Nairobi News

World-renowned tech mogul Elon Musk, worth an estimated $216 billion, tops Forbes 2022 World Billionaire’s list for the first time after he became the world’s richest man late last year.
Musk has added $68 billion to his fortune over the past year after the share price of Tesla jumped 33 per cent.
Musk knocked Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos off the top spot, who fell to the second richest person for the first time in four years with a net worth of $171 billion.
Bezos lost out due to a 3% drop in Amazon stock and increased charitable giving, which wiped $6bn from his net worth, Forbes said.
French fashion tycoon Bernard Arnault was named the world’s third-richest person whilst Bill Gates and Warren Buffett were fourth and fifth respectively.
International star and successful beauty-preneur Rihanna also made her debut on the Forbes list of world billionaires for the first time in her career. Barbados hailed queen of RnB, who is expecting her first child with ASAP Rocky, is reportedly the first billionaire to come from Barbados. She spoke about the milestone in September 2021 with the New York Times, after she officially reached billionaire status in 2021 with an estimated net worth of $1.7 billion.
According to Forbes, the world now has 2,668 billionaires with a collective net worth of $12.7 trillion. (Rihanna was ranked No. 1,729.).
Last year’s list had 2,755 billionaires with a total estimated net worth of $13.1 trillion. The publication reports the decline, the largest drop since the 2009 financial crisis was due to sanctions on Russia, which lost one-third of its fortune following the collapse of the ruble.
Other celebrities who made the list include Kanye West (No. 1,513 with $2 billion), Kim Kardashian (No. 1,645, $1.8 billion), Jay-Z (No. 2,076, $1.4 billion), and Tyler Perry (No. 2,578, $1 billion), Steven Spielberg (No. 801, $3.7 billion), and Oprah Winfrey (No. 1,196, $2.6 billion).