Top ten billionaires in the world

The Top 10 added US$235bn over the year and are now worth US$1.3 trillion or 9% of the total list. 7 are from the USA, 2 from France and 1 from India.

China leads:

China led with 1133 billionaires, up 75, followed by USA at 716. Between them, China and the US have 55% of the world's billionaires. By city, Shenzhen added 8 billionaires to 113, overtaking New York to become the world's third preferred city for billionaires to live in . In fact now the top 3 cities for billionaires are all in China: Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. London stands at fifth.

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 India continues to be the third-largest billionaire-producing nation in the world:

There are 215 billionaires residing in India and 58 new additions, which means the country now has 249 billionaires, of which 25 live in India. In fact the number of Indian billionaires has doubled every five years since the last decade. 59% of the country’s billionaires are self-made, thus indicating that the new-generation entrepreneurs are financially-wise, asset-rich and investment-vibrant.

Richest Indian and the person who added the most wealth in the last year in India:

With $103bn, Mukesh Ambani, 64, of Reliance is the richest person in India. Chairperson of Adani Group Gautam Adani added the most wealth over the last one year at $49 billion. Adani added Rs 6,000 crore every week over the year. He is also the second-richest Indian and Asian with a total worth of $81 billion.

Healthcare, Consumer Goods, and Chemicals led the way, with 46, 29, and 23 billionaires each.

The average age of billionaires in India is 66.

There are a further 34 billionaires of Indian origin, living outside of India, led by LN Mittal of ArcelorMittal in London.

180 saw their wealth increase, of which 51 were new faces. 23 decreased and 11 dropped off. 12 stayed the same.

Over the last 10 years, Indian billionaires added $ 700 billion to their cumulative wealth – this is equivalent to Switzerland’s GDP and twice the GDP of UAE.

While the maximum city Mumbai is home to 72 billionaires, followed by the National Capital New Delhi (51) and Bengaluru (28), India’s Silicon Valley, is ranked third.

India is also home to the richest aviation billionaires in the world:

With a wealth of US$ 4.3 billion and US$ 4.2 billion respectively, Rakesh Gangwal and Rahul Bhatia and the family of “Indigo” airlines are the wealthiest aviation billionaires. Interglobe co-founders improved their rank by 231 positions over the last five years.

Energy, Semiconductors software had had a great year:

Industries that had a great year include energy, especially renewables, led by India-based Gautam Adani of Adani Group, China-based Zeng Yuqun of CATL and Luo Liguo of Hoshine, and US-based Harold Hamm of Continental Resources; biotech, led by Germany-based Ugur Sahin of BioNTech, Stéphane Bancel of Moderna and China- based Xie Liangzhi of Sinocelltech; luxury goods, led by France-based Bernard Arnault of LVMH and Bertrand Puech of Hermes, and HK-based Henry Cheng Kar-shun of Chow Tai Fook; semiconductors, led by US-based Jen-Hsun Huang of Nvidea, China-based Li Min of Rockchip Electronics and Taiwan-based Morris Chang of TSMC; software services, led by Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer of Microsoft, Larry Ellison of Oracle, China-based Tang Xiaoou of SenseTime; shipping, led by Switzerland-based Klaus-Michael Kuhne of Kuhne & Nagel and China-based Yang Shaopeng of SITC Maritime.

The year of IPOs:

This year has been a strong year for IPOs, with 94 billionaires minted from 77 IPOs. The year was also a moment of reckoning for the India’s startup ecosystem which witnessed major startup IPOs including 4 companies in Hurun Global Unicorn Index. 2021’s IPO story began with a bang but fizzled out towards the end owing to bubble concerns. 10 Tech companies that listed in 2021 cumulatively lost US$23bn or Rs 1,72,000 crore since listing, resulting in a momentary pause of the tech IPO “Ashwamedham”.

With a wealth of $3.3 billion, Byju Raveendran of Byju’s, an online tutoring start-up, is the world’s third richest entrepreneur from the education sector.

Crypto billionaires:

2021 was also a watershed moment for wealth creation in crypto, which produced 17 'known' billionaires, led by Singapore-based CZ Zhao Changpeng, 45, of Binance with $232 billion, and Sam Bankman Fried of FTZ with $21 billion. Last year's number one Brian Armstrong of Coinbase dropped to third with $10 billion. The top three crypto billionaires are from crypto exchanges. Coinbase listed at a blockbuster US$100bn valuation in its Nasdaq debut in April, launching Brian Armstrong and Frederick Ernest Ehrsam III into the 2022 M3M Hurun Global Rich List. However, due to volatility of the crypto asset class, Coinbase is currently trading at 60% discount to the listing price.

Source of wealth:

Financial services is still number one, accounting for 9.3% of world's billionaires. Healthcare overtook real estate to second place in terms of number of billionaires, while retail overtook consumer goods at fourth place.

Most billionaires from one company:

Swedish investment company EQT created 14 billionaires, followed by Hangzhou-based Alibaba and Minnesota-based Cargill with 13 each.

Space exploration:

Elon Musk is world's richest space billionaire, through his holding of SpaceX.

See also…

Rich List: India <> Rich List: India, 2014: Forbes <>Rich List: India, 2014: Hurun <>Rich List: India, 2015: Forbes <> Rich List: India, 2015: Hurun <>Rich list, India: 2016 <> Rich List: India, 2016: Forbes <> Rich List: India, 2017 <> Rich List: India, 2017: Hurun<> Rich list, India: 2018<> Rich list, India: 2019<> Rich List, India: 2020<> Rich List, India: 2021

Rich list of film artistes: India

…and also

Rich List: Nepal<> Celebrity List: India<> Indian money in HSBC, Switzerland <> Private lives of famous Indians

…and also