1. Warren Buffett
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Warren Buffett (L), Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, makes his way to a morning session at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, U.S., on July 14, 2023. Photo by AFP |
Born: 1930
Net worth: US$147.7 billion
Nationality: American
Nicknamed the “Oracle of Omaha,” Warren Buffett is widely regarded as one of the most successful investors in history. His advice is closely followed in business circles, perhaps best summarized by his famous maxim: “Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.”
Buffett currently serves as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, a massive conglomerate that owns dozens of subsidiaries, ranging from insurance giant GEICO and battery maker Duracell to the ice cream chain Dairy Queen. After six decades at the helm, he recently stepped down as CEO at the start of this year, handing over the reins to his successor, Greg Abel.
Beyond his wealth and investment acumen, Buffett is known for his immense philanthropy. He has pledged to donate 99% of his fortune to charitable causes and has already given away roughly $65 billion.
2. George Soros
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George Soros attends an event in Berlin, Germany, in 2012. Photo by Reuters |
Born: 1930
Net worth: $7.4 billion
Nationality: American
George Soros left Hungary at age 17 for London, where he supported himself as a waiter and railway porter to fund his studies at the London School of Economics. After graduating, he persistently wrote letters to merchant bank executives until he finally landed a job in finance.
Soros later relocated to New York and founded his own massively successful hedge fund, Soros Fund Management. He managed client assets for decades before returning outside investors’ money in 2011 to run the firm as a family office. However, he remains best known in the financial world for famously shorting the British pound during the 1992 Black Wednesday crisis. That legendary trade earned him $1 billion in a single day, forever branding him as “the man who broke the Bank of England.”
3. Bernard Ecclestone
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Bernie Ecclestone, former chief executive of the Formula One Group, at the Formula One motor race held in Brazil in November 2023. Photo by Reuters |
Born: 1930
Net worth: $2.3 billion
Nationality: British
Former Formula One executive Bernie Ecclestone was born to a fisherman’s family in Suffolk, England. Showing an early entrepreneurial spirit, he delivered newspapers before school and resold snacks to classmates for a profit.
He left school at 16 to work at a local gasworks while pursuing a passion for motorcycles, eventually opening a successful dealership. Though his own stint driving in Formula One in the late 1950s was brief, Ecclestone found his true calling in management. He purchased the Brabham F1 team in 1972 and, by 1978, had taken control of the Formula One Constructors’ Association.
In the decades that followed, Ecclestone revolutionized the sport. He secured massive television and advertising deals, transforming Formula One into a lucrative, globally licensed brand by 1997. His wealth skyrocketed, and he reached billionaire status around 2005 after selling shares in the Formula One Group. In January 2017, Ecclestone finally stepped down as chief executive after the sport was sold to Liberty Media.
4. Roman Abramovich
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Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea football club, arrives at a division of the High Court in central London in 2011. Photo by Reuters |
Born: 1966
Net worth: $9.1 billion
Nationality: Russian
Orphaned as a toddler, Roman Abramovich was raised by relatives before eventually dropping out of college to pursue business. He built his massive fortune following the collapse of the Soviet Union through investments in major Russian companies, including the oil firm Sibneft, mining giant Norilsk Nickel, and steelmaker Evraz.
Following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, Abramovich reportedly served as an early intermediary in peace negotiations and helped facilitate high-profile prisoner exchanges.
He is perhaps best known globally as the former owner of Chelsea F.C. Following U.K. sanctions in 2022, he was forced to sell the club to a consortium led by American billionaire Todd Boehly in a deal worth over $5 billion. However, the estimated £2.5 billion (roughly $3.1 billion) in proceeds earmarked for victims of the war remain locked in a frozen U.K. bank account, with the British government recently threatening court action to force the transfer of the funds.
5. Song Chi-hyung
Born: 1978
Net worth: $2.4 billion
Nationality: South Korean
Song Chi-hyung is the co-founder and chairman of Dunamu, the powerhouse behind Upbit, South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume.
Before launching Dunamu, Song cut his teeth in the tech sector at the mobile payments company Danal. Today, his success in the digital asset space has secured his rank among South Korea’s 50 richest individuals. His firm has attracted major backing from high-profile investors, including Kakao Ventures, Altos Ventures, and Hybe, the entertainment agency behind the global pop sensation BTS.
6. Evan Spiegel
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Evan Spiegel, co-founder and CEO of Snap Inc., holds up a Pixy drone while speaking during the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups, at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France in 2022. Photo by Reuters |
Born: 1990
Net worth: $2.2 billion
Nationality: American
Evan Spiegel co-founded Snapchat in 2011 while studying at Stanford University. He remains CEO of parent company Snap Inc., famously drawing an annual base salary of just $1. Under his leadership, the platform has grown to 474 million daily active users worldwide, reporting $5.93 billion in revenue in 2025.
Spiegel made headlines in 2015 when he became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire. Since then, he has focused heavily on philanthropy, having donated more than $280 million in Snap stock to various charitable causes.
7. Sam McCandlish
Born: 1990
Net worth: $3.7 billion
Nationality: American
Sam McCandlish holds a PhD in theoretical physics from Stanford University. He is a co-founder and the Chief Architect of Anthropic, a leading artificial intelligence firm developing large-scale AI systems.
Founded in 2021 by McCandlish and six other former employees of OpenAI, Anthropic has quickly become a massive player in the generative AI space. The company, which partners with major tech firms including Alphabet Inc. and Amazon, was valued by investors at $183 billion in September 2025.
8. Justin Sun
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Chinese-born crypto founder Justin Sun eats a banana artwork composed of a fresh banana stuck to a wall with duct tape, in Hong Kong on Nov. 29, 2024. Photo by AFP. |
Born: 1990
Net worth: $8.5 billion
Nationality: Grenadian, Kittitian
Justin Sun’s career and public persona are deeply intertwined with the cryptocurrency industry. He began his journey into digital assets in 2012 by investing in Bitcoin while studying at the University of Pennsylvania. After an early stint at Ripple, he launched his own blockchain network, TRON, in 2017. Today, TRON consistently ranks among the world’s top cryptocurrencies, currently sitting in the number eight spot with a market capitalization of roughly $26.4 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Beyond his blockchain ventures, Sun is notorious for leveraging his vast wealth for high-profile stunts. In 2019, he paid $4.57 million at a charity auction to win a private lunch with investment legend Warren Buffett.
More recently, in November 2024, Sun made international waves when he purchased “Comedian”, Maurizio Cattelan’s infamous duct-taped banana artwork, at Sotheby’s for $6.24 million, before eating the fruit on stage at a press conference as promised.
