Americans gave a near-record $485 billion to charity in 2021, despite surging inflation rates

It's true that the rich are different from you and me. Not only do they have more money, but many hail from remarkably colorful backgrounds, with fierce passions and oddball interests. Some have emerged from extraordinarily humble beginnings, emigrating from impoverished countries or growing up in a tenement or an orphanage. To learn about the wealthiest people in the world, Stacker compiled net worth data from Forbes as of March 26, 2021.

Many of the people on this list used their smarts and creativity to build giant technology empires, invent sophisticated online tools, transform tiny businesses into global conglomerates, expand a single shop into a global retail chain, or turn a small investment into a fortune. Others were handed their wealth by their birth, given massive unearned holdings in manufacturing, luxury goods, shipping lines, tobacco, chocolates, and cheese production.

Among the top 100 richest, a noticeable number made their fortunes in China, via commercial real estate, cutting-edge pharmaceuticals, e-commerce, vats of soy sauce, or pig breeding. Others played their cards right in high finance with prescient investments and lucrative hedge funds, while still others pulled their wealth from the earth, extracting oil, gas, gold, and nickel.

It's not uncommon for the richest people in the world to be reclusive, shuttling from one luxurious home to another by private jet, protected by walls of security and windows of dark tinted glass. Others bask in the spotlight, looking for their next high-profile conquest or sharing lessons of their experiences with avid audiences.

Keep reading to learn more about the richest people in the world and how they made their fortunes.

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- Net worth: $18.1 billion

- Source of wealth: real estate

- Age: 57

- Country/territory: China

Wu Yajun cofounded Hong Kong’s Longfor Properties in 1993 with her then-husband Cai Kui. The couple divorced in 2012, and he is no longer part of the real estate development company. Longfor has nearly 900 property development projects to its name, and its 49 shopping malls drew more than 466 million visitors in 2019.

- Net worth: $18.1 billion

- Source of wealth: real estate

- Age: 74

- Country/territory: Hong Kong

Peter Woo chaired the property developer Wheelock & Co. and its subsidiary Wharf Holdings until he stepped down in 2015. Wheelock and Wharf have holdings in telecoms, ports, and retail. Woo attended the University of Cincinnati and Columbia University then started his career in banking in New York in 1972. He married Bessie Pao, the daughter of Hong Kong shipping magnate Y.K. Pao, and he joined her family business in 1975.

- Net worth: $18.4 billion

- Source of wealth: Google

- Age: 65

- Country/territory: United States

Eric Schmidt was chief executive officer and chairman of Google from 2001 to 2011, overseeing its rise to tech powerhouse. In 2017 he co-founded Schmidt Futures to support scientific and technological innovation. In August 2020, Schmidt started a podcast series, “Reimagine with Eric Schmidt,” to look at challenges to be readdressed by business, government, science, and technology following the global pandemic.

- Net worth: $18.5 billion

- Source of wealth: steel, telecom, investments

- Age: 67

- Country/territory: Russia

Uzbek-born Alisher Usmanov founded USM, a private company with major holdings in Russian phone network MegaFon, metals producer Metalloinvest, Udokan copper, and Akkerman cement production. He also owns Kommersant Publishing House, a Russian business media organization, and he is a former major stakeholder in the soccer team Arsenal FC.

- Net worth: $18.5 billion

- Source of wealth: Facebook

- Age: 36

- Country/territory: United States

Dustin Moskovitz co-founded Facebook in 2004 with his Harvard roommate Mark Zuckerberg, and he holds an estimated stake of 2%. He was Facebook's chief technical officer and vice president of engineering before hase left in 2008. With another Facebook co-founder, he launched Asana, a team productivity software company that provides software for synchronizing workflows, targeting deadlines, mapping progress and managing workloads. Moskovitz and his wife Cari Tuna founded Good Ventures, a philanthropic foundation.

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- Net worth: $18.5 billion

- Source of wealth: banking, tobacco

- Age: 81

- Country/territory: Indonesia

Michael Hartono's wealth is in the Djarum Group, a conglomerate he controls with his brother Robert Budi Hartono. The brothers inherited Djarum from their father. It is a major tobacco and clove cigarette manufacturer in Indonesia and holds stakes in banking, telecommunications, electronics, real estate, and investment companies. Hartono plays professional bridge, a game he learned as a child during the Japanese occupation of Indonesia in World War II.

- Net worth: $18.7 billion

- Source of wealth: casinos/hotels

- Age: 91

- Country/territory: Hong Kong

Lui Che Woo started his career in the years following World War II by supplying gravel to the construction boom in Hong Kong. Now he is chairman of the Galaxy Entertainment Group of casinos and K. Wah International Holdings, property developers in Hong Kong and in mainland China. His eldest son, Francis, runs operations at Galaxy, while daughter Paddy and son Alexander oversee K. Wah. In 2015 he established the Lui Che Woo Prize to recognize achievements in sustainable development, human welfare, and "positive energy."

- Net worth: $18.7 billion

- Source of wealth: mining

- Age: 59

- Country/territory: Australia

Andrew Forrest founded Fortescue Metals Group in 2003, and in 2020, he launched a global zero-emissions energy effort through a new green subsidiary, Fortescue Future Industries, which is committed to exploring geothermal, hydro, solar, and wind energy. Featured initiatives at his philanthropic Minderoo Foundation include cancer research, fire and flood resilience, and campaigns to protect the world’s oceans, support indigenous Australians, promote preschool education, and fight modern slavery.

- Net worth: $18.7 billion

- Source of wealth: Apple, Disney

- Age: 57

- Country/territory: United States

Laurene Powell Jobs inherited her fortune in 2011, when her husband, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, died. She is the founder of Emerson Collective, which invests in education, immigration, and social justice. She also owns a 20% stake in the company that owns the Washington Wizards basketball team and the National Hockey League’s Washington Capitals, and she is known for staging elaborate Halloween shows outside one of the homes she owns in the San Francisco Bay Area.

- Net worth: $18.8 billion

- Source of wealth: Aldi, Trader Joe's

- Age: 70

- Country/territory: Germany

Theo Albrecht Jr. owes the beginnings of his fortune to his father, Theo Albrecht Sr., and his uncle, Karl Albrecht, who built a discount grocery store empire in post-war Germany. His father also bought U.S. grocery chain Trader Joe's in 1971. Albrecht Jr. shares his inheritance with the heirs of his brother, Berthold, who died in 2012. One of those heirs, Berthold’s son Nicolay Albrecht, has accused his mother and three sisters of embezzling money from the family trust, and the case is being argued in the German courts.

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- Net worth: $19.0 billion

- Source of wealth: cheese

- Age: 50

- Country/territory: France

Emmanuel Besnier and his family own Groupe Lactalis, a French dairy manufacturer that is the largest maker of cheese in the world and also sells milk, yogurt, butter, cream, chocolate, and desserts. The company was founded by his grandfather in 1933 as a producer of Camembert and expanded under his father. Besnier took over after his father's death in 2000 and undertook several acquisitions to make Lactalis the third-largest dairy group in the world. He is frequently involved in pricing disputes with French dairy farmers.

