The jobs and companies that have created the most billionaires
Hurun Global has published its 2018 rich-list, tracking 2,694 billionaires from 68 countries and from 2,157 companies – in what was another record-breaking year for the world’s ultra-rich.
The report found that the there are now 437 more dollar-billionaires compared to 2017 – indicating that more than one person becomes a billionaire somewhere in the world every day.
“A boom in China, a weak dollar and a 26% hike in Nasdaq have led to a surge in dollar billionaires across the world,” said Hurun’s Rupert Hoogewerf.
“The US dollar depreciated 16% against the euro, 12% against the British pound, 10% against the Chinese yuan and 6% against the Indian rupee. Global economic growth was at 3% last year, the fastest rate since 2011 and a significant acceleration compared with 2.4% the previous year,” he said.
While the report tracks the typical wealthy individuals such as Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, and investor Warren Buffet, it also looks at how the world’s dollar-billionaires created their wealth.
Source of wealth
“It has been a great year for food & beverage and metals & mining, with both sectors up 32% and 31% respectively in terms of the number of billionaires,” Hurun said.
“All sectors exhibited positive growth with manufacturing sector registering the lowest growth of 5% in the Top 10 industries. Real estate stepped up from fourth to second place.”
The report found that the ‘Big Four’ of TMT (technology, media and telecom), real estate, manufacturing and investments accounted for 44% of the cumulative wealth, and contributed 41% of total billionaires.
USA and China alone accounted for 66% of TMT billionaires in the list.
| Rank | Industry | % of billionaires | % of change | Richest person | Company |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TMT | 11.1% | -2.1% | Jeff Bezos | Amazon |
| 2 | Real estate | 9.1% | -0.3% | Xu Jiayin | Evergrande |
| 3 | Manufacturing | 8.5% | -2.0% | Georg Schaeffler | Schaeffler Group |
| 4 | Investments | 8.3% | -1.2% | Warren Buffet | Berkshire Hathaway |
| 5 | Retail | 7.7% | -1.1% | Amancio Ortega | Inditex |
| 6 | Food & Beverages | 7.3% | +0.1% | Jacqueline and John Mars | Mars |
| 7 | Financial Services | 4.7% | -0.3% | Thomas Petterffy | Interactive Brokers |
| 8 | Energy | 4.3% | -0.7% | Charles and David Koch | Koch Industries |
| 9 | Pharmaceuticals | 4.3% | -0.6% | Ernesto Bertarelli | Serono |
| 10 | Metals & Mining | 2.9% | 0.0% | Alexey Mordashov | Severstal |
Companies that created the most billionaires
While companies like Amazon may be famous for creating billions for its founder Jeff Bezos, its not necessarily the company that created the most billionaires.
In this regard Red Bull leads the way, followed by Chilean retailer SACI Falabella and Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand.
Red Bull’s shareholders are led by Dietrich Mateschitz, China’s Yan Bin and 11 children of co-founder, Chaleo Yoovidhya.
| Rank | Company | Number of billionaires |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Red Bull | 13 |
| 2 | SACI Falabella | 12 |
| 2 | Charoen Pokphand | 12 |
| 4 | Roche | 9 |
| 4 | Hyatt | 9 |
| 4 | Cargill | 9 |
| 7 | Walmart | 8 |
| 7 | Dr Oetker | 8 |
| 7 | B. Braun | 8 |