What do Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg have in common? They’re part of the $100 billion club. That is, the only 15 people on planet Earth who have 12-figure fortunes.
Together, their combined wealth exceeds $2.2 trillion, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That's more than the market cap of Google-parent Alphabet, at $2 trillion, or Amazon at $1.8 trillion.
Most of those with net worth above $100 billion founded tech companies and, as a result, own huge amounts of stock in some of the world's most valuable companies.
With an estimated net worth of $245 billion, Tesla, X and Space X owner Elon Musk sits at the top of the list, followed by Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos, and then Bernard Arnault the founder and CEO of LVMH, the world's largest luxury goods company.
Frenchman Arnault is just one of two European centibillionaires to make the list, including including Amancio Ortega, the Spanish founder of Inditex fashion group, perhaps best known for its chains Zara, Massimo Dutti, and Bershka.
Ortega, who still owns 59% of Inditex, joined the club just last month as the retail group posted record sales.
Most other members of the $100 billion club are based in America.
The 15 billionaires with net worth over $100 billion, as estimated by Bloomberg:
1. Elon Musk, Tesla, X and SpaceX owner
Net worth: $245B
2. Jeff Bezos, Amazon and Blue Origin founder
Net worth: $201B
3. Bernard Arnault, LVMH founder and CEO
Net worth: $197B
4. Mark Zuckerberg, Meta co-founder and CEO
Net worth: $188B
5. Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder
Net worth: $158B
6. Larry Ellison, Oracle cofounder
Net worth: $153B
7. Larry Page, Alphabet co-founder
Net worth: $150B
8. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s former CEO and owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers
Net worth: $146B
9. Warren Buffett, investor and Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO
Net worth: $141B
10. Sergey Brin, Alphabet co-founder
Net worth: $141B
11. Jensen Huang, Nvidia co-founder and CEO
Net worth: $114B
12. Mukesh Ambani, Reliance Industries chairman
Net worth: $112B
13. Michael Dell, Dell founder and CEO
Net worth: $107B
14. Gautam Adani, Adani Group founder and chairman
Net worth: $105B
15. Amancio Ortega, Inditex founder
Net worth: $105B
All but one of them have grown richer this year—despite stock troubles and charitable donations
Arnault—who started the year as the world’s richest person—would be over $10 billion richer, if it wasn’t for a stock price bloodbath in the European luxury sector earlier this year.
He is the only member of the $100 billion club whose net worth has tumbled this year.
Many others on the list would be much wealthier if it weren’t for the recent dip in big tech shares.
Earlier this month, the world’s 500 richest people saw $134 billion wiped from their fortunes overnight, thanks to AI uncertainty and high-profile earnings disappointments.
Bezos saw a nearly $16 billion drop in his wealth in one day, when Amazon’s shares fell by nearly 9% on August 2.
Likewise, Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Page’s net worth took a $3 billion hit each.
Remarkably, others like Gates and Warren Buffett are still on the list despite giving billions to charity and pledging to drop off the list of the world’s wealthiest people altogether.
The Microsoft cofounder has vouched to give away “virtually all” of his $158 billion fortune to address society’s most pressing problems. The 68-year-old reckons it'll take him 20 years to hit his goal.
Nvidia's Jensen Huang is a newcomer to the list
As well as Ortega, Jensen Huang is another new entrant to $100 billion club.
The Nvidia co-founder and CEO saw his wealth balloon from $44 billion at the start of this year to around $114 billion today, thanks to the success of his chipmaker company.
Nvidia has made itself a key player in the AI boom by supplying hardware to companies such as OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. It’s now the second most valuable company in the world—worth over $3 trillion—behind only Apple.
The elite club, which had just one member in 2020, could get even bigger soon. Three members of the Walton family—which owns Walmart—are sitting on $92 billion-plus fortunes after each grew at least $22 billion richer this year.
But either way, centibillionaires shouldn't get too comfortable.
Bettencourt Meyers, an heir to the L'Oreal fortune, became the first woman to amass a 12-figure fortune in December last year, after shares of the cosmetics company posted their best year since 1998.
But her time in the $100 billion club was fleeting and her net worth has since dropped below $90 billion.
