Boasting outrageous riches that will make your jaw drop, the world's 50 most moneyed families are collectively worth over an estimated $4 trillion (£3.3tn), which is roughly equivalent to the GDPs of Italy and Canada combined.
Counting down from the 50th wealthiest to the richest in the world, read on as we reveal the most affluent clans globally, based on their recent net worths as estimated by Forbes except where otherwise stated. All dollar values in US dollars.
The Safra surname means 'yellow' or 'gold' in Arabic, a suitable moniker for a family that has been involved in banking and gold trading since Ottoman times.
The Syria-born banker Joseph Safra founded his eponymous bank in Beirut in 1920, moving operations to Brazil during the 1950s, and went on to establish incredibly successful banks in Switzerland and the US.
At his death, he had a fortune of around $19.9 billion (£16.4bn), but his wife Vicky and four children inherited 'just' a $7.1 billion (£5.8bn) share.
Going from rags to riches, Hui Ka Yan worked in a steel factory for a decade before graduating from college and eventually moving into real estate.
From humble beginnings, the former technician built up a formidable property development empire through his firm Evergrande Group, although that is currently facing major debt problems.
His son Xu Zhijian holds a vice-president position in the group.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Nevada's richest family made its money from gambling.
Patriarch Sheldon Adelson, who started his first business at the age of 12, got into casinos in 1988 and built The Venetian in the late 1990s, cashing in big time on its success.
He died in January 2021 at the age of 87. Today, Adelson's widow Miriam owns more than half of the gambling empire.
The Rausings are Sweden's wealthiest clan. They owe their enviable wealth to patriarch Ruben Rausing (born Ruben Andersson), who founded the liquid food packing firm Tetra Pak back in 1943.
Upon his death in 1983, the company passed to his sons Hans and Gad Rausing. Hans then sold his stake to Gad for $7 billion.
Today, the company is owned and controlled by Gad's children Finn, Jörn, and Kirsten (pictured), who are worth $28.8 billion (£23.8bn) between them.
Dubbed "Hong Kong's Buffett", Lee Shau-Kee's business interests began back in 1948 in currency and precious metal trading, before he turned to real estate in Hong Kong and China.
Lee also has interests in gas and hospitality and is renowned for his investments.
The tycoon's three children Margaret, Martin (pictured here with his wife Cathy Tsui), and Peter, and granddaughter Kristine Li, are all involved in the family business, and share in his massive fortune.
Brunei's royal dynasty, the House of Bolkiah, was formed in 1363 and has ruled the southeast Asian country on and off ever since.
Headed by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah (pictured), the family has become rich thanks to Brunei's vast reserves of oil.
The Sultan, who owns 500 Rolls Royce cars, 300 Ferraris, and a fleet of private jets, is estimated to be worth around $30 billion (£24.9bn).
Brothers Jay and Donald Pritzker founded the Hyatt Hotel chain in 1957.
Jay’s children Nancy, Thomas, John, Daniel, and Gigi, and Donald’s three kids Penny, Anthony, and JB (pictured) split the fortune and went on to be mega-successful in their own right.
Thomas is the chairman and CEO of the Pritzker Organization that owns Hyatt Hotels. John owns a boutique hotel group. Gigi is a film producer. JB is the current governor of Illinois, and Penny is an ex-US Secretary of Commerce.
Ma Huateng, aka Pony Ma, co-founded tech conglomerate Tencent in 1998 in the city of Shenzhen, China.
Tencent is the world's largest gaming company and one of the most prominent social media firms on the planet.
Unsurprisingly, Ma, who was instrumental in the company's success, has become very rich indeed. He is married to Wang Dan-ting, and the couple have a daughter called Manlin.
The Cox business empire is over a century old. Known for being a big player in the media and communications industries, it’s now expanded into the automotive arena.
Third-generation family member Jim Kennedy chairs the board. The great-grandson of founder James M. Cox, Alex C. Taylor, is the CEO.
Piedmontese confectioner Michele Ferrero created the iconic Nutella spread in 1964 and oversaw the expansion of the clan's chocolate empire. His sons Giovanni and Pietro joined the business in 1997.
