The Top 10 Richest People In The World | February 2026

Today on Forbes, the top 10 richest people in the world, February 2026. There was a significant shakeup among the world's top 10 richest people to start the year, with half of these billionaires switching spots on Forbes' real-time billionaires ranking in January. But one thing didn't change. Elon Musk is still the wealthiest person on the planet worth an estimated $775 billion as of 12 a.m. Eastern on February 1st. Musk added $48 billion to his fortune over the past month and is now nearly half a trillion dollars richer than his runner-up, Google co-founder Larry Page, who is worth an estimated $277 billion. Our top 10 richest people in the world list is as of February 1st, 2026 at 12 a.m. Eastern time. As a group, they're worth $2.6 trillion combined, the same as last month. As a reminder, stock prices fluctuate routinely, so the net worths on our list may change on a daily basis. Forbes tracks the daily changes on our real-time list of billionaires. Forbes has been keeping track of the world's billionaires since 1987. In April 2025, we found 3,028 of them for our annual list. Elon Musk is on the verge of becoming the first person ever worth $800 billion thanks to his artificial intelligence and social media company, XAI Holdings, which raised $20 billion from private investors at a $250 billion valuation last month. That boosted the value of Musk's estimated 49% stake in XAI Holdings by $62 billion to $122 billion. Musk became the first person ever worth $500 billion in October, $600 billion on December 15th, and $700 billion on December 19th, as the value of his two biggest assets, SpaceX and Tesla, continued to soar. Not even Tesla's first-ever annual revenue decline could disrupt his upward trajectory. Larry Page, the world's second-richest person for the third straight month, was the second-biggest gainer after Musk, adding $20 billion to his fortune, as shares of Google's parent company, Alphabet, climbed by 8%. His co-founder, Sergey Brin, jumped two spots to No. 3 on Forbes' World Wealth Ranking thanks to an $18 billion increase in his net worth to an estimated $255 billion. And Mark Zuckerberg also had a good month, as shares of Facebook's parent company, Meta, rose by 8%. It was enough to boost his fortune by $19 billion to an estimated $246 billion, and bumped him up one spot to No. 5. Larry Ellison was January's biggest loser, as shares of Oracle slid by 17%, lowering Ellison's net worth by $34 billion to an estimated $211 billion, and dropping him from No. 3 to No. 6. Frenchman Bernard Arnault remained in the No. 7 spot, despite being the month's second-biggest loser, as shares of his luxury goods conglomerate, LVMH, sank by 14%, and his fortune fell by $26 billion to an estimated $169 billion. Spanish fast fashion mogul Amancio Ortega ended the month in the top 10 for the first time since June, despite seeing his fortune fall by $1 billion to an estimated $145 billion, as shares of Zara's parent company, Inditex, dipped by 2%. Ortega jumped from No. 11 to No. 9, replacing Steve Ballmer, who dropped three spots to No. 13, as shares of Microsoft slid by 12%, and his fortune fell by $13 billion to an estimated $134 billion. It's also the first time since June that more than one person outside of the U.S. was among the top 10. Eight of the 10 richest people in the world are Americans. The two non-U.S. citizens are France's Bernard Arnault and Spain's Amancio Ortega. All of the top 10 richest people as of February 1st are men. Not mentioned so far are No. 4 Jeff Bezos, whose fortune was up $8 billion since last month to $250 billion, No. 8 Jensen Huang, who saw his net worth rise $4 billion since last month to $166 billion, and No. 10 Warren Buffett, whose fortune was down $7 billion since last month to $142 billion. For full coverage and to see the whole list, check out the Forbes Wealth Teams piece on Forbes.com. This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.