- Net worth: $19.3 billion

- Source of wealth: banking, tobacco

- Age: 80

- Country/territory: Indonesia

Robert Budi Hartono and his brother Michael Hartono inherited Djarum Group, a tobacco company, from their father. With their fortune, they became the largest shareholders in Bank Central Asia, the biggest bank in Indonesia. Djarum Group produces almost a fifth of the cigarettes in Indonesia, the fifth-largest cigarette market in the world.

- Net worth: $19.3 billion

- Source of wealth: medical devices

- Age: 54

- Country/territory: Hong Kong

In 1991, Xu Hang co-founded Mindray Medical International, a medical device supplier with headquarters in Shenzhen. Xu has a master's degree in biomedical engineering from Tsinghua University. Mindray Medical employs more than 10,000 people, a quarter of them in its research and development department.

- Net worth: $19.7 billion

- Source of wealth: pharmaceuticals

- Age: 60

- Country/territory: China

Zhong Huijuan is the majority shareholder and head of the Chinese drug manufacturer Hansoh Pharmaceutical, which makes anticancer and psychotropic drugs. Zhong, a former middle school chemistry teacher, founded Hansoh in 1995, and it went public in 2019.

- Net worth: $20.1 billion

- Source of wealth: e-commerce

- Age: 47

- Country/territory: China

In 1998 Richard Qiangdong Liu founded JD.com, an e-commerce giant. Liu is known to recount that he grew up so poor his family could only afford meat once or twice a year, and that local villagers raised $70 for him to attend college. He also has been known to don a company uniform and help make bicycle deliveries once a year. In 2018, a Minnesota college student accused him of rape. He was arrested but quickly released, and no charges were filed. The woman later was subjected to a widespread online shame campaign.

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- Net worth: $20.2 billion

- Source of wealth: restaurants

- Age: 50

- Country/territory: Singapore

Zhang Yong is chief executive and co-founder of Haidilao International Holding, the parent company of Beijing-based Hai Di Lao hotpot restaurants. The chain of more than 300 locations in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan serves a boiling broth for cooking noodles, meat, and vegetables. In its initial public offering in 2018, Haidilao raised almost $1 billion. Zhang dropped out of high school to become a welder at a government tractor factory, a job he then quit to start a tiny restaurant in 1994. Specializing in customer service, Hai Di Lao restaurants sometimes offer manicures and shoe polishing services for free to waiting customers. Hai Di Lao also offers managers a share of the profits as an incentive.

- Net worth: $20.3 billion

- Source of wealth: hedge funds

- Age: 71

- Country/territory: United States

Ray Dalio founded Bridgewater Associates in 1975 in New York, and it has become the largest hedge fund in the world. Dalio has written several books that lay out his principles on such topics as work, goals, and leadership. He also is a practitioner and advocate of Transcendental Meditation, and meditation courses are available to Bridgewater employees.

- Net worth: $20.9 billion

- Source of wealth: money management

- Age: 59

- Country/territory: United States

Abigail Johnson became chief executive officer of Fidelity Investments in 2014, making her the third generation of her family to run the mutual fund company. She has been chairman since 2016. The Boston-based company was founded by her grandfather, Edward Johnson II, in 1946.

- Net worth: $21.4 billion

- Source of wealth: medical devices

- Age: 70

- Country/territory: Singapore

Singapore's Li Xiting is a co-founder and chief executive of Mindray Medical International, which makes medical devices and equipment. He was reported to have added several billion dollars to his worth this year owing to the global demand for ventilators, a key to treatment of COVID-19. Mindray's other products include defibrillators, imaging devices, and anesthesia machines. Li grew up in rural China, studied physics, became a visiting scholar at the University of Paris-Sud, and worked for a Chinese medical equipment company before co-founding Mindray with Xu Hang in 1991.

- Net worth: $21.4 billion

- Source of wealth: eBay, PayPal

- Age: 53

- Country/territory: United States

Pierre Omidyar started eBay, the online auction marketplace, in 1995. Seven years later, eBay bought PayPal, the online payment company, which spun off into a separate company in 2014. After eBay went public in 1998, Omidyar and his wife started the Omidyar Foundation, supporting nonprofit organizations and endeavors, and Omidyar Network, investing in for-profit companies. Omidyar, who was born in France, lives in Hawaii.

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- Net worth: $21.4 billion

- Source of wealth: internet media

- Age: 49

- Country/territory: China

Zhang Zhidong, also known as Tony Zhang, co-founded the social media and gaming giant Tencent Holdings with four partners in 1998. He retired as its chief technology officer and executive director in 2014. Tencent's holdings include the WeChat messaging app, which has almost 1.2 billion users as of 2019, and a share in the Spotify audio-streaming app.

- Net worth: $21.5 billion

- Source of wealth: H&M

- Age: 73

- Country/territory: Sweden

Stefan Persson holds a 36% stake in Hennes & Mauritz, the international fast fashion retailer known as H&M founded by his father in 1947. Persson stepped down as chairman in May 2020, handing the job to his son Karl-Johan Persson, who has been the company's chief executive since 2009. H&M, which went public in 1974, employs 177,000 people in more than 72 countries. Persson is credited with pursuing H&M collaborations with high fashion designers, including Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Donatella Versace, Commes des Garçons, Maison Martin Margiela, and Jimmy Choo.

- Net worth: $21.7 billion

- Source of wealth: wireless networking gear

- Age: 43

- Country/territory: United States

Robert Pera, the son of a Levi Strauss denim executive, launched his startup Ubiquiti Networks at age 27 in San Jose, California. The wireless data communications products company was a hit and went public in 2011. Pera is now a controlling owner of the Memphis Grizzlies professional basketball team and has bought up luxury properties in New York, Seattle, Miami Beach, and elsewhere.

- Net worth: $22.5 billion

- Source of wealth: oil, gas

- Age: 68

- Country/territory: Russia

The wealth of Gennady Timchenko and his investment company Volga Group lies in his holdings in Novatek, a giant gas company, and Sibur Holding, a petrochemical manufacturer. He also holds a large stake in a $27 billion oil production project in the Russian Arctic. In his freetime, he heads KHL, Russia's national hockey league, and is president of SKA Saint-Petersburg Hockey Club. Born in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, he lives in Geneva and counts himself a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

- Net worth: $22.6 billion

- Source of wealth: newspapers, TV network

- Age: 90

- Country/territory: United States

Australian-born Rupert Murdoch founded the global media company News Corp in 1980. He bought and sold an array of media outlets in the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s, and today News Corp owns the New York Post, The Times of London, Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones, and Fox News. He is married to his fourth wife, former supermodel Jerry Hall, the ex-wife of Rolling Stones’ frontman Mick Jagger.

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- Net worth: $22.9 billion

- Source of wealth: paints

- Age: 93

- Country/territory: Singapore

Goh Cheng Liang's wealth lies in his stake in Japan's Nippon Paint Holdings, one of the world's biggest paint manufacturers. Goh started out producing paint in Singapore before partnering with Nippon in 1962. He has owned several yachts, all named White Rabbit—the latest of which has 14 guest cabins and room for a staff of 36.

- Net worth: $23.0 billion

- Source of wealth: BMW

- Age: 54

- Country/territory: Germany

Stefan Quandt is the largest shareholder of German luxury carmaker BMW—a fortune he inherited from his father, Herbert Quandt, who rescued the company from bankruptcy and takeover in 1959. The younger Quandt is a deputy chairperson on BMW's board and has separate business ventures in homeopathic medicine, logistics, and solar energy.

