is meant to run for 10,000 years, is the brainchild of The Long Now foundation, and Bezos has invested a reported $42 million into the project.
Investments
The CEO has helped bankroll some big names.
Bezos Expeditions has invested in businesses including Basecamp, Juno Therapeutics, Workday and Twitter.
Bezos himself has invested in the likes of Airbnb, Uber and Google, among many others, reports Business Insider (in which Bezos has also invested). And the CEO also has Nash Holdings, LLC, through which The Washington Post was acquired for a reported $250 million.
Bezos Expeditions has invested in businesses including Basecamp, Juno Therapeutics, Workday and Twitter.
Bezos himself has invested in the likes of Airbnb, Uber and Google, among many others, reports Business Insider (in which Bezos has also invested). And the CEO also has Nash Holdings, LLC, through which The Washington Post was acquired for a reported $250 million.
Getty | Tiziana Fabi
Piazza Navona in Rome, Italy
Travels
In May, Bezos was spotted vacationing in Rome,
Italy, with his wife MacKenzie, his parents and his siblings and their
spouses. The group visited Campo dei Fiori Market and Piazza Novona,
among other sights.
Philanthropy
Compared to fellow billionaires like Gates and
Warren Buffett, Bezos' charitable contributions have been relatively
limited. Bezos recently gave $35 million to Seattle's Fred Hutchinson
Cancer Research Center, reports The New York Times. And in May, Bezos gave $1 million to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
According to Weath-X, in 2015 the Bezos Family Foundation had more than $54 million in assets and donated more than $20 million. Recipients include Teach for America, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy, the Long Now Foundation, Aspen University and Woodland Park Zoological Society.
Bezos also donated $2.7 to the University of Washington Foundation (2013), $2.5 million to Washington United for Marriage (2012) and $15 million to Princeton University, his alma mater, according to Wealth-X.
And the Amazon CEO may be looking for more philanthropic endeavors — he recently tweeted a request for ideas that will produce more immediate results.
According to Weath-X, in 2015 the Bezos Family Foundation had more than $54 million in assets and donated more than $20 million. Recipients include Teach for America, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy, the Long Now Foundation, Aspen University and Woodland Park Zoological Society.
Bezos also donated $2.7 to the University of Washington Foundation (2013), $2.5 million to Washington United for Marriage (2012) and $15 million to Princeton University, his alma mater, according to Wealth-X.
And the Amazon CEO may be looking for more philanthropic endeavors — he recently tweeted a request for ideas that will produce more immediate results.
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