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The Top 25 Richest People To Ever Walk The Planet Revealed

Have you ever sat and daydreamed about what those rich people in the world get up to, or where they got their money from of even who the richest people are?

Owen Castellanos
Owen CastellanosHardware & Gaming Reporter
2 min read
The Top 25 Richest People To Ever Walk The Planet Revealed

Have you ever sat and daydreamed about what those rich people in the world get up to, or where they got their money from of even who the richest people are?  Well, below you will find a list of the top 25 richest people to ever live (who in 2013 had a combined worth of over $4 trillion) and a little about how they came to make their fortune (just in case you are feeling ambitious):


25 – Warren Buffett – $64 Billion:  The Most successful investor in the world. Alive

24 – Sam Walton – $64 Billion: Founder of Walmart and Sam’s Club. Deceased

23 – Marshall Field – $66 Billion: Founder of Marshall Field and Company. Deceased

22 – Stephen Van Rensselaer –  $68 Billion: Heir to one of the largest estates in New York. Deceased

21 – Jay Gould – $71 Billion: American railroad developer and businessman. Deceased

20 – Friedrich Weyerhaeuser – $80 Billion: Timber mogul and founder of the Weyerhaeuser Company.  Deceased

19 – Henry Duke of Lancaster – $85.1 Billion: English nobleman, politician, and diplomat. Deceased

18 – Alexander Turney Stewart (aka A.T. Stewart) – $90 Billion: Founder of A.T. Stewart & Co. Deceased

17 – Stephen Girard – $105 Billion: Banking entrepreneur.

16 – John of Gaunt – $110 Billion: King Richard II of England’s Regent obtained very generous land grants. Deceased

15 – Richard Fitzalan 10th Earl of Arundel – $118.6 Billion: English nobleman, military leader and Admiral.  Deceased

14 – John Jacob Astor – $121 Billion: First American multi-millionaire.  Fortune made in trading fur. Deceased

13 – William de Warenne – $147.13 Billion: First Earl of Surrey, English military leader and nobleman gave large land grants.  Deceased

12 – Bill Gates – $136 Billion: Microsoft founder and ‘father of the internet’.  Alive

11 – Alan Rufus  -$178.65 Billion: Military companion of William the Conqueror. Given generous amounts of land. Deceased

Now for the top 10 richest (and maybe luckiest) human beings to ever walk this planet:

10 – Cornelius Vanderbilt – $185 Billion: 3rd richest American ever. Made his fortune investing in railroad and water transport.  Deceased

9 – Henry Ford – $199 Billion: Founder of Ford Motor Company.  Deceased

8 – Muammar Gaddafi – $200 Billion: Libyan politician. Was discovered to have been the richest man in the world after death in 2011. Deceased

7 – William The Conqueror – $229.5 Billion: King of England.  Acquired fortune by conquering other kingdoms. Deceased

6 – Mir Osman Ali Khan – $230 Billion: Ruler of Hyderabad.  Gained wealth by mining royalties.  Deceased

5 – Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov – $300 Billion: Last Emperor of Russia and the richest saint in history. Deceased

4 – Andrew Carnegie – $310 Billion: Led the expansion of the American Steel Industry. Deceased

3 –  John D. Rockefeller – $340 Billion: Co-Founder of Standard Oil Company.  Deceased

2 – The Rothschild Family – $350 Billion: The richest people on the Earth today.  Banking and real estate magnates.  Alive

and finally…

1 – Mansa Musa I – $400 Billion: Ruler of the Malian Empire.  Fortune made from supplying over half of the world’s gold and salt. Deceased


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Owen Castellanos

Owen Castellanos

Hardware & Gaming Reporter

Owen Castellanos is the Hardware & Gaming Reporter at TrendinTech, where he tests graphics cards, processors, consoles and peripherals and follows the games industry, from the major publishers to independent studios. He previously wrote reviews and benchmarks for Tom's Hardware and contributed features to PC Gamer, covering everything from laptop testing to the economics of game development. Owen holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and attends CES in Las Vegas, Computex in Taipei and the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco each year to meet chipmakers and developers. He writes for readers who want to know whether a product is worth the money, and he is not shy about saying when it is not.

All stories by Owen Castellanos (252)