- Net worth: $23.0 billion

- Source of wealth: mining

- Age: 78

- Country/territory: Chile

The wealthiest woman in Latin America, Iris Fontbona took control of her husband Andrónico Luksic Abaroa’s businesses when he died in 2005. She and her three sons own the majority share of copper mining company Antofagasta, the world’s largest copper mining company. The family also owns Quiñenco, which controls Banco de Chile, copper products manufacturer Madeco, Compañía de Cervecerías Unidas, Chile’s largest brewer, and the CSAV shipping company. Fontbona is extremely private and is known to refuse all interview requests. The family runs a charitable foundation, Fundación Familia Luksic.

- Net worth: $23.4 billion

- Source of wealth: e-commerce

- Age: 42

- Country/territory: China

Tech entrepreneur Wang Xing is co-chairman of Meituan Dianping, the biggest e-commerce platform in China. Meituan Dianping was created by the 2015 merger of Meituan, modeled after Groupon, and Dianping.com, modeled after Yelp. Wang previously attempted to launch startups modeled after Twitter and Facebook, but they didn't take off.

- Net worth: $23.5 billion

- Source of wealth: mining

- Age: 67

- Country/territory: Australia

The richest person in Australia, Gina Rinehart is the daughter of iron ore magnate and explorer Lang Hancock. She built up her deceased father’s company Hancock Prospecting after she became executive chairman in 1992. She also is the country’s second largest producer of cattle, with a portfolio of ranches and cattle stations across the country.

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- Net worth: $23.6 billion

- Source of wealth: investments

- Age: 74

- Country/territory: United States

Stephen Schwarzman is chairman and chief executive of Blackstone, a private equity firm he co-founded in 1985. One of the world's biggest investment firms, Blackstone has $564 billion in assets under management. Schwarzman donated $350 million to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to set up the Schwarzman College of Computing and $150 million to Yale University for the Schwarzman Center, a space for student programs and the arts. He also launched a program called Schwarzman Scholars for international students to study in China.

- Net worth: $23.6 billion

- Source of wealth: smartphones

- Age: 51

- Country/territory: China

Lei Jun is chairman of smartphone maker Xiaomi, which he co-founded in 2010. The company went public in Hong Kong in 2018. In 2000, he started Joyo.com, an online retailer he sold to Amazon four years later for $75 million. Lei has invested in a number of startups and is chairman of the mobile internet company UCWeb.

- Net worth: $23.6 billion

- Source of wealth: soy sauce

- Age: 65

- Country/territory: China

Pang Kang made his fortune as chairman of China's largest soy sauce producer, Foshan Haitian Flavouring & Food. He holds about a third of the company. The company's sauce factories date back to China's 250-year Qing Dynasty that ended in 1911.

- Net worth: $24.0 billion

- Source of wealth: software services

- Age: 75

- Country/territory: India

Shiv Nadar is a co-founder of HCL Technologies, which started in 1976 and is now a global technology giant that offers software products, platforms, and services to business and industry. The company is known for hiring high school graduates and giving them on-the-job training. In July 2020, Nadar turned over the position of HCL chairman to his daughter. The Shiv Nadar Foundation, which he started in 1994, is focused on improving access to education.

- Net worth: $24.4 billion

- Source of wealth: vaccines

- Age: 67

- Country/territory: China

Jiang Rensheng is the founder of Chongqing Zhifei Biological Products, a vaccine giant. His net worth soared in 2020 when the company got regulatory approval to begin trials of its coronavirus vaccine. Jiang was raised during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and he taught at a primary school and worked in the fields until he was permitted to attend medical school. He later took over a vaccine developer that prospered as the only manufacturer of a vaccine against meningitis C.

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- Net worth: $24.4 billion

- Source of wealth: oil

- Age: 70

- Country/territory: Russia

Vagit Alekperov started Lukoil, the largest independent oil company in Russia, in 1991, and today he owns almost a quarter of the company. Lukoil produces oil and gas, mostly in Western Siberia, transports its product through pipelines and ships, and operates refineries and fuel stations in Russia and the United States. Alekperov graduated from the Azerbaijan Oil and Chemistry Institute, worked as an oil rig worker in Azerbaijan and Western Siberia, and was a Soviet deputy minister of the oil and gas industry. He and a partner own a Dutch shipyard, Heesen Yachts.

- Net worth: $24.4 billion

- Source of wealth: discount brokerage

- Age: 76

- Country/territory: United States

Hungarian-born Thomas Peterffy owns an estimated 75% of Interactive Brokers, a company he founded in 1993. He is still chairman of the global automated brokerage. He also helped found the Boston Options Exchange. Peterffy owns several horses and a lavish waterfront mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, along with other luxury properties. He emigrated from Hungary at age 21, unable to speak English, and got a job doing computer programming. He designed automated stock trading formulas and bought a seat on the American Stock Exchange before launching Interactive Brokers.

- Net worth: $24.6 billion

- Source of wealth: hedge funds

- Age: 82

- Country/territory: United States

Jim Simons was a university mathematics professor who started trading stocks in 1978. Four years later he launched his quantitative hedge fund, Renaissance Technologies, or RenTech. Using math and data, Simons designed quantitative models to detect market fluctuations and trends and algorithms to make trading decisions. He retired in 2010. During the Vietnam war, Simons served as a codebreaker for U.S. forces.

- Net worth: $25.2 billion

- Source of wealth: Estee Lauder

- Age: 88

- Country/territory: United States

Leonard Lauder is chairman emeritus of Estée Lauder, the cosmetics company started by his mother in 1946. As chief executive, he oversaw the launch of brands such as Clinique and the acquisition of brands including Bobbi Brown and Aveda. He also is chairman emeritus of the Whitney Museum of American Art, which named its new downtown Manhattan building after him. His first wife Evelyn died in 2011, and in 2015 he married Judy Glickman, a widely recognized photographer. Lauder's memoir, "The Company I Keep: My Life in Beauty," was published in November 2020.

- Net worth: $25.3 billion

- Source of wealth: gas, chemicals

- Age: 65

- Country/territory: Russia

Leonid Mikhelson started out as a construction foreman on a gas pipeline project in Siberia and today heads Novatek, which produces about 10% of Russia's natural gas. He is Novatek's largest shareholder, with a 25% stake. He also owns a sizable stake in Silbur, a petrochemical company, and his business partner in both companies is Gennady Timchenko, a businessman with ties to President Vladimir Putin.

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- Net worth: $25.5 billion

- Source of wealth: sensors

- Age: 75

- Country/territory: Japan

Japanese businessman Takemitsu Takizaki founded Keyence, which designs and develops electronic sensors, bar-code readers, and other components used in automated factory systems. The products are used by Toyota and Toshiba. Takizaki stepped down from his position as chairman in 2015 but still serves as an honorary chairman. Before Keyence, he reportedly launched two businesses that went bankrupt, making him intent on keeping the sensor company debt-free.

