JUST IN: Forbes releases list of World richest people in 2022

Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that there are 87 fewer billionaires in the world this year, according to Forbes’ 2022 World’s Billionaires list. But even as countries like Russia, where the invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions have sent markets plummeting, and China, which has cracked down on tech companies, are shedding billionaires, others are gaining them. That includes four countries that got their first-ever billionaires over the past year: Barbados, Bulgaria, Estonia and Uruguay. (Read More Here).

Rihanna, who was officially certified as a billionaire in August 2021 due to her vast beauty and lingerie empire, debuted at no 1729 on the 2022 Forbes World Billionaires List. Her debut on this list with a net worth of $1.7bn makes her not just the world’s richest musician but also the richest person in her home country Barbados. 

Forbes wrote, “The company, which she co-owns with luxury conglomerate LVMH, reportedly raked in more than $550 million in revenue in 2020.

“She also has a 30 percent stake in her Savage x Fenty lingerie line, which raised approximately $115 million in series B funding at a $1 billion valuation in early 2021.”

Kanye ‘Ye’ West, on the other hand, snagged the 1513 spot with a net worth of 2$billion, which Forbes linked to his lucrative Yeezy partnership with Adidas and deal with Gap.

Jay-Z also made his debut on the 2022 list at number 2,076 with a net worth of $1.4bn.

Standing strong at the top of the list is Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, with an estimated worth of $219billion (£167bn).

In second place is Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, worth almost $50bn (£38bn) less than Musk with $171bn (£130bn).

The 2022 billionaire list included 2,668 billionaires with a collective worth of $12.7tn, a notable change from the 2775 billionaires listed last year who were collectively worth $13.1trillion.

Elon Musk is working to revolutionize transportation both on Earth, through electric car maker Tesla -- and in space, via rocket producer SpaceX.NET WORTH $219 B

2.

Jeff Bezos

$171 B

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Amazon

3.

Bernard Arnault & family

$158 B

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LVMH

4.

Bill Gates

$129 B

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Microsoft

5.

Warren Buffett

$118 B

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Berkshire Hathaway

6.

Larry Page

$111 B

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Google

7.

Sergey Brin

$107 B

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Google

8.

Larry Ellison

$106 B

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software

9.

Steve Ballmer

$91.4 B

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Microsoft

10.

Mukesh Ambani

$90.7 B

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diversified

11.

Gautam Adani & family

$90 B

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infrastructure, commodities

12.

Michael Bloomberg

$82 B

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Bloomberg LP

13.

Carlos Slim Helu & family

$81.2 B

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telecom

14.

Francoise Bettencourt Meyers & family

$74.8 B

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L'Oréal

15.

Mark Zuckerberg

$67.3 B

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Facebook

Others:

Bulgaria

Georgi Domuschiev and Kiril Domuschiev

Net worth: $2 billion each

Source of wealth: animal health, investments

Georgi and Kiril Domuschiev got their start selling locally manufactured clothes and shoes after the fall of communism in Sofia, Bulgaria in the 1990s, before joining forces with a group of undisclosed investors to acquire newly privatized companies that had been state-owned. The brothers started investing alone in 2000, when they bought 54% of partially state-owned animal health firm Biovet; they eventually purchased it outright and transformed it into Huvepharma, now the world’s sixth-largest livestock health firm, with operations stretching from Lincoln, Nebraska to northwestern Italy. Their other holdings range from bulk cargo shipping firm Navibulgar to Ludogorets Razgrad, which became the country’s most successful soccer team under their ownership.

Uruguay

Andrés Bzurovski and Sergio Fogel

Net worth: $1.5 billion each

Source of wealth: fintech

Bzurovski and Fogel both attended Universidad ORT in Montevideo, Uruguay and later teamed up in 2009 to launch AstroPay, a payments firm that helps consumers in emerging markets store funds online using a prepaid virtual debit card. In 2016, they joined forces with Sebastián Kanovich—another ORT grad they hired as AstroPay's general manager in 2012—to found dLocal, which helps large multinational firms including Amazon, Netflix, Uber and Microsoft to handle cross-border payments from customers in 35 emerging markets. dLocal became Uruguay’s first unicorn in September 2020, when the firm raised $200 million at a $1.2 billion valuation, and went public on the Nasdaq in June 2021. The stock surged in the weeks after the IPO, making both CEO and cofounder Kanovich and early investor Eduardo Azar—both Uruguayans—billionaires as well; the stock had fallen 21% below the IPO price on March 11, meaning they both missed the cut for the 2022 World’s Billionaires List.

Barbados

Rihanna

Net worth: $1.7 billion

Source of wealth: cosmetics, music

Rihanna may be most famous for her musical career, but it’s her 50% stake in cosmetics brand Fenty Beauty—which she co-owns with luxury conglomerate LVMH—that earned her a spot among the billionaires. She also owns an estimated 30% of the Savage X Fenty lingerie line, which raised $125 million in January and is now reportedly weighing an IPO at a $3 billion valuation.

Estonia

Kristo Käärmann

Net worth: $1.2 billion

Source of wealth: payments, banking

Käärmann and his fellow Estonian cofounder Taavet Hinrikus set up Wise—then known as TransferWise—in London in 2011, when the two émigrés decided they were "sick of losing money to [their] banks" each time they sent money to their native Estonia. Now, the firm processes nearly $8 billion in cross-border payments each month for its 12 million customers across 52 countries. When Wise went public in London in July 2021, Käärmann’s 19% stake was worth $2 billion and Hinrikus’ 11% stake was worth $1.1 billion; the stock fell by 39% from then through March 11, the day Forbes finalized valuations for the 2022 World’s Billionaires List.