Billionaires
5 Serial Entrepreneur Billionaires These five self-made billionaires have founded at least two businesses. Combined, they are worth $542.5 billion. Net worths are as of December 1, 2021.
Jack Ma Net worth: $37.3 billion Country: China Ma’s first venture as an entrepreneur was Hangzhou Hope, a translation agency launched in 1994. The billionaire has since built an empire with e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, launching 13 subsidiary companies, including retail marketplace Taobao and streaming platform Youku. Ma founded private equity firm YunFeng Capital in 2010 and fintech Ant Group in 2014. The latter was set for a recordbreaking $34.5 billion IPO until Chinese regulators suspended it in 2020. Alibaba’s shares declined by about 46% until December 13, 2021, as government crackdowns on Ma’s businesses continued.
Richard Branson Net worth: $3.9 billion Country: U.K. Branson has established over 45 companies in 50 years under the umbrella of the Virgin Group, his global investment company. The billionaire became an entrepreneur at 15 when he launched Student magazine in 1967. Branson found startup success with Virgin Records in 1970 and went on to diversify into several F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M
industries, from travel to technology. His Virgin businesses include the aerospace company Virgin Galactic, launched in 2004, which had a market value of $3.7 billion as of December 3, 2021.
Elon Musk Net worth: $297 billion Country: U.S. Best known as the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Musk has founded six companies over the past two decades. He launched Zip2, a navigation software, with his brother Kimbal in 1995. The company was acquired for $307 million in 1999. Musk’s second startup, online bank X.com, found success when it merged with Confinity in 2000, which became PayPal in 2001. The company was sold to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002. Although Musk was ousted as CEO, he invested $100
million from his share of the sale to cofound SpaceX, reportedly valued at $100 billion in 2021. The world’s richest person according to Forbes’ real-time estimates as of December 2021, Musk bought back the domain name X.com from PayPal in 2017. The serial entrepreneur has since cofounded Tesla, Neuralink, and The Boring Company.
Oprah Winfrey Net worth: $2.6 billion Country: U.S. Winfrey founded Harpo Productions, a privatelyheld media company, in 1986. Harpo bought the rights to The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1988. As host, Winfrey became the secondhighest-paid TV personality in the world, earning $68 million between 1989 and 1990, according to Forbes estimates. Winfrey is also the founder and CEO of
OWN Network, a 50/50 joint venture with Discovery Communications launched in 2011. In 2017, Discovery paid $70 million for an additional 24.5% stake and acquired 20.5% more in 2020. For the latter deal, Winfrey received 1.3 million Discovery shares, worth $32.1 million as of December 3, 2021. Winfrey became the first female African-American billionaire in 2003 and was the highest-ranked AfricanAmerican on the Forbes 400 in 2012.
Jeff Bezos Net worth: $201.7 billion Country: U.S. In 1994, Bezos founded online bookstore Amazon. com. Between 1995 to 1997, the company made more than $164 million in sales. In Q3 2021, it made $110.8 billion. Bezos is also the founder of investment firm Bezos Expeditions, which manages over 100 of Bezos’ investments, including his $250 million purchase of The Washington Post in 2013. With assets under management worth $107.8 billion as of December 2021 according to SWFI, the firm’s portfolio includes Twitter, Uber, and Airbnb. In 2000, Bezos founded his own space company, Blue Origin, preceding space rivals Musk and Branson. Bezos flew on the company’s first space mission in July 2021. JANUARY 2022
BY KHADIJAH KHOGEER, KATHY HUTCHINS / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM, FEELPHOTO / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM, KATHY HUTCHINS / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM, GETTY IMAGES / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP, LEV RADIN / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
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