- Net worth: $26.2 billion

- Source of wealth: eyeglasses

- Age: 85

- Country/territory: Italy

The founder, chairman and largest shareholder of Luxottica, Leonardo Del Vecchio built the eyewear giant by acquiring companies and making high-end products. The company makes glasses for Giorgio Armani, Chanel, Versace, and Prada, and it owns the brands Persol, Oakley, and Ray-Ban. Del Vecchio was raised in extreme poverty and spent part of his childhood in an orphanage. In 2018, Luxottica merged with the French eyewear company Essilor to become EssilorLuxottica.

- Net worth: $26.2 billion

- Source of wealth: metals

- Age: 60

- Country/territory: Russia

Vladimir Potanin originally bought shares in Norilsk Nickel and now owns more than a third of the metals giant. He is credited with devising Russia's so-called loans-for-shares program, under which banks and businesses loaned money to the government, secured by the state-owned natural resource companies. When the government could not repay the loans, the lenders got extensive assets in the natural resource companies. Potanin has holdings in pharmaceutical company Petrovax Pharm and is the developer of a Russian ski resort, Rosa Khutor. He was a deputy prime minister to Russian President Boris Yeltsin and has ties to President Vladimir Putin.

- Net worth: $26.6 billion

- Source of wealth: mining

- Age: 67

- Country/territory: Mexico

Mexico’s Germán Larrea Mota Velasco owns the controlling share of the country’s biggest copper mining company, Grupo México. He is president and chief executive of the company, which operates also in Peru and the United States and has diversified into infrastructure and rail transportation. In 2014, the company came under criticism after a copper mine spill in Sonora contaminated the local water supply in what is considered the largest environmental spillage in Mexico's history.

- Net worth: $26.6 billion

- Source of wealth: steel, transport

- Age: 64

- Country/territory: Russia

As a young man, Vladimir Lisin was an electrical fitter in a Siberian coal mine and a steelworker. He is now chairman of NLMK Group, Russia's biggest manufacturer of steel products. He also owns the country's biggest freight rail operator, as well as port facilities and shipping companies. He built a giant shooting range complex north of Moscow and heads up several shooting organizations.

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- Net worth: $26.7 billion

- Source of wealth: Red Bull

- Age: 76

- Country/territory: Austria

Dietrich Mateschitz was a marketing executive for a consumer products company before he teamed up with Thai businessman Chaleo Yoovidhya to start Red Bull in 1987. Mateschitz owns 49% of Red Bull; Yoovidhya died in 2012. Red Bull sponsors top performers in the world of sports, where Mateschitz is no slouch: he is a pilot and a skier, and he owns RB Leipzig, a German soccer club, and two Formula One racing teams. Mateschitz also raises Trakehner horses, a historic breed from East Prussia that almost died out entirely in World War II.

- Net worth: $27.1 billion

- Source of wealth: real estate

- Age: 62

- Country/territory: China

Hui Ka Yan heads the Evergrande Group, a Chinese giant in real estate development. In its portfolio are more than 800 projects in more than 280 cities. Hui was born into a low-income family—his father was a woodcutter, and his grandmother sold homemade vinegar. He launched the Evergrande Group in 1996 by buying up low-priced properties. With Jack Ma of the Alibaba Group, he is a majority stakeholder in professional soccer's Guangzhou Evergrande FC.

- Net worth: $27.7 billion

- Source of wealth: batteries

- Age: 52

- Country/territory: Hong Kong

Robin Zeng is the founder of Contemporary Amperex Technology, a giant global manufacturer of electric batteries. Its clients include Bosch, Jaguar, Honda, Volvo, Toyota, and Volkswagen. The company is headquartered in Zeng's hometown of Ningde, a coastal city in China's Fujian Province.

- Net worth: $28.7 billion

- Source of wealth: BMW, pharmaceuticals

- Age: 58

- Country/territory: Germany

Susanne Klatten, who holds about one-fifth of automaker BMW's shares, inherited her wealth from her father, German industrialist Herbert Quandt. She also owns Altana AG, a pharmaceutical and specialty chemicals company. In 2007, she had an extramarital affair with a Swiss businessman who defrauded her of $10 million and tried to blackmail her. The businessman was convicted of extortion and sentenced to prison for blackmail in 2009.

- Net worth: $28.7 billion

- Source of wealth: shipping

- Age: 83

- Country/territory: Germany

Klaus-Michael Kuehne serves as honorary chairman of Kuehne + Nagel International AG, a Swiss shipping and sea freight giant company co-founded by his grandfather in 1958. Kuehne also owns a sizable stake in Hapag-Lloyd, a German container shipping business, and a minority stake in the second-tier soccer team Hamburger SV.

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- Net worth: $28.9 billion

- Source of wealth: pig breeding

- Age: 55

- Country/territory: China

Qin Yinglin, chairman of Muyuan Foodstuff, is known as China’s largest pig breeder. He studied animal husbandry and started his business with his wife Qian Ying. They began in 1992 with 22 pigs, and as of 2019 had more than 10 million pigs. An outbreak of swine flu in China caused pork prices to soar and Qin's fortune to grow.

- Net worth: $29.1 billion

- Source of wealth: steel, investments

- Age: 55

- Country/territory: Russia

Alexey Mordashov, the child of mill workers, amassed a fortune through investments in Russian steel giant Severstal, of which he now owns a majority. Mordashov also owns about a third of TUI Group, a huge travel and tourism company. He graduated from Saint Petersburg State Academy of Economics and Engineering and earned an MBA at the U.K.’s University of Northumbria in Newcastle.

- Net worth: $30.6 billion

- Source of wealth: music, chemicals

- Age: 63

- Country/territory: United States

Business entrepreneur Len Blavatnik built his fortune in the Russian aluminum and oil industries, then shifted his sights westward and bought the Warner Music Group for $3.3 billion in 2011. His investment company, Access Industries, has holdings in the chemicals company LyondellBasell as well. Blavatnik was born in Ukraine, emigrated to the United States, and got an MBA from Harvard University before making his investments in the Soviet Union's natural resource industries. After getting British citizenship, Blavatnik was knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his philanthropy.

- Net worth: $30.7 billion

- Source of wealth: online games

- Age: 49

- Country/territory: China

William Lei Ding, the chief executive of online and mobile games giant NetEase, was China's first internet billionaire in 2003. Ding founded NetEase in 1997 with three employees, and the company moved into email domains, search engines, and games. NetEase also moved into comics, forging a collaborative deal with Marvel Comics in 2017.

- Net worth: $31.3 billion

- Source of wealth: candy, pet food

- Age: 85

- Country/territory: United States

The late Frank Mars founded Mars Inc. in 1911, and today his grandson John Mars holds one third of the candy giant. The company makes such well-known sweets as Snickers, Twix, and M&Ms. It also owns the Wrigley Co. chewing gum company and Iams pet foods. John Mars lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

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- Net worth: $31.3 billion

- Source of wealth: candy, pet food

- Age: 81

- Country/territory: United States

Jacqueline Mars holds another third of Mars Inc. alongside her brother John. The four children of their late brother hold the balance. Her son Stephen Badger is the company chairman. She also owns a horse farm in Virginia where Olympic equestrians train. Mars was involved in an automobile crash in Virginia in 2013 that killed a passenger in another vehicle. She reportedly admitted to falling asleep at the wheel and was fined $2,500.

