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Elon Musk
Born
Estimated US$839bn. SpaceX provides the clearest founder-to-operating-chief connection: Musk established the rocket company in 2002 and remained its CEO. His fortune also included other businesses, notably Tesla, so this figure should not be read as the value of his SpaceX holding alone.
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Mark Zuckerberg
Born
Estimated US$222bn. Meta retained the founder who launched Facebook in 2004 as chairman and CEO. The business had expanded into a family of social platforms and major AI investment, while ownership and operating authority remained unusually closely connected.
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Jensen Huang
Born
Estimated US$154bn. Nvidia combines a large listed-company fortune with continuous founder leadership. Huang had been president and CEO since co-founding the chip designer in 1993, overseeing its expansion from graphics processors into AI computing.
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Michael Dell
Born
Estimated US$141bn. Dell returned to the CEO role in 2007 after handing it over in 2004. His inclusion therefore means an active founder was running Dell Technologies at the snapshot date, rather than claiming an uninterrupted tenure from the company’s 1984 beginnings.
More about Michael Dell5
Pony Ma
Born
Estimated US$53.8bn. Ma Huateng, widely known as Pony Ma, Tencent’s co-founder remained chairman and CEO. The operating remit spans gaming, social communication and financial technology, offering a broader platform-business comparison with the more specialised founders here.
More about Pony Ma6
Robin Zeng
Estimated US$53.2bn. Zeng Yuqun, widely called Robin Zeng, combined CATL’s chairmanship with its general-manager role. He belongs here through that executive position at the battery manufacturer he co-founded, rather than through the chairman title by itself.
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Masayoshi Son
Born
Estimated US$51.5bn. Son founded the business that became SoftBank Group in 1981 and remained its chairman and CEO. This refers to the investment holding company; the separately listed telecoms company, SoftBank Corp., has its own chief executive.
More about Masayoshi Son8
Ken Griffin
Estimated US$49.8bn. Citadel’s founder remained its CEO and an investment leader. The distinction matters because Griffin also founded Citadel Securities, a separate market-making business where his role was non-executive chairman rather than chief executive.
More about Ken Griffin9
Andrea Pignataro
Born
Estimated US$42.6bn. Pignataro was founder and CEO of ION, the financial-software and data group. His place highlights a less consumer-visible route to exceptional wealth: controlling software used by banks, investment managers and corporations while retaining executive leadership.
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Stephen A. Schwarzman
Born
Estimated US$38.3bn. Blackstone’s co-founder remained chairman and CEO of the alternative-investment manager. The personal wealth estimate is distinct from the much larger pool of client assets the firm manages, a useful distinction when comparing finance founders with industrial owners.
More about Stephen A. Schwarzman11
Ding Lei
Born
Estimated US$37.9bn. Ding Lei, also known as William Ding, founded NetEase and had held its CEO role since 2005. The company’s games and online services put him among founders whose operating careers continued long after their original internet businesses became established.
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Robert Pera
Born
Estimated US$31.7bn. Pera founded Ubiquiti and remained its CEO, with a controlling voting position in the networking-technology company. His ownership of the Memphis Grizzlies is a separate interest; Ubiquiti supplies the founder-led business connection here.
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Aliko Dangote
Born
Estimated US$28.5bn. Dangote remained founder and president/chief executive of Dangote Group. The industrial conglomerate grew from trading into manufacturing, and its mix of cement and energy businesses makes this a different operating challenge from a software platform or investment firm.
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Lei Jun
Born
Estimated US$27.9bn. Xiaomi’s founder remained chairman and CEO as the company expanded beyond its original smartphone identity. His executive role belongs to Xiaomi; other investments and board positions should not be treated as companies he personally runs.
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Phạm Nhật Vượng
Born
Estimated US$27.7bn. Vingroup’s founder took on the CEO role at VinFast in January 2024. This is an operating role inside the business group he built, rather than a claim that he was Vingroup’s CEO; the parent-company chairmanship and the carmaker’s leadership are separate jobs.
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Israel Englander
Born
Estimated US$25.8bn. Englander founded Millennium in 1989 and remained chairman and CEO. The fortune comes from building an investment-management business, while its client capital remains separate from the founder’s own estimated net worth.
More about Israel Englander17
Steve Cohen (businessman)
Born
Estimated US$23bn. Cohen remained chairman and CEO of Point72, the investment firm that evolved from his earlier trading business. His active executive position is the relevant link here; buying the New York Mets does not make him the baseball club’s founder.
More about Steve Cohen (businessman)18
Todd Graves (entrepreneur)
Estimated US$22bn. Graves co-founded Raising Cane’s and remained a co-CEO alongside AJ Kumaran. Sharing the executive job still qualifies: the point is his active leadership of the restaurant business, not an assumption that a founder must manage every operation alone.
More about Todd Graves (entrepreneur)19
Wang Chuanfu
Born
Estimated US$21.5bn. BYD’s founder combined chairman and president roles at the battery and vehicle manufacturer. His executive leadership connects the company’s battery origins with its later automotive expansion, making him a useful manufacturing counterpart to the technology-platform founders.
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Michael Platt (financier)
Born
Estimated US$20.9bn. Platt co-founded BlueCrest in 2000 and remained its chief executive. The firm had converted to managing partners’ and employees’ capital, so its business model differs from managers whose central activity is investing external clients’ funds.
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Chen Tianshi
Estimated US$20.7bn. Chen co-founded Cambricon with his brother and combined chairman and general-manager responsibilities at the AI-chip company. The wealth estimate reflects ownership in the semiconductor business, while the operating role establishes why he belongs on this founder-led selection.
More about Chen Tianshi22
John Menard Jr.
Born
Estimated US$19.4bn. Menard founded and continued to lead Menards, the privately held home-improvement retailer. Unlike the public-company founders here, his wealth requires an estimate of a business without a continuously quoted share price.
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Brett Adcock
Born
Estimated US$19.1bn. Adcock was founder and CEO of Figure AI, the humanoid-robotics company. His estimated wealth depended heavily on a private-company valuation, making this a younger and less liquid ownership story than the long-established public businesses higher up the selection.
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Nik Storonsky
Born
Estimated US$18.8bn. Storonsky co-founded Revolut in 2015 and remained CEO of the financial-services group. His place links a large private-company fortune to an ongoing executive role, rather than to a founder who had sold the company and moved on.
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