Who has the most net worth? For most of the period from 2021 through 2025, the answer given by Forbes and the Bloomberg Billionaires Index was Elon Musk, the head of Tesla and SpaceX. Reports in 2024 and 2025 described his estimated wealth passing the $400 billion mark and later reaching around $500 billion, mostly because of his stakes in Tesla and SpaceX. But the ranking depends on the day, the list and the method, so the short answer has a long footnote.
The lists are published by different organizations, they use different methods, and the top of the table can swap places when stock prices move. If you read this on a later date, check the live rankings at Forbes and Bloomberg before quoting anyone as number one.
Who has the most net worth on the main lists
The two best-known sources are the Forbes World’s Billionaires list, published each year with a snapshot date, and the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which updates daily. Forbes also runs a real-time list. Because the methodologies differ, the same person can be a few billion dollars higher on one list than the other.
The group that tends to be at or near the top includes Musk, Bernard Arnault of the luxury group LVMH, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Larry Ellison of Oracle, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway and Bill Gates. Their order shifts with share prices. In 2025, for instance, reports noted that Ellison briefly rose very high on the lists after a surge in Oracle’s stock. Exact dollar amounts change by the minute, so I have kept them loose.
Why the top spot keeps changing
Most extreme fortunes are not held in cash. They are held as ownership in companies, so net worth moves with the share price. A single day of a strong earnings report can add tens of billions to a founder’s estimated wealth. A market drop can take the same amount away. That is why you see people swapping places on a list without anything changing in their daily lives.
Private holdings add uncertainty. A stake in a company that does not trade publicly has to be valued by the list makers, using funding rounds, comparable companies and reported deals. SpaceX, for example, is private, so estimates of its worth depend on reported share sales and tender offers, and they get revised.
How the lists are calculated
Journalists build these numbers from public data and reporting.
- Stock holdings: shares owned multiplied by price, sometimes with discounts for large blocks or restricted stock.
- Private companies: valuations estimated from funding rounds, comparables and sources.
- Real estate, art, yachts and other assets: estimated from sales records and reports.
- Cash and debt: reported where possible, estimated otherwise. Debt is subtracted.
- Pledged shares and taxes: some adjustments are made, but they are not always visible.
The lists are estimates, not audits. Neither Forbes nor Bloomberg sees a billionaire’s bank statements, and both say they revise numbers when new information appears.
The “most net worth” in history
If you mean all of history, the question gets harder because currencies and economies differ. John D. Rockefeller is often cited as the richest American ever when adjusted for inflation and economy size, with Standard Oil giving him a very large share of national wealth. Historians also mention rulers and figures such as Mansa Musa of the Mali Empire, whose wealth is impossible to measure precisely. Cross-era comparisons are mostly informed storytelling, so be wary of any ranking that claims exact numbers.
Wealthiest versus most valuable
People sometimes mix up the richest person with the richest company or the richest country. Companies are measured by market capitalization, the share price multiplied by the number of shares, and by their revenue and profit. A company worth trillions is not the same as a person with trillions, and to my knowledge no individual has been reported at that level. Governments and sovereign wealth funds hold even larger pools of assets, but those belong to the public, not to individuals.
What the numbers mean for ordinary readers
A $400 billion estimate is hard to picture. A few comparisons help, such as the size of a national economy, since that amount of wealth is comparable to the annual output of a mid-sized country. But that comparison misses a key point: most of that wealth is illiquid. It cannot be spent without selling shares, which would move the price and create large tax bills.
It is also worth remembering that the list does not measure usefulness, ethics or happiness. It tells you how markets value what a person owns on a given day.
How to check the current answer
To find out who has the most net worth today, use these steps.
- Open the Forbes real-time billionaires page and the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
- Compare the top five on both, noting the time stamp.
- Look for the source notes explaining major holdings.
- Check recent news for stock moves, share sales or valuation updates.
If the two lists disagree, report both and say so. That is what careful journalists do.
The bottom line is simple. In recent years, Elon Musk has most often held the top spot on both major lists, according to Forbes and Bloomberg reports, but the margin and the ranking can change, and any figure is an estimate. For a reliable current answer, go to the live sources and read how they calculate.
For more background, the Wikipedia page is a useful starting point. Related reading on this site: The Facebook Poke: A Short History of the Internet's Strangest Gesture and Shark Tank Deals and Founder Net Worth: Why the Numbers Rarely Tell the Story.
