The Insane Wealth Gap of the World's Richest People (1990-2026)

The richest people in the world, ranked by Forbes every year from 1990 to 2026. From Japanese property tycoons to Bill Gates, Carlos Slim, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk: who was #1 each year? Watch 36 years of the world's biggest fortunes. Japan's bubble-era tycoons lead in 1990, the Walton family (Walmart) takes over, Bill Gates rules the dot-com era, Warren Buffett and Carlos Slim take turns at #1, Jeff Bezos becomes the first person on the list worth over $100 billion, and Elon Musk reaches $839 billion in 2026. 👉 Who will be the first trillionaire? Tell us in the comments, and subscribe for more data races. Chapters 0:00 Japan's Bubble Bursts (1990) 1:09 The Microsoft Era (1995) 4:05 Crisis and Recovery (2008) 6:20 The Amazon Era (2018) 7:14 The Musk Era (2022) Data source • Forbes, The World's Billionaires (annual list, top 10 each year), as compiled on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wor... • Forbes Billionaires: https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/ Notes on the data • Net worth is Forbes' estimate on the date of each yearly list (usually March), in US dollars, not adjusted for inflation. Values between two lists are animated smoothly but are not real figures. • Only the top 10 is shown for each year. When someone leaves the top 10, their bar drops out of the chart. • Forbes sometimes lists a fortune for a whole family (for example the Walton family until 2000) and later for each family member. • Royal families and heads of state are not included in the Forbes list. Photos from Wikimedia Commons (free licences). People without a free photo are shown with their country's flag. • Al-Waleed bin Talal: Hamit erik, CC BY-SA 4.0 • Alice Walton: Stephen Ironside, CC BY 4.0 • Anil Ambani: Sourav Mishra, CC BY-SA 3.0 • Bernard Arnault: Jérémy Barande, CC BY-SA 2.0 • Bill Gates: Bogdan Hoyaux / European Union, CC BY 4.0 • Carlos Slim: Secretaría de Cultura Ciudad de México from México, CC BY 2.0 • Charles Koch: Gavin Peters, CC BY-SA 3.0 • Chung Ju-yung: TSGT Renee` Sitler, Public domain • David Koch: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0 • David Sainsbury: Policy Exchange, CC BY 2.0 • Eike Batista: JulianaCoutinho derivative work: – JBarta, CC BY-SA 3.0 • Elon Musk: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0 • Hoffmann family: Unknown author, CC0 • Ingvar Kamprad: Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications of Sweden/Sandra Baq, CC BY 2.0 • Jeff Bezos: SECWAR, Public domain • Jensen Huang: The White House, Public domain • Jim Walton: Walmart, CC BY 2.0 • Kushal Pal Singh: Zimbaskr, CC BY-SA 4.0 • Lakshmi Mittal: Financial Times, CC BY 2.0 • Larry Ellison: Oracle PR Hartmann Studios, CC BY 2.0 • Larry Page: Stansfield PL, CC BY-SA 3.0 • Lee Shau-kee: Tksteven, CC BY 3.0 • Li Ka-shing: EdTech Stanford University School of Medicine, CC BY 2.0 • Mark Zuckerberg: The White House, Public domain • Mars family: Unknown author, Public domain • Masayoshi Son: European Communities, 2025 / EC - Audiovisual Service, CC BY 4.0 • Michael Bloomberg: PhilipRomanoPhoto, CC BY-SA 4.0 • Michael Dell: Village Global, CC BY 2.0 • Mukesh Ambani: World Economic Forum from Cologny, Switzerland, CC BY-SA 2.0 • Oleg Deripaska: AntonPopper777, CC BY-SA 4.0 • Paul Allen: Miles Harris, CC BY-SA 3.0 • S. Robson Walton: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0 • Sergey Brin: Steve Jurvetson, CC BY 2.0 • Sheldon Adelson: User:Bectrigger, CC BY-SA 3.0 • Shin Kyuk-ho: 宣伝会議 撮影者不明, Public domain • Steve Ballmer: Martin Olsson. derivative work: Off2riorob, CC BY-SA 3.0 • Taikichiro Mori: Junko Popham, Public domain • Walton family: George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, Public domain • Warren Buffett: USA International Trade Administration, Public domain Flags: flag-icons (MIT licence). #richestpeople #billionaires #barchartrace #elonmusk #forbes #datavisualization