1. Warren Buffett
$12.7 billion gain to $59.1 billion.
Source of Wealth: Berkshire Hathaway
Warren Buffett, an American industrialist and investor, was born in 1930, on August 30th in Omaha, Nebraska. He was the son of a stockbroker-turned congressman. Warren had exceptional analytical skills from his early childhood and later he developed great interest in the stock market. At the age of six, he sold 5 packs of Coca-Cola, which he bought from his Grandfather for 25 cents, and made 5 cent profit on each pack. Whilst still at school, Buffett made various money making ideas which were quite successful: He started selling Coca-cola, chewing gum, and weekly magazines door to door. Gradually, he expanded his business to selling goofballs, stamps and many other new things. Read more about Warren Buffett
2. Bill Gates
$11.5 billion gain to $72.6 billion
Source of Wealth: Microsoft
In 1975, Bill Gates launched Microsoft and within the next few years, it changed the entire computer world. In 1980, IBM and Microsoft became partners and they developed MS-DOS, the first IMB personnel computer, which was also the first breakthrough for both the organizations. Microsoft announced Window 1.0 in 1983 and after two years in 1985, the first retail version of Microsoft windows that he developed with IBM came in the market. In coming years, Microsoft started closing the deal of developing new operating systems which led to their separation in 1991. Read more about Bill Gates
3. Sheldon Adelson
$11.4 billion gain to $35.3 billion
Source of Wealth: Casinos, Investments
Sheldon Adelson, an American billionaire, was born in Dorchester on 6th August 1933, to a traditionally democratic Jewish family. He was the son of a cab driver whose family migrated to the United States from Lithuania. At the age of 12, he borrowed $200 from his uncle and started selling Newspaper at a local street corner. In coming years, he worked in variety of fields and worked as a financial consultant, mortgage broker, and investment adviser. In 1960, he started travel and tourism business along with two of his friends. He went on to City College in New York but soon dropped out to become a court reporter. Read about about Sheldon Adelson
4. Jeff Bezos
$11.3 billion gain to $34.4 billion
Source of Wealth: Amazon.Com
Jeffrey Preston Bezos started his entrepreneurial journey in 1995 when he founded Amazon.com as an online bookstore. The company that literally started its journey from his garage touched the pinnacle of success with his adventurous mind and innovative heart. In less than 4 years, Bezos was featured on TIME Magazine as the Person of the Year. He was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico to a teenage mother whose marriage lasted just over a year. She remarried when Bezos was about four. From the early childhood he had remarkable mechanical aptitude, and had various scientific interests. He spent his early childhood with his grandfather at Cotulla (a city in La Salle County, Texas) where they had 25,000-acre ranch. Bezos converted his parents’ garage into a laboratory and did several science projects of his interests. Read more about Jeff Bezos
5. Mark Zuckerberg
$10.5 billion gain to $24.7 billion
Source of Wealth: Facebook
He is the world’s youngest billionaire whose 28% Facebook shares are estimated to be worth $28 billion, making Facebook’s market worth about $100 billion. Zuckerberg was born on May 14, 1984 in White Plains of New York to a dentist father, Edward Zuckerberg and a psychiatrist mother, Karen. He was raised in Dobbs Ferry of New York along with his three sisters Randi, Donna and Arielle. He completed his studies from Ardsley High School and Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire. From the early childhood, Zuckerberg was inclined to science and classical studies and won several prizes in math, astronomy and physics. Read More about Mark Zuckerberg
6. Masayoshi Son
$10.3 billion gain to $19.1 billion
Source of Wealth: Internet, Telcom, SoftBank, SoftBank Mobile
Popularly know as the ‘Bill Gates of Japan’, Masayoshi Son is currently the second richest man in Japan. He is also considered the man who lost the highest cash money in human history (approximately $70 billion due to the dot com crash of 2000). Son’s pursuit for business began soon after he met McDonald’s president for Japan, Den Fujita. He advised him to take up English and computer science and move to the United States.
At age 16, Son moved to the South San Francisco to finish high school and then enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley and Los Angeles where he majored in economics and computer science. By the time Som turned 19, he knew he’ll end up harnessing computer technology and therefore concentrated on studying microchips. Som patented a translating device and sold it to Sharp Electronics for $1 million and thus his entrepreneurial journey began.
7. Sergey Brin
$9.3 billion gain to $30 billion
Source of Wealth: Google
Co-founder of Google, Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin is a Russian American computer scientist and Industrialist. He was born on August 21, 1973 in Moscow to Russian Jewish parents. He is the son of Michael Brin, a mathematics professor at the University of Maryland and Eugenia Brin, a research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. At the age of six in 1979 his parents immigrated to the United States. Brin attended Montessori School in Adelphi, Maryland; however, his parents also taught him mathematics, science and Russian language at home. In 1993, he completed his Bachelor of Science degree with honors from the University of Maryland, and attended Stanford University to receive his PhD degree. It was here he met Larry Page and together they published a research paper titled, “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine” which later resulted into developing the search engine, Google. Read more about Sergey Brin
8. Larry Page
$9.3 billion gain to $29.9 billion
Source of Wealth: Google
Larry Page, an American computer scientist and co-founder of Google Inc, was born in March 26, 1973 in East Lansing, Michigan to a Jewish family. He is the son of Dr. Carl Victor Page who is a computer science professor of Michigan State University. He did his schooling from Okemos Montessori School in Okemos, Michigan in 1979. In 1991 he graduated from East Lansing High School; and later attended the University of Michigan and completed Bachelor of Science degree in computer engineering with honors; and a Masters degree in Computer Science from Stanford University. In 1999, he enrolled at Stanford University for PhD in computer science and collaborated with Sergei Brin for the research on search engine algorithm. Together, in 1998, they founded Google. Read More about Larry Page
9. Lui Chee Woo
$8.3 billion gain to $19.6 billion
Source of Wealth: Gaming, Hotel, Casino, Real Estate
83-year-old Chinese entrepreneur Lui Chee Woo is the second richest man in Asia. He is the owner of Galaxy Entertainment Group, a conglomerate that operates hotels and casinos in Macau and deals in construction materials across Hong Kong, Macau and Mainland China. He also serves as the chairman of K. Wah Group, the company he started in the late 50s. Today, K. Wah Group employs over 20,000 people and invests in luxury real estate and construction materials. In 2011, Chee Woo invested over $2 billion in Galaxy Macau, a casino resort that houses 2,200 rooms, 50 restaurants, and 450 gambling tables.
10. Carl Icahn
$7.2 billion gain to $22.1 billion
Source of Wealth: Investments
Carl Celian Icahn is an American Investor who hold majority of shares of Icahn Enterprises, a diversified holding company. Icahn was born on February 16, 1936 to a Jewish-American parents who worked as teacher. In 1957, Icahn graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and then joined New York University School of Medicine, which he dropped out after two years to join the army. After a brief stint in army, he started his business career in 1961 at Wall Street as a stockbroker.
Source of Info: http://money.msn.com/
