Reranking The World’s Billionaires By Wealth – And Altruism

Forbes Daily Briefing

Forbes

Tech News, News, Business

4.4 • 18 Ratings

🗓️ 24 April 2026

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Elon Musk is the planet’s richest person by far, worth $839 billion as of Forbes’ annual World’s Billionaires list. He also ranks among the least philanthropic billionaires. Sure, Musk has transferred $8.5 billion of Tesla stock to his charitable foundations (1% of his net worth)—but nearly all of it is still sitting there idle. Only an estimated $500 million, or 0.06% of Musk’s vast fortune, has ever been disbursed to those in need. His lack of giving raises a question: What would our billionaires ranking look like if the world’s most generous people—such as Warren Buffett (who has donated more than half of his Berkshire Hathaway stock so far) and Bill Gates (who has moved, alongside his ex-wife Melinda French Gates, more than $60 billion into the Gates Foundation)—had never donated a dollar to charity? To find the answer, we adjusted the net worths of the planet’s most generous billionaires, assuming they kept any shares they’ve given away and that cash gifts were instead invested at market rates of return. By Matt Durot, Forbes Staff Chase Peterson-Withorn, Assistant Managing Editor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:53.5	Today on Forbes, re-ranking the world's billionaires by wealth and altruism.
1:01.6	Elon Musk is the planet's richest person by far, worth $839 billion as of Forbes's annual
1:08.5	world's billionaires list.
1:10.6	He also ranks among the least philanthropic billionaires.
1:14.9	Sure, Musk has transferred $8.5 billion of Tesla stock to his charitable foundations,
1:20.6	or 1% of his net worth, but nearly all of it is still sitting there idle.
1:26.1	Only an estimated $500 million, or 0.06% of Musk's vast
1:31.6	fortune, has ever been dispersed to those in need. His lack of giving raises a question,
1:38.4	what would our billionaire's ranking look like if the world's most generous people, such
1:42.7	as Warren Buffett, who has donated more than half
1:45.5	of his Berkshire Hathaway stock so far, and Bill Gates, who was moved alongside his ex-wife,
1:51.4	Melinda French Gates, more than $60 billion into the Gates Foundation, had never donated
1:57.1	a dollar to charity. To find the answer, we adjusted the net worths of the planet's most generous billionaires,
2:05.5	assuming they kept any shares they've given away, and that cash gifts were instead invested
2:10.2	at market rates of return.
	...

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