Pietro died in a biking accident in 2011 and Michele passed away in 2015, leaving Giovanni as the sole heir.
Today, he is worth $33.8 billion (£28.1bn), while his mother Maria Franca Fissolo (pictured here with him at Michele's funeral) has a fortune of $1.9 billion (£1.6bn).
Edward C Johnson II founded the mutual fund Fidelity in 1946, before his son of the same name took over.
Edward Johnson III (pictured with his daughter Abigail) ran the business until 2014, and then he passed the responsibility on to his daughter. He passed away in March this year.
Abigail has a $21.5 billion (£17.8bn) personal fortune. The Johnson family owns 49% of Fidelity, while the other 51% is owned by employees.
The Charoen Pokphand Group, one of the world’s biggest producers of livestock and animal feed, was established in Bangkok, Thailand in the 1920s by two brothers.
The group now encompasses interests in investments and telecoms, and is run by one of the brothers' sons Dhanin (pictured), whose own sons are also actively involved in the business.
According to the most recent figures, the Chearavanont family has a combined net worth of $36.6 billion (£30.4bn).
Samuel Curtis (S.C.) Johnson started out with a flooring company in 1886 before developing his famous floor wax.
His son Herbert Fisk Johnson took over but died without leaving a will, resulting in a family feud until the company was divided between his two children, Herbert and Henrietta.
In 1967, Herbert’s son Samuel became chairman, and his son Herbert Fisk Johnson III (pictured) is now CEO of the family firm.
What began as a wood and building materials company in 1963 took a turn towards high-end fashion when François Pinault bought a controlling stake in the Gucci Group in 1999.
The fashion empire Kering now owns brands including Stella McCartney, Saint Laurent, and Alexander McQueen, and is run by Pinault's son François-Henri, who is married to Hollywood actress Salma Hayek.
Brothers Raymond (left) and Thomas Kwok are property magnates with an empire that includes real estate in Hong Kong and China. Their late father Kwok Tak-Seng created Sun Hung Kai Properties in 1972.
Brother Walter, who died in October 2018, was at the helm from 1990 to 2008, then Thomas and Raymond assumed the running of the firm, with their mother Kwong Siu-hing as key shareholder.
However, Thomas was jailed for five years in 2014 on corruption charges and was only released in early 2019.
South Korea is famed for its chaebols – huge family-run conglomerates – and Samsung is arguably the best-known.
The Lees are the oft-feuding clan behind the group, which was started in 1938 by Lee Byung-Chull, who founded a trading company.
The original firm split into the Samsung Group, CJ Group, Shinsegae Group, and Hansol Group – all of which are run by his descendants.
The Hong Kong-based Li family is up next. Li Ka-shing, nicknamed "Superman" for good reason, is a business genius who started plastics company Cheung Kong Industries in 1951 with modest savings and loans from relatives.
Over the years, the company evolved into CK Hutchison Holdings, one of Hong Kong's leading conglomerates. Li's son Victor (pictured here with his father), is chairman and co-CEO of the group, while his brother Richard chairs investment vehicle Pacific Century Group.
The total net worth given here doesn’t include Victor Li, so the $40.8 billion (£33.9bn) figure is likely to be a modest estimate of the total wealth of this family of business magnates .
Retail royalty, the Mulliez family has been involved in the industry since the 19th century, when patriarch Louis Mulliez-Lestienne founded clothing chain Phildar in the northern French city of Roubaix. Inspired by America's self-service stores, his grandson Gérard Mulliez (pictured) set up supermarket chain Auchan in 1961 and hasn't looked back.
The firm, which is still family-owned, now boasts more than 4,000 locations worldwide, and the Mulliez family is worth $38.4 billion (£31.9bn), according to Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, Gérard's cousin Michel Leclercq and his family have a fortune of $3.1 billion (£2.6bn) from his sporting store Decathlon.
After the authorities shut down his profitable fireworks factory in World War II, entrepreneur Oei Wie Gwan founded the clove cigarette firm Djarum.
A devastating fire destroyed the company plant in 1963, the same year Oei died, but his sons Michael Bambang (pictured) and Robert Budi Hartono stepped in and saved the firm from ruin, transforming it into one of Indonesia's leading conglomerates.
