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Top 10 richest people in the world 2026: Zara’s Amancio Ortega climbs to No. 9, Oracle’s Larry Ellison slips to No. 6

Top 10 richest people in the world 2026: Elon Musk’s wealth is nearly three times that of the second-richest individual, Google co-founder Larry Page, as per a recent Forbes report.

3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Feb 2, 2026 07:25 AM IST

Top 10 billionaires in the world , as of January 2026: Elon Musk continues to be the world's richest.

Top 10 richest billionaires in the world 2026: In recent developments among the world’s richest individuals, six of the top 10 billionaires saw their fortunes decline over the past month, driven by a sharp downturn in public stocks at the start of the New Year.

The only exception was Elon Musk, the world’s richest individual, whose net worth increased significantly by an estimated $244 billion, bringing his total to $726 billion as of January 1, according to a January 5 Forbes report.

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Musk is also recognised as the biggest gainer among billionaires in 2025, with his wealth rising by more than $333 billion—or about $935 million per day at the start of the year—positioning him to potentially become the world’s first trillionaire.

At present, Musk’s wealth is nearly three times that of the second-richest individual, Google co-founder Larry Page, whose net worth stood at $263.8 billion as of January 8.

Page has surpassed Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who previously held the second position and has now slipped to fifth with a net worth of $241.5 billion.

Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell was the only individual from last month’s top 10 to fall out of the ranking, dropping from 9th to 12th place, allowing former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to climb from 11th to 10th position.

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Meanwhile, Jensen Huang, co-founder of Nvidia, holds the 8th position, with his net worth rising by $8 billion to approximately $162 billion in 2025, driven by a 5 per cent increase in the company’s stock value.

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In addition, Zara co-founder Amancio Ortega entered the top 10 in January 2026, ranking 9th with an estimated net worth of $147.3 billion.

Notably, Bill Gates exited the top 10 richest list in October 2024 after Forbes released new data that significantly reduced his estimated net worth.

Top 10 richest people in the world, as of January 2026:

Elon Musk

Tesla, SpaceX

$713.1B Net Worth ▼ $1.1B 🇺🇸 USA

Larry Page

Google

$263.8B Net Worth ▲ $6.0B 🇺🇸 USA

Jeff Bezos

Amazon

$251.9B Net Worth ▲ $556.7M 🇺🇸 USA

Sergey Brin

Google

$243.4B Net Worth ▲ $5.5B 🇺🇸 USA

Larry Ellison

Oracle

$241.5B Net Worth ▼ $1.1B 🇺🇸 USA

Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook

$222.4B Net Worth ▼ $4.0B 🇺🇸 USA

Bernard Arnault

LVMH

$189.4B Net Worth ▼ $4.3B 🇫🇷 France

Jensen Huang

Semiconductors

$164.1B Net Worth ▲ $1.6B 🇺🇸 USA

Amancio Ortega

Zara

$147.2B Net Worth ▲ $350.1M 🇪🇸 Spain

#10

Steve Ballmer

Microsoft

$147.2B Net Worth ▲ $1.2B 🇺🇸 USA

Indian Express InfoGenIE

Source: Forbes’ Real Time Billionaire List

Note: Stock prices fluctuate regularly, leading to daily changes in net worth. The figures mentioned are accurate as of January 8, 2026.

Cherry Gupta

Cherry Gupta is an Assistant Manager – Content at The Indian Express. She leads the Top 10 section, curating list-based features on key national and international developments, and manages daily news content. She also produces SEO-driven articles and collaborates with the Lifestyle team to conduct interviews with notable artists and write workplace culture features. ... Read More