Forbes published the list of the richest billionaires of the year: 26 people from Turkey took part in the list
Forbes magazine published the list of billionaires of 2023, which ranks the richest people of the year. Tesla's CEO Elon Musk has lost his first place on the list, and the world's wealthiest person has become a Frenchman for the first time.
Bernard Arnault, Chairman of the Board of the French conglomerate LVMH, which includes brands such as Louis Vuitton and Sephora, took its place on the list as the richest person of this year.
The total value of the wealth of the 74-year-old French businessman was announced as $ 211 billion this year, while it was $ 158 billion in 2022. Arnault thus surpassed Elon Musk to move up to first place.
According to Forbes, last year's richest man, Elon Musk, "got poor" this year. Musk lost some of his fortune, which was $219 billion last year, and ranked second on the list with a net worth of $180 billion this year.
They were followed by Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, with a fortune of $ 114 billion, Larry Ellison, Chairman of the Board of Directors of software company Oracle, with a fortune of $ 107 billion, and US investor Warren Buffett, with a fortune of $ 106 billion.
Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, one of the former 'number one', entered the list as the 6th richest person in the world with a fortune of $ 104 billion.
The number of billionaires, which was 2,668 in 2022, dropped to 2,640 this year. The value of the combined wealth of the world's billionaires has also fallen. While their total wealth was 12 trillion 700 billion dollars last year, this year it was calculated as 12 trillion 200 billion with a decrease of 500 billion dollars.
It was observed that half of the billionaires on the list were poorer than last year.
The vast majority of billionaires also came from the United States. Of the list of 2,260 people, 735 of them are US billionaires. China with 562 billionaires and India with 169 billionaires followed the USA.
"It's been a bad year for the wealthiest people in the world, with falling stocks, injured unicorn companies and rising interest rates," Forbes said.
Turkey's billionaires
On the other hand, this is not the case for the rich people who entered the list from Turkey. 15 of the 26 Turkish billionaires on the list have increased their wealth compared to last year.
According to the list, the richest billionaire in Turkey is İbrahim Erdemoğlu, the owner of SASA Polyester. Erdemoğlu, whose fortune is worth 5 billion 300 million dollars, ranks 497th in the general list.
Murat Ülker, owner of Yıldız Holding, ranks 534th with his fortune of 5 billion dollars.
Ali Erdemoğlu, brother of İbrahim Erdemoğlu, also one of the owners of SASA Polyester, stands out as Turkey's third and the world's 580th richest with a wealth of 4 billion 700 million.
Semahat Sevim Arsel, one of the biggest shareholders of Koç Holding, is one of the names from the Koç family, with a fortune of 3 billion dollars. Arsel is Turkey's fourth and the world's 982nd richest billionaire.
Sezai Bacaksız, a partner of Limak Holding, is one of those who have increased his wealth in Turkey. Bacaksız, one of Limak Holding's partners with Nihat Özdemir, is the 11th richest in Turkey and the 1368th billionaire in the world, according to Forbes, with a fortune of 2 billion 200 million dollars. His partner Özdemir, on the other hand, ranks 16th and 1647th with his wealth of 1.8 billion dollars.