Today, the brothers have a combined fortune of $42.6 billion (£35.4bn).
Industrialist Günther Quandt established the firm that would become the BMW Group in the 1910s, and his descendants have managed to hold on to a controlling stake in the multinational automaker, which is the parent company of Rolls-Royce and Mini, and generates annual revenues of almost $115 billion ($93.9bn).
Günther's grandson Stefan Quandt owns a 23.7% share, while his sister Suzanne Klatten controls 19.2% of the company.
In 1964, Phil Knight established sportswear trailblazer Nike with track coach Bill Bowerman in Oregon. Under the original name of Blue Ribbon Sports, the business set out to distribute Japanese athletic shoes in the US.
Knight's filmmaker son Travis (pictured here with his father) works for Laika, the family's animation studio. Knight's other son Matthew passed away in a scuba diving accident in 2004.
Knight has donated more than half a billion dollars to the University of Oregon and Stanford's Graduate School of Business, having studied at both.
Christmas and birthday gift-giving must be an opulent affair in the Cargill-MacMillan dynasty, as Forbes named the family the fourth richest in America in 2021.
The family has a $47 billion (£38.6bn) fortune gleaned from its agribusiness firm Cargill Inc., which is one of America's largest privately-owned companies.
Approximately 90 family members together own 88% of the company.
The owners of French luxury goods firm Hermès, the Dumas family have an estimated combined fortune of $49.2 billion (£40.9bn), according to the most recent figures from Bloomberg.
The clan's company was founded by patriarch Thierry Hermès in 1837 and started out as a Parisian harness workshop, before branching out into the high-end fashion and luxury goods business.
Notable scions of the family include the late Jean-Louis Dumas, who transformed the firm into a global powerhouse, and Axel Dumas, the current CEO (pictured).
David Thomson, 3rd Baron Thomson of Fleet (pictured), and his brother Peter have an investment company called Woodbridge, and hold a 55% controlling stake in media information giant Thomson Reuters, which David chairs alongside The Globe and Mail Inc., a separate media firm.
Like his brother, Peter is also a private equity investor and serves on numerous boards.
Late brothers Karl (pictured) and Theo Albrecht founded Aldi in 1946 in Essen. The supermarket chain split into two different entities in 1960, Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd, after the siblings disagreed over whether to stock cigarettes.
Both groups went on to expand internationally, and Aldi Nord snapped up US chain Trader Joe's in 1979. The firm is now controlled by Karl's children, Beate Heister and Karl Albrecht Jr., who have a fortune of $35.9 billion (£29.8bn).
Aldi Süd is owned by Theo's namesake son and the heirs of his brother Berthold, who have a combined net worth of $18.4 billion (£15.3bn).
In February 1984, Michael Dell, who was just 19, founded his eponymous computer hardware company in Austin, Texas using a $1,000 investment courtesy of his parents.
The firm produced its first PC in 1985 and has gone from strength to strength.
Today, Dell is a global household name, and Michael Dell is happily married with four children.
Founded in 1885 in Germany by Albert Boehringer, Boehringer Ingelheim initially produced tartaric acid for the food industry before branching out into pharmaceuticals.
Today, the drugmaker is one of the biggest pharma companies in the world. Boehringer's descendants control the family firm, with scion Hubertus von Baumbach (pictured) serving as company chairman.
Combined, the dynasty is worth a whopping $59.2 billion (£49.2bn), according to India Times.
The Chakri dynasty has been Thailand's ruling royal house for more than two centuries and continues to be treated with the utmost reverence in the country.
The current King, Maha Vajiralongkorn, heads the family, which comprises 26 individuals.
Together, the dynasty is thought to control around $60 billion (£49.8bn) in assets through the Crown Property Bureau, including extensive tracts of valuable real estate in central Bangkok, and owns a multitude of shares in luxury hotel group Kempinski.
Together with his brother Paul, Pierre Wertheimer took over French make-up firm Bourjois in 1917 and went on to bankroll fashion designer Coco Chanel during the 1920s and 1930s in exchange for a 70% share of her company.
