Saudi prince is among world's top self-made billionaires
This high-profile investor is the only GCC resident who makes it to the world's top 25 self-made billionaires
Dubai: Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal of Saudi Arabia has been named one of the world’s richest self-made billionaires.
Amassing a personal fortune worth $28.3 billion, which is greater than the gross domestic product (GDP) of Cyprus in 2013, Bin Talal makes it to the global list of top 25 richest self-made billionaires, according to the latest ranking released by Wealth-X.
Bin Talal takes the 14th slot on the list, ahead of George Soros from the United States and several other self-made billionaires from China, Brazil, Hong Kong and Italy.
The high-profile investor holds major stakes in a number of private and public companies in the Middle East, United States and Europe through Kingdom Holding.
Bin Talal is the only GCC resident featured on the list, which is dominated by Americans.
The combined fortunes of the 14 Americans on the list are around $514.2 billion, which, according to Wealth-X, is bigger than Norway’s GDP.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates, whose personal fortune is estimated to be nearly $86 billion, tops the list, followed by Warren Buffet with $70.1 billion, Amancio Ortega from Spain ($65 billion), Lawrence Ellison from the US ($51.5 billion) and Ingvar Kamprad from Sweden ($48.1 billion).
Below are the world’s top 25 self-made billionaires:
Rank/
Name
Nationality
Estimated Net Worth*
1
William Gates III
United States
85.7
2
Warren Buffett
United States
70.1
3
Amancio Ortega
Spain
65.0
4
Lawrence Ellison
United States
51.5
5
Ingvar Kamprad
Sweden
48.1
6
Jeffrey Bezos
United States
39.8
7
Carlos Slim
Mexico
35.4
8
Mark Zuckerberg
United States
35.3
9
Wang Jianlin
China
35.2
10
Michael Bloomberg
United States
33.7
11
Lawrence Page
United States
31.3
12
Sergey Brin
United States
29.1
13
Lee Shau Kee
Hong Kong
28.3
14
Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal
Saudi Arabia
28.3
15
Jorge Paulo Lemann
Brazil
27.0
16
Jack Ma (Yun Ma)
China
26.7
17
Sheldon Adelson
United States
26.0
18
George Soros
United States
24.8
19
Leonardo Del Vecchio
Italy
23.0
20
Carl Icahn
United States
22.8
21
Steven Ballmer
United States
22.4
22
Philip Knight
United States
21.6
23
Patrick Drahi
France/Israel
21.0
24
Li Ka Shing
Hong Kong
20.1
25
Leonard Blavatnik
United States
20.1
*US$ billion
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