According to a report by Forbes, the 40th annual global billionaire ranking has been released. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has once again retained the title of the world’s richest person. In Taiwan, the richest individual is Terry Gou, founder of Foxconn. Taiwan also has 66 billionaires on the list, ranking 10th globally, ahead of Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom.
Elon Musk retains title as world’s richest person
According to reports, Forbes recently released its billionaire statistics, widely considered one of the world’s most authoritative wealth rankings. With a net worth of $839 billion, Elon Musk has topped the billionaire list for the second consecutive year.
Musk benefited from the soaring share prices of Tesla and SpaceX (which is reportedly planning an IPO in 2026), increasing his net worth by $500 billion compared to last year. He is also the first person in history to surpass $800 billion in wealth, and is now moving toward becoming the world’s first trillionaire.
The top 10 richest people in the world are:
- Larry Page, co-founder of Google — $257 billion
- Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google — $237 billion
- Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon — $224 billion
- Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta — $222 billion
- Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle — $190 billion
- Bernard Arnault and family, head of LVMH — $171 billion
- Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia — $154 billion
- Warren Buffett — $149 billion
- Amancio Ortega, founder of Zara — $148 billion
This year’s list also includes 390 new billionaires, including Dr. Dre, Beyoncé, and tennis legend Roger Federer.
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Terry Gou becomes Taiwan’s richest person
Among Taiwan’s billionaires, the top spot has changed hands this year. Last year’s richest person, Barry Lam, founder of Quanta Computer, has fallen to second place.
Taiwan now has 66 billionaires, 12 more than last year.
- 1st (Taiwan): Terry Gou, founder of Foxconn — $15.3 billion (Global Rank #190)
- 2nd: Barry Lam, founder of Quanta Computer — $14.2 billion (Global Rank #204)
- 3rd: Pierre Chen, founder of Yageo — $10.5 billion (Global Rank #308)
- 4th: Bruce Cheng, founder of Delta Electronics — $10.1 billion (Global Rank #332)
- 5th: Morris Chang, founder of TSMC — $8.4 billion (Global Rank #422)
Taiwan enters Top 10 countries by number of billionaires
The top 10 countries by number of billionaires are:
- United States — 989
- China — 539
- India — 229
- Germany — 212
- Russia — 147
- Italy — 89
- Canada — 82
- Hong Kong — 71
- Brazil — 70
- Taiwan — 66
Driven largely by the technology industry, Taiwan moved into 10th place, pushing the United Kingdom down to 12th. Notably, the top five richest individuals globally are all leaders in the electronics or technology sectors.
According to reports, global wealth surged to unprecedented levels over the past year. The 2026 ranking includes 3,428 billionaires, the highest number since the list was first created in 1987.
Their combined wealth reached a record $20.1 trillion, up from $16.1 trillion in 2025.Forbes senior wealth editor Chase Peterson-Withorn said “this is the year of the billionaire.” Over the past 12 months, the world has added more than one new billionaire per day, as an AI-driven stock market boom pushed wealth to unprecedented heights.
