Everybody knows Telsa founder Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Bill Gates the founder of Microsoft, but most people will be surprised to know that these moguls are nowhere near some of the world’s most wealthiest people of all time, and some of them will surprise you.
Here is a list of the world’s wealthiest people that have ever lived. Net worth of living billionaires on this list are according to Forbes as of 20/11/2021.
15. Bill Gates – USD$139 Billion
Bill made his fortune solely through his software company Microsoft that he founded with Paul Allen in 1975. Bill had been holding on to the number one spot of the richest man in the world for a number of consecutive years from 1995 until he was dethroned by Jeff Bezos in 2018.
14. Alan Rufus – USD$179 Billion
Alan made his fortune through owning a lot of land in England and was a companion of William the Conqueror, and his inflation adjusted fortune is currently 179 billion dollars.
13. Cornelius Vanderbilt – USD$185 Billion
Cornelius was an American industrialist who made his fortune through building railroads and shipping lines in the 1800s.
12. Henry Ford – USD$199 Billion
You probably know or have owned a Ford Car, but you probably don’t know the founder of Ford Motors, Henry Ford. Henry built his fortune by building automobiles and also introduced the concept of the automobile assembly line which made it more easy to manufacture low cost cars that people could afford.
11. Muammar Gaddafi – USD$200 Billion
Although he was never on any Forbes or Rich List during his lifetime, he really had an impressive fortune of 200 billion dollars which he gathered during his 42 year rule. He had many investments in European countries and in Libya, with some ending up being frozen in some countries.
10. Bernard Arnault – USD$200,6 Billion
Bernard is a French billionaire businessman who owns LVMH which is the world’s largest luxury goods company
09. Jeff Bezos – USD$210,7 Billion
Jeff Bezos is an American billionaire entrepreneur who founded Amazon in 1993 which initially started as an online bookstore. He is also the founder of Blue Origin which is a space exploration company.
08. William the Conqueror – USD$229.5 Billion
William was the first Norman King of England who reigned from 1066 to 1087 after successfully leading a successful invasion of England and had an estimated wealth of about 209 to 229 billion dollars.
07. Mir Osman Ali Khan – USD$236 Billion
Mir Osman Ali Khan was named by Time Magazine the richest man in the world in 1937 and ruled Hyderabad from 1911 to 1984.
06. Elon Musk – USD$296.2 Billion
South African born Elon Musk is currently the richest person alive according to Forbes and is the founder of Telsa Motors and SpaceX.
05. Czar Nicholas II of Russia – USD$300 Billion
Czar Nicholas ruled the Russian empire from 1894 until he and his family was assassinated in 1917, but during his reign he had managed to accumulate an enormous fortune.
04. Andrew Carnegie – USD$310 Billion
Andrew was a leading industrialist in the late 1800s early 1900s and became a steel manufacturing tycoon. During those times a large percentage of steel that was used in America was manufactured by his company and in 1901 he sold his company to JP Morgan for a deal that is equivalent to 310 billion dollars today.
03. John D. Rockefeller – USD$340 Billion
John D. Rockefeller was an American industrialist who was and is the richest American of all time.
02. The Rothschild Family – USD$350 Billion
This family ruled the banking sector in Europe and America and their family still influential in the financial sector today.
01. Mansa Musa of Mali – USD$400 Billion
Yes folks, Mansa Musa of Mali was the richest person of all time. Mansa Musa was an emperor that ruled Mali and had a vast fortune that included gold. During his reign he built educational libraries, schools and mosques some of which still stand today.
