Forbes magazine has published its annual list of the world’s billionaires, which includes Greek businessmen, investors and shipowners, with four new additions, completing the top ten of Greek billionaires.

The new Greek names featured on the 2024 list are George Prokopiou, Konstantinos Martinos, Andreas Martinos and Athanasios Martinos.

The 10 Greek billionaires

With a fortune of $6.4 billion, Maria Angelikousi “climbed” to No. 432 in the overall Forbes ranking (from No. 455 in 2023) and is the highest ranking among Greeks.

Aristotelis Mystakidis follows with 3.3 billion dollars, a fortune slightly higher than in 2023 (3.2 billion).

Third on the Greek list is Philip Niarchos with a fortune of $2.8 billion.

The top ten is completed by:

Shipowner George Prokopiou & family ($2.6 billion) who is a new arrival at No. 1,286 on the list, Konstantinos Martinos & family ($2.3 billion), Spyros Latsis & family ($2.2 billion), who saw his fortune swell by 700 million euros, who saw his fortune swell by 700 million euros, Vardis Vardinoyannis & family (2.2 billion dollars), Marianna Latsis & family (1.8 billion dollars), Andreas Martinos & family and Athanasios Martinos & family.

Record number of billionaires

Billionaires got even richer in the past year as stock markets around the world “outlasted” wars, political turmoil and persistent inflation. There are now more billionaires than ever before: 2,781.

The number is up by 141 from last year and by 26 from the 2021 record. And not only are there more of them, but they’re richer than ever, with a cumulative value of $14.2 trillion, up $2 trillion from 2023 and up $1.1 trillion from the previous record in 2021. Two-thirds of the list are worth more than a year earlier, just a quarter are poorer.

Much of the gains come from the top 20 who added a cumulative $700 billion to their wealth and from the US which now boasts a record 813 billionaires with a combined wealth of $5.7 trillion.

China remains 2nd with 473 billionaires (including Hong Kong), despite sluggish consumer spending and the property bubble that erased some $300 billion from the aggregate wealth. In 3rd place is India which counts 200 billionaires.

The richest people on the planet

The richest man on the planet is Bernard Arnault, with a fortune of $233 billion, the “king” of the LVMH empire of 75 fashion and cosmetics brands.

He is followed by Elon Musk with a fortune of $195 billion and Jeff Bezos with $194 billion. In 4th place, Mark Zuckerberg with $177 billion. The top ten is completed by Larry Ellisson ($141 billion), Warren Buffett ($133 billion), Bill Gates ($128 billion), Steve Ballmer with $121 billion, Mukesh Ambani, with $116 billion and Larry Page with $114 billion.