- Net worth: $31.7 billion

- Source of wealth: real estate

- Age: 93

- Country/territory: Hong Kong

Lee Shau Kee made his fortune in real estate, starting Henderson Land Development in 1976. The company has holdings in hotels, natural gas, retail, and agricultural land, as well as commercial and residential property in Hong Kong and mainland China. Lee was born in China but left for Hong Kong as a young man in 1948 on the eve of the Communist Revolution. In Hong Kong, he worked as a gold and currency trader before getting into real estate. He retired in 2019 and turned control of the company over to his two sons.

- Net worth: $33.0 billion

- Source of wealth: package delivery

- Age: unknown

- Country/territory: China

Wang Wei's wealth lies in his share of more than 60% of SF Express, a package delivery service in China. Wang started his delivery career in 1993, illegally transporting packages in a minivan between Hong Kong and the mainland at a time when the Chinese postal service controlled all deliveries. The company went public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2017. In 2018, it got the first license in China to begin drone deliveries.

- Net worth: $33.6 billion

- Source of wealth: diversified

- Age: 92

- Country/territory: Hong Kong

Li Ka-Shing left mainland China with his family as a child and got his start in 1950, opening a plastics business when he was just 21 years old. He went on to build conglomerates CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd. and CK Asset Holdings Ltd. About a third of his wealth consists of his investment in Zoom Video Communications, first purchased in 2013. The video conferencing app's value soared as employees around the world began working from home during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. Among private philanthropies run by wealthy individuals, his Li Ka-Shing Foundation is second only to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

- Net worth: $33.9 billion

- Source of wealth: real estate

- Age: 39

- Country/territory: China

China’s Yang Huiyan became one of the world’s richest women in 2007 when her father Yang Guoqiang transferred  her a stake in the real estate company he founded, Country Garden Holdings. Father and daughter now run the company, whose extensive holdings stretch to Malaysia and Australia, as co-chairs.

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- Net worth: $34.5 billion

- Source of wealth: Chanel

- Age: 72

- Country/territory: France

French luxury brand Chanel is owned by Alain Wertheimer, who serves as its chairman, and his younger brother Gerard. Their grandfather Pierre Wertheimer founded Les Parfums Chanel in 1924 with fragrance maker Coco Chanel. During World War II, she tried to take control of the company by using a law that prohibited Jews from owning businesses. But the family, who had fled Paris, had arranged for a friend to handle their stake during the occupation to prevent such a takeover. Wertheimer owns an art collection with works by Matisse, Rousseau, and Picasso that he does not permit to be photographed or loaned out.

- Net worth: $34.5 billion

- Source of wealth: Chanel

- Age: 70

- Country/territory: France

Gerard Wertheimer owns the iconic fashion powerhouse Chanel with his older brother Alain. The younger Wertheimer runs the luxury company's watch division from his home in Geneva. The brothers assumed control of the company in 1996 after the death of their father, Jacques Wertheimer. They also own vineyards in France and California and raise thoroughbred racehorses.

- Net worth: $34.7 billion

- Source of wealth: home appliances

- Age: 78

- Country/territory: China

Chinese entrepreneur He Xiangjian first opened a bottle lid manufacturing company in 1968 at age 26. In 1992, he founded the Midea Group, now a giant global appliance maker. He retired as chairman in 2012 but remains the controlling shareholder. In June 2020, he was the target of a kidnapping attempt when men armed with explosives forced their way into his home. He was rescued after his son escaped and swam across a river to alert authorities.

- Net worth: $34.9 billion

- Source of wealth: Nutella, chocolates

- Age: 56

- Country/territory: Italy

Giovanni Ferrero inherited his family's confectionery business, launched by his grandfather in 1946. His grandfather had concocted a sweet with molasses, hazelnut oil, and cocoa that was less expensive than chocolate for customers in war-torn Italy. With some tweaks, the sweet came to be what we know today as Nutella. The company expanded into post-war Germany, where it made candy in former Nazi munitions factories. Giovanni Ferrero and his brother Pietro ran the company as co-chief executives for 14 years, but Pietro died in 2011 of a heart attack at 47 years old. The company owns the brands Tic Tac, Kinder Joy, Baby Ruth, Butterfinger, and its classic Ferrero Rocher chocolates, for which it purchases roughly a third of the world's hazelnut crop.

- Net worth: $35.5 billion

- Source of wealth: software

- Age: 37

- Country/territory: China

Zhang Yiming founded ByteDance, the software company that developed TikTok and also owns a number of social networking apps within China. Zhang launched the TikTok app under the name Douyin in 2016. Zhang himself loves to make TikTok videos and requires his management team to not only make them as well but to also achieve a set number of “likes.”

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- Net worth: $36.7 billion

- Source of wealth: retail

- Age: 81

- Country/territory: Germany

Dieter Schwarz inherited the Schwarz Group, the largest food retailer in Europe, from his father, who got his start in the wholesale fruit business in 1930. Schwarz Group consists of the supermarket chain Lidl and the discount chain Kaufland. Schwarz, an extremely private person with few details of his life known publicly, stepped down from the group's management in 1999.

- Net worth: $39.2 billion

- Source of wealth: supermarkets

- Age: unknown

- Country/territory: Germany

Sister and brother Beate Heister and Karl Albrecht Jr. are heirs to the Aldi supermarket chain founded by two brothers, Karl Albrecht Sr. and Theo Albrecht Sr., in Essen following World War II. The brothers divided the stores up in 1961, with Karl getting the stores in southern Germany as well as rights to the Aldi brand in Britain, Australia and the United States. Theo took the stores in northern Germany and the rest of Europe, and in 1971 he bought the Trader Joe's chain in the U.S.

- Net worth: $39.4 billion

- Source of wealth: fashion retail

- Age: 72

- Country/territory: Japan

Japan’s Tadashi Yanai is chief executive, chairman and the biggest shareholder of Fast Retailing, parent of the popular clothing company Uniqlo. Fast Retailing is Asia’s biggest clothing retailer. The first Uniqlo store opened in 1984, and now there are more than 2,000 stores in some 20 countries. Yanai lives in a $50 million house outside Tokyo and owns two golf courses in Hawaii. He was born in southern Japan, where his father owned a clothing store and the family lived upstairs.

- Net worth: $41.8 billion

- Source of wealth: internet, telecom

- Age: 63

- Country/territory: Japan

Masayoshi Son runs SoftBank Group, a mobile telecom and investment giant, which he founded in 1981. SoftBank invested in lucrative startups like Yahoo, and today it has major holdings in Uber and DoorDash. Son is its biggest shareholder, with a 26% stake. In June 2020, SoftBank announced it was launching a $100 million fund to invest in entrepreneurs of color.

- Net worth: $42.3 billion

- Source of wealth: media

- Age: 63

- Country/territory: Canada

David Thomson and his family own several high-profile media companies, including Thomson Reuters, where Thomson is chairman. Thomson, who holds the title Baron Thomson of Fleet, collects paintings by Pablo Picasso and John Constable, and he also is part owner of the NHL's Winnipeg Jets.

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- Net worth: $43.6 billion

- Source of wealth: luxury goods

- Age: 84

- Country/territory: France

In 1963, France’s François Pinault founded Kering, a luxury holding company that owns brands like Gucci. In 1998, Pinault obtained a majority stake in Christie’s auction house. A high-school drop-out, Pinault is an avid collector of contemporary art. Following the 2019 fire at Notre Dame, he and his son François-Henri, who is married to actress Salma Hayek, pledged 100 million euros to help rebuild the damaged Paris cathedral.

