The oil tycoon who changed the world But paving the way for them all was John D.Rockefeller, the world's first dollar billionaire. At the time of his death in 1937, the oil dynasty founder boasted an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion, the equivalent of $30 billion (£22bn) in 2025.
Rockefeller once claimed. Rockefeller is widely considered the wealthiest American in history, the country's first billionaire. His fortune primarily came from his firm, Standard Oil Company, which grew to dominate the oil industry and become the first great American business trust.
🚨BREAKING: Elon Musk is worth over $400 billion • The only person in the $400 Billion club • The richest person on the planet • Projected to become first trillionaire by 2030. Makes him very rich but just as human as the poorest man.
Elon Musk is the wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$371 billion as of August 2025, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and $408 billion according to Forbes, primarily from his ownership stakes in Tesla and SpaceX.
A self-made billionaire, Taylor is the first musician to make the billionaire ranking primarily based on her songs and performances, and not due to investments and businesses. The singer-songwriter has been in the news recently for her engagement to American football player Travis Kelce.
1. United States. The US is the largest economy in the world, with a GDP of $30.5 trillion. Its primary contributor to the GDP is the country's service sector, which includes financial services, insurance, real estate, healthcare, and professional and business services.
Rockefeller's net worth was estimated around $900 million (about $29.3 billion in today's dollars). As of 2024, the family fortune was worth around $10.3 billion. The family's wealth was protected and transferred to future generations through a series of irrevocable trusts established by Rockefeller's son, John D.
Henry Ford owned the Ford Motor Company until his death. By the mid-1920s, his net worth was estimated around $1.2 billion, and though Ford's market share gradually diminished, the company's stunning success made its namesake one of the wealthiest men in American history.
In 1991, Forbes estimated Michael Jackson's net worth at $230 million (equivalent to $531 million in 2024), making him the wealthiest musician and the second wealthiest entertainer, behind comedian Bill Cosby. According to some insiders, it is estimated that Jackson's estate is worth over $2 billion as of 2024.
Who was the first female billionaire? The first female billionaire was Lillian Bettencourt, the daughter of L'Oréal founder Eugène Schueller. She inherited the cosmetics empire in 1957 and grew her wealth over the decades, becoming the world's richest woman.
Five billionaires who started with nothing include Jan Koum, founder of WhatsApp; Oprah Winfrey, media mogul; Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA founder; Do Won and Jin Sook Chang, co-founders of Forever 21; and Roman Abramovich, Chelsea Football Club owner. Each overcame significant hardships to achieve extraordinary success.
What Is a Trillionaire? Trillionaire is the term used to describe someone who has a net worth of at least one trillion of their local currency. As of June 2025, there are no trillionaires when considering United States dollars.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, is the richest person in the world, with a net worth of $363 billion. After Musk is Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Meta (Facebook). Other billionaires with some of the largest net worths include LVMH's Arnault, Microsoft's Bill Gates, and Oracle's Larry Ellison.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, currently the world's richest person worth more than $430 billion, should cross the mark in just under five years. He will soon be joined by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault and family.
With an eye-watering net worth of $90.7 billion, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, a French businesswoman and philanthropist, is the richest woman in the world. Françoise is the granddaughter of Eugène Schueller, the founder of beauty empire L'Oréal, and the only child of Liliane Bettencourt.
