The World's Billionaires

The World's Billionaires is an annual ranking by the American business magazine Forbes of people who are billionaires, i.e., they are estimated to have a net worth of US$1 billion or more. The list was first published in March 1987. The net worth of each individual is cited in United States dollars, based on their documented assets, and accounting for debt and other factors. This ranking excludes royalty and dictators whose wealth comes from their positions, as well as people whose wealth is not able to be completely ascertained.

In 2018, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was first ranked at the top and became the first centibillionaire included in the ranking, surpassing Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who had topped the list 18 of the previous 24 years. In 2022, Bezos was surpassed by Elon Musk. In 2023, Musk was surpassed by French businessman Bernard Arnault, the first French person to top the list. In 2025 and 2026, Musk once again topped the list.

Methodology

Each year, Forbes employs a team of over 50 reporters from a variety of countries to track the activity of the world's wealthiest individuals and sometimes groups or families – who share wealth. Preliminary surveys are sent to those who may qualify for the list. According to Forbes, they received three types of responses – some people try to inflate their wealth, others cooperate but leave out details, and some refuse to answer any questions. Business deals are then scrutinized and estimates of valuable assets – land, homes, vehicles, artwork, etc. – are made. Interviews are conducted to vet the figures and improve the estimate of an individual's holdings. Finally, positions in a publicly traded stock are priced to market on a date roughly a month before publication. Privately held companies are priced by the prevailing price-to-sales or price-to-earnings ratios. Known debt is subtracted from assets to get a final estimate of an individual's estimated worth in United States dollars. Since stock prices fluctuate rapidly, an individual's true wealth and ranking at the time of publication may vary from their situation when the list was compiled.

When a living individual has dispersed their wealth to immediate family members it is included under a single listing (as a single "family fortune") provided that individual (the grantor) is still living. However, if a deceased billionaire's fortune has been dispersed, it will not appear as a single listing, and each recipient will only appear if their own total net worth is over a $1 billion (their net worth will not be combined with family members'). Royal families and dictators that have their wealth contingent on a position are always excluded from these lists.

Annual rankings

The rankings are published annually in March, so the net worths listed are snapshots taken at that time. There are thousands of billionaires on the Forbes list; the excerpts below show only the wealthiest 10 for each year.

Legend

Icon	Description
Template:Steady	Has not changed from the previous ranking.
Template:Profit	Has increased from the previous ranking.
Template:Loss	Has decreased from the previous ranking.

2026

The 40th annual Forbes list of the world's billionaires found a record 3,428 billionaires with a total net worth of $20.1 trillion. This represents an increase of 309 members and $4 trillion compared to 2025. For the first time, Nvidia CEO and founder Jensen Huang appeared in the top 10.

No.	Name	Net worth (USD)	Age	Nationality	Primary source(s) of wealth
Template:Nts Template:Steady	Template:Sortname	$839 billion Template:Profit	54	Template:United States	Tesla and SpaceX
Template:Nts Template:Profit	Template:Sortname	$257 billion Template:Profit	52	Template:Flagu	Google
Template:Nts Template:Profit	Template:Sortname	$237 billion Template:Profit	52	Template:Flagu	Google
Template:Nts Template:Loss	Template:Sortname	$224 billion Template:Profit	62	Template:Flagu	Amazon
Template:Nts Template:Loss	Template:Sortname	$222 billion Template:Profit	41	Template:Flagu	Meta Platforms
Template:Nts Template:Loss	Template:Sortname	$190 billion Template:Loss	81	Template:Flagu	Oracle Corporation
Template:Nts Template:Loss	Template:Sortname & family	$171 billion Template:Loss	77	Template:FRA	LVMH
Template:Nts Template:Profit	Template:Sortname	$154 billion Template:Profit	63	Template:TWN Template:Flagu	Nvidia
Template:Nts Template:Loss	Template:Sortname	$149 billion Template:Loss	95	Template:Flagu	Berkshire Hathaway
Template:Nts Template:Loss	Template:Sortname	$148 billion Template:Profit	89	Template:ESP	Inditex