- Net worth: $44.3 billion

- Source of wealth: e-commerce

- Age: 41

- Country/territory: China

Colin Zheng Huang launched the e-commerce company Pinduoduo, better known as PDD, in 2015. He previously helped set up Google China in 2006. PDD went public in the United States in 2018. In the summer of 2019, he stepped down as chief executive of the online shopping company and lowered his stake. However, he still owns nearly 30% of the company and holds shares that control more than 80% of its voting rights.

- Net worth: $46.1 billion

- Source of wealth: Dell computers

- Age: 56

- Country/territory: United States

Michael Dell started building computers when he was a college student at the University of Texas, where he made $80,000 in sales his freshman year. He dropped out and went into business, selling $6 million worth of personal computers in his first year, 1984. Dell's wealth also comes from investments he has made in hotels and restaurants through his private firm MSD Capital. He recounted his successes in a book he wrote in 1999, "Direct from Dell: Strategies That Revolutionized the Industry."

- Net worth: $46.4 billion

- Source of wealth: Koch Industries

- Age: 85

- Country/territory: United States

The fortune of Charles Koch lies in Koch Industries, a diversified private company with holdings in chemicals and pipelines. His father, Fred Koch, started the business in the oil and gasoline industry, and Charles Koch now owns a 42% stake in the business. His brother David, who died in 2019, held a similarly sized share now held by his widow Julia and their children.

- Net worth: $46.4 billion

- Source of wealth: Koch Industries

- Age: 58

- Country/territory: United States

Julia Koch is the widow of David Koch, and she inherited his share of Koch Industries when he died in 2019. She sits on the Koch Industries board of directors, and she is head of the David H. Koch Foundation, which makes philanthropic and research-related grants.

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- Net worth: $46.5 billion

- Source of wealth: Quicken Loans

- Age: 59

- Country/territory: United States

At age 22, Dan Gilbert was a co-founder of Quicken Loans, which became a leader in the online mortgage lending business. Gilbert has also invested heavily in rehabilitating downtown Detroit with buildings and jobs, and he owns professional basketball's Cleveland Cavaliers. He suffered a serious stroke in 2019.

- Net worth: $47.1 billion

- Source of wealth: e-commerce

- Age: 56

- Country/territory: China

Jack Ma made his fortune with Alibaba Group, China's giant e-commerce business. Its record-setting initial public offering in 2014 raised $25 billion. Before starting his internet business, he was a college English teacher. He is a major supporter of efforts to protect the environment, and he left Alibaba's chairmanship in 2019 to concentrate on philanthropy.

- Net worth: $49.3 billion

- Source of wealth: Nike

- Age: 83

- Country/territory: United States

Phil Knight, a former runner at the University of Oregon, started Blue Ribbon Sports, a running shoe company, with his former coach Bill Bowerman in 1962. The company became Nike in 1978. Knight paid $35 to a student at Portland State University to design Nike's distinctive "Swoosh" logo. Knight retired as chairman in 2016.

- Net worth: $53.2 billion

- Source of wealth: Amazon

- Age: 50

- Country/territory: United States

MacKenzie Scott is the ex-wife of Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos. When they divorced in 2019 she became one of the world's wealthiest women. She won a quarter of Bezos' Amazon shares in their settlement, a 4% stake worth upward of $35 billion. The stake has since grown to be valued at approximately $68 billion.

- Net worth: $53.8 billion

- Source of wealth: infrastructure, commodities

- Age: 58

- Country/territory: India

India’s Gautam Shantilal Adani is founder and chairman of the multinational conglomerate Adani Group, which was established in 1988. Adani Group, India’s largest port developer and operator, also has major holdings in energy, resources, agriculture, aerospace, and defence. Adani is also president of the Adani Foundation, which is chaired by his wife, Priti Adani.

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- Net worth: $59.0 billion

- Source of wealth: Bloomberg LP

- Age: 79

- Country/territory: United States

Michael Bloomberg first made his money on Wall Street, where he worked for Salomon Brothers. He launched Bloomberg L.P., a financial information and media company, in 1981 and owns nearly 90% of the business. He was mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013. His extensive philanthropic interests include gun control and tackling climate change. He is also a major donor to Johns Hopkins University, his alma mater.

- Net worth: $60.4 billion

- Source of wealth: internet media

- Age: 49

- Country/territory: China

Ma Huateng, better known as Pony Ma, is chairman of Tencent Holdings, China's giant internet company. Along with its popular WhatsApp messaging system, Tencent has shares of the music-streaming service Spotify and Tesla electric cars. Pony worked in research and development of internet paging for a Chinese telecommunications provider in China before co-founding Tencent with four partners in 1998.

- Net worth: $61.5 billion

- Source of wealth: Walmart

- Age: 76

- Country/territory: United States

Rob Walton became chairman of Walmart when his father, founder Sam Walton, died in 1992. Rob and other family members own about half of the retail giant's stock. Rob retired in June 2015 but is still active in involved in charitable concerns involving conservation and sustainability.

- Net worth: $62.2 billion

- Source of wealth: Walmart

- Age: 72

- Country/territory: United States

Jim Walton, the youngest son of Walmart's founder, is chief executive and chairman of Arvest Bank Group, an Arkansas bank controlled by the Walton family. Jim Walton holds 44% of the bank, which has branches in Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. He gave away more than $1 billion of his Walmart stock to philanthropy in 2019.

- Net worth: $62.7 billion

- Source of wealth: beverages, pharmaceuticals

- Age: 66

- Country/territory: China

Zhong Shanshan is the founder of the bottled water company Nongfu Spring and owner of the vaccine maker Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise. Both companies went public last year, swelling Zhong’s wealth. Due to his low public profile, Zhong is called the “Lone Wolf” in China since he rarely makes public appearances. As a child, he dropped out of elementary school during the Cultural Revolution, later working in construction and as a newspaper reporter.

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- Net worth: $63.9 billion

- Source of wealth: Walmart

- Age: 71

- Country/territory: United States

The daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, Alice Walton is heavily involved in the arts. Her project, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, opened in 2011. She also breeds horses at her ranch in Texas.

- Net worth: $64.5 billion

- Source of wealth: telecom

- Age: 81

- Country/territory: Mexico

Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim Helú has extensive holdings in energy, mining, communications, retail, and finance through his Grupo Carso conglomerate. For many years, he owned the country’s former telephone monopoly, Telmex. He founded the art museum Museo Soumaya in Mexico City, helped revitalize the historic city center, and set up the Carlos Slim Foundation to promote education, health, and sports.

- Net worth: $69.5 billion

- Source of wealth: Microsoft

- Age: 65

- Country/territory: United States

Steve Ballmer is the former chief executive of Microsoft, a company he joined in 1980. He left the tech giant in 2014 and bought the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team for $2 billion. He is a major philanthropist involved in anti-poverty solutions.

