A report from Funkyadjunct indicates that this year’s Forbes World Billionaires list has recorded a record high of 2,781 billionaires, with a total of $14.2 trillion in assets. The rise in many stock markets over the past year has boosted the wealth of the wealthy, and the number of billionaires has increased from 150 to 265 in 2023. Newcomers this year include a fashion mogul, a basketball hall of famer, and an ultra-famous pop singer. The 265 newcomers have an average net worth of $1.9 billion and a total net worth of $510 billion. They come from 32 countries.
Leading Countries in Billionaire Growth
According to Seotoolskit, the United States again led the way with 67 new billionaires. The richest of them all was Todd Graves, founder of fast food chain Raising Cane’s, with an estimated net worth of $9.1 billion (approximately 140 billion yen).
China maintained second place with 31 new billionaires, almost double the number from last year, despite the country’s struggling domestic economy. The richest of them all were Gen Z members Maggie Gu, Molly Miao, and Ren Xiaoqing, who co-founded fast fashion giant SHEIN, each with an estimated net worth of $4.2 billion (approximately 640 billion yen).
India has 25 new billionaires, including Renuka Jagtiani (worth $4.8 billion), CEO of Landmark Group, an e-commerce conglomerate founded by her husband Mickey Jagtiani, who died in May 2023. The richest new billionaire is Italy’s Andrea Pignataro, whose fortune includes financial software company ION Group and the luxury resort Canouan Estate in St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the Caribbean, and is worth an estimated $27.5 billion.
Notable New Billionaires
The richest women to join the billionaire ranks this year are sisters Sofia Högberg Schörling and Märta Schörling Andreen. Daughters of Swedish tycoon Melker Schörling, who died at the end of last year, both have an estimated net worth of $5.6 billion. Including these two, 46 women have become new billionaires this year.
The most famous of the new billionaires is, of course, Taylor Swift. Her net worth has increased to $1.1 billion, thanks in part to the box office success of her record-breaking THE ERAS TOUR. Swift is the first musician to become a billionaire solely through songwriting and performing.
NBA legend and businessman Magic Johnson also became a new billionaire this year. He has increased his net worth to an estimated $1.2 billion through investments in professional sports teams, movie theaters, Starbucks franchises, real estate, and healthcare. More than half of this year’s new billionaires were “self-made” people who made their fortunes not through inheritance, but through starting their own businesses.
Youngest Billionaire
The youngest of them all was Japanese entrepreneur Shunsaku Sakami. A graduate of Kobe University, Sakami founded M&A Research Institute (headquartered in Tokyo), which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to broker M&A deals, and has an estimated net worth of $1.9 billion (approximately 290 billion yen).
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