On April 02,2025, Forbes released its ‘39th Annual World’s Billionaires list’, the definitive ranking of the world’s richest people. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors topped the List with a net worth of USD 342 Billion (bn).
- He is followed by Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta with a net worth of USD 216 bn and at the 3rd place is Jeff Bezos, chairman and founder of Amazon.
Key Points:
i.In 2025 list features 3,028 billionaires, the most since the list’s inception in 1987. The world’s wealthiest people are collectively worth a record-breaking USD 16.1 trillion.
Note: Forbes used the stock prices and exchange rates from March 07,2025 to calculate the net worth.
India Scenario:
i.Mukesh Ambani remains India’s richest person and Asia’s wealthiest, ranking 18th globally with a fortune of USD 92.5 billion from Reliance Industries.
ii.Gautam Adani, chairman of the Adani Group, follows at 28th place with USD 56.3 billion. He is the fourth richest Asian, behind TikTok’s Zhang Yiming (23rd, USD 65.5 billion) and Nongfu Spring’s Zhong Shanshan (26th, USD 57.7 billion).
List of World’s Top 5 Billionaires:
| Rank | Name | Net Worth (USD) | Company | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elon Musk | 342 B | Tesla, SpaceX | United States |
| 2 | Mark Zuckerberg | 216 B | United States | |
| 3 | Jeff Bezos | 215 B | Amazon | United States |
| 4 | Larry Ellison | 192 B | Oracle | United States |
| 5 | Bernard Arnault & Family | 178 B | LVMH | France |
List of India’s Top 5 Billionaires:
| Rank | Name | Net Worth (USD) | Company | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 | Mukesh Ambani | 92.5 B | Reliance Industries | India |
| 28 | Gautam Adani | 56.3 B | Adani Group | India |
| 48 | Savitri Jindal & Family | 35.5 B | Jindal Group | India |
| 51 | Shiv Nadar | 34.5 B | HCL | India |
| 79 | Dilip Shanghvi | 24.9 B | Sun Pharmaceutical Industries | India |
Overall Highlights:
i.Jensen Huang, the CEO and co-founder of Nvidia, presently positioned at the 10th rank has entered the ranks of the top 10 richest people for the first time.
ii.The US topped the list with a record of 902 billionaires, followed by China with 516 billionaires and India at the 3rd position with 205 billionaires.
iii.The richest woman of all is Walmart heir Alice Walton, whose fortune stands at an estimated USD 101 billion. She reclaims the title from French L’Oréal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, who now ranks second, at USD 81.6 billion.
iv.A record of 15 people worldwide is part of the USD 100 Billion club, up from 14 last year and zero in 2017. This elite group is worth USD 2.4 trillion in all, that is 0.5% of the world’s 3,028 billionaires hold approximately 15% of all billionaire wealth.
v.The 2025 ranking features 288 newcomers, and Scale AI cofounder Alexandr Wang is the youngest self-made billionaire in the world, at the age of 28.