- Net worth: $76.3 billion

- Source of wealth: L'Oreal

- Age: 67

- Country/territory: France

Françoise Bettencourt Meyers is an heir to the L'Oreal fortune, which she inherited from her mother. In a highly publicized case, Bettencourt Meyers took a close friend of her mother’s to court, accusing the friend of trying to manipulate the older woman out of her wealth. The granddaughter of L'Oreal’s founder Eugene Schueller, Bettencourt Meyers has also written several books on such topics as Jewish-Christian relations. Her family established the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation in the 1980s.

- Net worth: $77.6 billion

- Source of wealth: Zara

- Age: 84

- Country/territory: Spain

Amancio Ortega's fortune comes from the world of retail and fashion. He was a co-founder, with his late ex-wife, in 1975 of Inditex, owner of the Zara retail clothing stores. He has invested heavily in commercial real estate in New York, Madrid, Barcelona, and London and has a 5% stake in the Spanish energy company Enagas. He stepped down as Inditex chairman in 2011

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- Net worth: $77.8 billion

- Source of wealth: diversified

- Age: 63

- Country/territory: India

Mukesh Ambani heads Reliance Industries, India's giant oil and gas company that was started as a small enterprise by his father. Ambani holds a 42% stake in Reliance, which also owns a 4G wireless network in India. Ambani and his brother divided the family business when their father died in 2002. Ambani also is the owner of a professional cricket team, the Mumbai Indians.

- Net worth: $85.6 billion

- Source of wealth: Google

- Age: 47

- Country/territory: United States

Sergey Brin and partner Larry Page founded Google in 1998. Brin remains a controlling stakeholder in the search engine's parent company Alphabet. He emigrated to the United States from Russia when he was 6 years old.

- Net worth: $88.2 billion

- Source of wealth: Google

- Age: 48

- Country/territory: United States

Larry Page started Google with Sergey Brin, whom he met as a graduate student in computer science at Stanford University. Page is no longer chief executive of Google's parent company, Alphabet, but, like Brin, remains a controlling shareholder. He has invested in space exploration and the development of flying electric taxis, and he is a supporter of clean energy, powering his home with fuel cells and geothermal energy.

- Net worth: $92.5 billion

- Source of wealth: software

- Age: 76

- Country/territory: United States

Larry Ellison co-founded Oracle Software in 1977 and today has extensive real estate holdings, including a Hawaiian island and dozens of properties in Malibu and Lake Tahoe. He remains chairman of Oracle's board. Ellison also has invested in electric car maker Tesla.

- Net worth: $96.7 billion

- Source of wealth: Berkshire Hathaway

- Age: 90

- Country/territory: United States

Investor Warren Buffett runs Berkshire Hathaway, a conglomerate that owns dozens of companies like Geico insurance and Duracell batteries. Berkshire Hathaway's stock is the most expensive, trading on the New York Stock Exchange at more than $300,000 a share before the market plunged in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Buffett has launched a campaign urging billionaires to give away half their wealth and has vowed to give away nearly all of his fortune.

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- Net worth: $102.6 billion

- Source of wealth: Facebook

- Age: 36

- Country/territory: United States

Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook when he was a student at Harvard. The company went public in 2012, and he has retained a stake of about 15%. Facebook has recently come under fire for allowing misinformation and failing to block false news. In June 2020, more than 1,000 advertisers boycotted Facebook to protest the company's lax policing of hate speech and misleading posts from politicians.

- Net worth: $127.0 billion

- Source of wealth: Microsoft

- Age: 65

- Country/territory: United States

Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft, the biggest software business in the world. He stepped down as chairman in 2014 to concentrate on philanthropy. He and his wife are founders of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest private charitable foundation in the world, which addresses a range of issues including the eradication of malaria, reducing child mortality, ending hunger, and promoting sustainable growth. He has donated more than $35 billion in Microsoft stock to the foundation.

- Net worth: $152.8 billion

- Source of wealth: Tesla, SpaceX

- Age: 49

- Country/territory: United States

Elon Musk aims to pioneer new, sustainable forms of travel with his electric car maker Tesla, and he owns about a fifth of the company. His rocket company SpaceX has been valued at almost $36 billion. At SpaceX, Musk oversees the development of spacecraft, with plans for missions to orbit the earth and travel to other planets. He also launched The Boring Co. to design tunnel technology for use with an all-electric public transportation system. Musk was involved in creating PayPal and made $165 million when it was sold to eBay.

- Net worth: $158.4 billion

- Source of wealth: LVMH

- Age: 72

- Country/territory: France

France’s Bernard Arnault is chief executive and chairman of the luxury goods giant LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. He began his professional life as a civil engineer but moved into the world of luxury goods in 1984 when he reorganized the Financière Agache holding company, organizing their portfolio around the design house Christian Dior. He became LVMH’s majority shareholder in 1989.

- Net worth: $177.3 billion

- Source of wealth: Amazon

- Age: 57

- Country/territory: United States

The founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, is chief executive of the e-commerce giant and holds a stake of more than 11%. He also owns The Washington Post. In his 2019 divorce settlement with ex-wife MacKenzie Scott, she got a 4% stake in Amazon—worth more than $38 billion at the time of the settlement.

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Thanks to rapidly rising home prices and the increasing rent prices nationwide, many investors who went all in on home and property purchases are hitting it big—and it’s happening to both large and small investors alike. And with so many stories about how investing has paid off in this unique housing market, plenty of others are ready to climb aboard the real estate investing train.

But while the current U.S. housing market has offered a unique opportunity to make money for the right type of real estate investor, it’s certainly not the only housing market primed for investing—nor is it the only market in history to provide these opportunities. Different markets across the globe—from Hong Kong to London—have helped plenty of investors amass huge fortunes over the last several decades. And in many cases, these markets are still helping build real estate dynasties.

Take, for example, the real estate investors in Hong Kong who capitalized on the political strife in the 1950s and 1960s, which caused real estate prices to plummet. These investors bought in early and at low prices, then grew their real estate conglomerates to the point where they amassed billions upon billions of dollars. The stories of savvy investors snatching up properties or making moves at the right time span across decades and countries, allowing investors to grow their businesses to become quite lucrative.

Real estate platform ZeroDown compiled a list of the 10 richest real estate investors, using data from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which updates daily. The investors are linked by their net worth as of Feb. 10, 2022. Keep reading to see how the world’s 10 biggest real estate investors built their fortunes.

- Net worth as of Feb. 10, 2022: $11.4 billion

- Change from last year: +$385 million

- Country: Hong Kong

Raymond Kwok was born into real estate royalty as the youngest son of the founder of the largest developer in Hong Kong. His father, Kwok Tak-seng, owned the massive developer company Sun Hung Kai Properties, which was responsible for erecting many of the famous buildings in Hong Kong, including the tallest building in the city, the 118-story International Commerce Centre. The patriarch would build the company into a massive machine during his time at the helm, earning him billionaire status. Raymond Kwok partially took the helm of the company when he and his two brothers inherited control of 26% of the Sun Hung Kai Properties company after his father died in 1990. Post-inheritance, Kwok served as the co-chairman of Sun Hung Kai Properties and later the chairman of Sun Hung Kai Properties, which has allowed him to continue to grow his real estate fortune and amass billions.

