Forbes released the annual list of billionaires as of 1 July. Why is Vladimir Putin missing?

For most of 2023, French luxury goods magnate Bernard Arnault was the world’s richest person, but on 8 June the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter made a spectacular return to the top position, according to the Forbes’ 1 July rankings of the wealthiest people on Earth. 

All billionaires who’ve made into the Forbes top ten are men; eight of them are Americans, one is French and one is Indian. These people have created or manage companies of high-profile brands, with technology giants dominating the landscape.

The top ten rankings, in descending order, as of 1 July 2023:

1. Elon Musk
Net worth: $237.7 billion
Source: Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter
Age: 51
Residence: Austin, Texas
Citizenship: U.S.

2. Bernard Arnault
Net worth: $231.9 billion
Source: LVMH/ luxury goods
Age: 74
Residence: Paris
Citizenship: France

3. Jeff Bezos
Net worth: $153 billion
Source: Amazon
Age: 59
Residence: Medina, Washington
Citizenship: U.S.

4. Larry Ellison
Net worth: $149.2 billion
Source: Oracle
Age: 78
Residence: Lanai, Hawaii
Citizenship: U.S.

5. Bill Gates
Net worth: $119.3 billion
Source: Microsoft, investments
Age: 67
Residence: Medina, Washington
Citizenship: U.S.

6. Warren Buffett
Net worth: $111.9 billion
Source: Berkshire Hathaway
Age: 92
Residence: Omaha, Nebraska
Citizenship: U.S.

7. Steve Ballmer
Net worth: $104 billion
Source: Microsoft, investments
Age: 67
Residence: Hunts Point, Washington
Citizenship: U.S.

8. Larry Page
Net worth: $102.2 billion
Source: Google
Age: 50
Residence: Palo Alto, California
Citizenship: U.S.

9. Mark Zuckerberg
Net worth: $101.8 billion
Source: Facebook
Age: 39
Residence: Palo Alto, California
Citizenship: U.S.

10. Carlos Slim Helu
Net worth: $101.4 billion
Source: telecom, investments
Age: 83
Residence: Mexico City
Citizenship: Mexico

A majority of the ten wealthiest people keep their fortunes in stocks. Stock prices fluctuate routinely, so these net fortunes may change on a daily basis. Forbes tracks the daily changes on a real time list.

Sergey Brin, the 49-year-old co-founder of Google/Alphabet, is worth $96.7 billion. He is number 11 in the general list.

The richest woman in the world is Francoise Bettencourt Meyers of France. On 1 July 2023, her fortune was worth $93 billion and she was on the 13th spot of wealthiest billionaires, thanks to her ownership of the cosmetics giant L’Oreal, a family business.

Zhong Shanshan, 68, is the richest Chinese with a fortune of $61,2 billion, which he owes to beverage and pharmaceutical businesses (19the spot).

Andrey Melnichenko, 51, and his family are considered to be the wealthiest Russians with a fortune of $24,6 billion owing to fertilizer and coal enterprises. It is widely believed that President Vladimir Putin is actually the wealthiest person in Russia – if not in the world – but it is hard to track down his assets and assess his fortunes.