- Net worth as of Feb. 10, 2022: $12.5 billion

- Change from last year: +$1.33 billion

- Country: United States

Real estate mogul Stan Kroenke may be well-known for leading his team, the Los Angeles Rams, to victory at the 2022 Super Bowl. But the 74-year-old sports magnate is also one of the biggest real estate investors in the world. Kroenke’s journey to becoming a bigwig in real estate first started when he met his wife, Walmart heir Ann Walton, in 1974, when they both were students at the University of Missouri. Shortly after meeting Walton, Kroenke made his first foray into real estate development—working with a developer building shopping centers, many of which were positioned around Walmarts across the nation. Less than 10 years later, Kroenke founded the Kroenke Group, a shopping center and apartment building real estate development firm. About two decades later, Kroenke launched THF Realty, a real estate development company specializing in suburban development—and, of course, shopping centers. Kroenke has since ventured out into more than just real estate—he also owns a winery, a handful of sports teams, and other ventures—but it’s the focus on real estate investing that has helped garner Kroeknke his fortune, now worth billions of dollars.

- Net worth as of Feb. 10, 2022: $12.9 billion

- Change from last year: $0

- Country: United Kingdom

As with other real estate investors on this list, Hugh Grosvenor, 7th Duke of Westminster, was born into a position of real estate investing power. His father, Gerald, 6th Duke of Westminster, was the billionaire owner of Grosvenor, a British real estate and landholding company with a portfolio of more than 1,500 properties. When his father died in 2016, Hugh Grosvenor became a major shareholder of the company, which holds assets in more than 60 countries, with land holdings controlled by the company including the famous Beaumont Hotel and Gagosian Gallery in London, residential towers in Tokyo, and properties across Silicon Valley. Some of the land has been in his family since 1677, making Hugh Grosvenor the latest in a real estate legacy that has lasted for centuries.

- Net worth as of Feb. 10, 2022: $16.6 billion

- Change from last year: +$3.39 billion

- Country: China

It’s not every day that you hear of a former journalist and factory worker working their way to becoming a big-time real estate investor—but that’s just what Wu Yajun did. As a self-made real estate mogul, Wu worked in factories, and later as a journalist, before co-founding the Beijing-based real estate developer company, Longfor Properties, in 1993. The property developer company quickly became one of the largest developers in China, producing high-rise apartment buildings, office buildings, residential buildings, business complexes, villas, and shopping malls. Wu's company, now known as Longfor Group, currently has over 100 property holdings in over 24 cities and rakes in billions of dollars in annual sales.

- Net worth as of Feb. 10, 2022: $19.2 billion

- Change from last year: +$1.50 billion

- Country: United States

Unlike many other investors on this list, the fortune amassed by real estate investor Donald Bren was built in just one state: California. Bren’s foray into real estate investing began in the late 1950s when he founded the Bren Company, a real estate development company that built homes in Orange County, California. In 1963, Bren joined two others to form the Mission Viejo Company, which focused on developing the southern California city of Mission Viejo. His success built up from there: Bren eventually used the proceeds from his earlier ventures to purchase the Irvine Company in 1977, which has played a crucial role in the development of the city of Irvine, California—and much of the rest of the Newport Coast. The real estate mogul is still an active force across California, as Bren continues to work as a planner and builder across the state, despite having amassed a fortune in real estate.

- Net worth as of Feb. 10, 2022: $20 billion

- Change from last year: +$1.04 billion

- Country: Hong Kong

Real estate investor Peter Woo did not start his career in real estate. After graduation, Woo began a career in banking, working for Chase Manhattan Bank in both New York and Hong Kong. It wasn’t until he met his wife, Bessie—daughter of Yue-Kong Pao, a shipping tycoon and owner of real estate developer Wheelock & Co.—that his career path changed. After their marriage, Woo joined his wife’s family business, and he eventually took the helm as chairman of Wheelock & Co. One of the main subsidiaries of Wheelock & Co. is the real estate developer and investing company Wheelock Properties, which has a huge presence across Hong Kong. Wheelock Properties has been responsible for developing and investing in everything from hotels to retail, office, and serviced apartments across Hong Kong—all of which have helped Woo grow his real estate fortune to what it is today.

- Net worth as of Feb. 10, 2022: $24 billion

- Change from last year: -$2.58 billion

- Country: United States

As the founder of Quicken Loans, Dan Gilbert is almost certainly better known for his mortgage lending company than his real estate investing. That said, his work in real estate is one part of what has helped to amass his multibillion-dollar fortune. Following his success with building Quicken Loans with his brother, Gary, Gilbert turned his sights toward revitalizing the blight across Detroit—and he did so by investing heavily in real estate. Bedrock Detroit, Gilbert's real estate investing company, was used to purchase historic, long-standing buildings across Detroit, including the Madison Theatre Building, the Chase Tower, the Dime Building, Two Detroit Center, and the First National Building, among others. These buildings were then renovated by Bedrock Detroit and used to attract new businesses to the urban center, which had been decimated by decades of economic disarray. Gilbert still invests heavily in Detroit to this day, and Bedrock Detroit owned more than 90 properties in downtown Detroit as of late 2021.

- Net worth as of Feb. 10, 2022: $24.1 billion

- Change from last year: +$1.12 billion

- Country: Hong Kong

As the co-founder of Sun Hung Kai Properties with Kwok Tak-seng, Lee Shau-kee amassed a large part of his fortune erecting many of the famous buildings across Hong Kong. But Lee’s real estate fortune can’t all be attributed to Sun Hung Kai. The real estate developer began building his billions when he founded Henderson Land Development—a real estate conglomerate with interests in hotels, restaurants, and other types of properties—in 1976. Henderson Land Development grew to be extremely successful over time and expanded in a way that garnered the property magnate billions. 

- Net worth as of Feb. 10, 2022: $24.4 billion

- Change from last year: +$746 million

- Country: China

As with many of the other real estate investors on this list, Yang Huiyan’s fortune was amassed in major part due to her familial ties. Yang’s father, Yang Guoqiang, started the wildly successful Chinese real estate company, Country Garden, in 1997. A real estate developer that builds properties and manages hotels, Country Garden grew to become a company worth billions of dollars—and Yang’s father transferred a large part of the company stake to her in 2005. This led to Yang becoming the richest person in China in 2007 at age 26. With the company public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, her fortune has continued to grow substantially over the years. Yang currently owns about 57% of the stake in Country Garden, and is now considered the richest woman in Asia.

- Net worth as of Feb. 10, 2022: $31.2 billion

- Change from last year: +$1.91 billion

- Country: Hong Kong

Chinese real estate investor Li Ka-shing took a gamble on rising rents in the late 1950s, and that gamble paid off to make him the most financially successful real estate investor in the world. In 1958, Li was the owner of a plastics manufacturing business, Cheung Kong Industries, based in Hong Kong. On a hunch, Li decided his company’s rental costs would continue to rise, which led him to buy property and develop a factory building for his own use to cut down on the rent expenses. A decade later, political unrest led throngs of people to flee Hong Kong, freeing up more land, which Li acquired for a steal due to plummeting property prices. With the newly acquired property purchases in hand, Li created a real estate development company called Cheung Kong (later renamed CK Hutchison Holdings and CK Asset Holdings), which grew at a rapid pace. By 1972, Cheung Kong Holdings was publicly listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange—and the company became one of the premier property developers in Hong Kong. Li continued his work in real estate investing in the time since, which led him to amass the biggest real estate fortune in the world.

This story originally appeared on ZeroDown and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.