Pierre's grandsons Alain and Gérard (pictured) still own the controlling interest in Chanel and have a net worth of $31.7 billion (£26.3bn) each.
Once the third-richest person on the planet, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has dropped down the rankings considerably but still boasts a net worth of $64.9 billion (£53.9bn).
The social network billionaire shares his fortune with wife Priscilla Chan and their two daughters Max and August Zuckerberg, and is planning to give a sizeable portion of it to charity.
Fast-fashion retailer Amancio Ortega (pictured with his youngest daughter Marta) and his late ex-wife Rosalía Mera opened the first Zara store in 1975 in A Coruña in northwest Spain, initially calling it Zorba after 'Zorba the Greek'.
The chain is now part of Ortega's Inditex group, which also includes the Massimo Dutti, Bershka, and Pull&Bear brands.
Ortega is the richest man in Spain, with a fortune of $62.9 billion (£52.1bn). His eldest daughter Sandra has her own fortune of $6.1 billion (£5bn), while Marta is now chairperson of the Inditex group.
From poverty to a global fashion empire: read Amancio Ortega's incredible life story
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and her family inherited a 33% stake in global cosmetics leviathan L'Oréal in 2017 on the death of her mother, Liliane Bettencourt.
The granddaughter of L'Oréal founder Eugéne Schueller, Bettencourt Meyers, who is pictured here with her sons Nicolas (left) and Jean-Victor, devotes her time to writing Bible commentaries and improving Jewish-Christian relations.
Michael Bloomberg founded his eponymous media, financial services, and software firm in 1981 after cutting his teeth at New York securities brokerage Salomon Brothers.
Now a major philanthropist who has given away $8 billion (£6.6bn) to date, the magnate was mayor of the Big Apple for three terms. He ran in America's 2020 Presidential Campaign but pulled out early on.
He shares his billions with his daughters Georgina (left) and Emma, and partner Diana Taylor.
The richest person in the world from 2010 to 2013, Carlos Slim Helú has slipped down the rankings somewhat, but still boasts a staggering net worth and remains the richest man in Mexico.
The Mexican tycoon, who made his fortune through conglomerate Grupo Carso, has a total of six children that he shares his fortune with.
When Forrest Mars Sr. died in 1991, the confectionery tycoon bequeathed Mars, Inc., the candy and pet foods empire his father founded in 1911, to his three children Jacqueline (pictured here with her granddaughters Graysen Airth and Katherine Burgstahler), Forrest Mars Jr. and John Mars.
The Mars siblings have complete control over the company, which has a plethora of popular brands, from Snickers and M&Ms to Whiskas and Dolmio.
The clan are worth a staggering $94 billion (£77.9bn) according to the most recent estimates.
College dropout Steve Ballmer was hired by Bill Gates in 1980 and served as Microsoft CEO from 2000 to 2014.
Since leaving the company, the tech whiz has become the sole proprietor of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team, and in 2018 he sold a 4% stake in Twitter.
Ballmer has been married to Connie Snyder since 1990, and the couple are committed philanthropists. They have three sons, who share in the family fortune.
Indian tycoon Dhirubhai Ambani co-founded oil and gas giant Reliance Industries in 1965 and transformed his Mumbai textile company into one of India's largest conglomerates.
Upon his death in 2002, Ambani's son Mukesh took over as chairman, MD, and majority shareholder.
His brother Anil, who was once worth $1.7 billion (£1.4bn), went bankrupt in 2021. Meanwhile, Mukesh boasts a fortune of $95.6 billion (£79.2bn).
Fred C Koch founded the game-changing oil refining company that became Koch Industries in 1940 and passed it to his four sons upon his death in 1967. However, it wasn't such a happy family, and Charles and David successfully sued their brothers Bill and Frederick for control of the firm during the 1980s and 1990s.
David and Frederick both passed away recently, with David leaving control of the company to his brother Charles.
The clan is worth a staggering $100 billion (£82.9bn).
Computer scientist Sergey Brin co-founded Google with Larry Page back in 1998.
At the time of writing, his net worth stands at $100.6 billion (£83.5bn).
Brin's ex-wife Anne Wojcicki, with whom he has two children, is the co-founder and CEO of personal genomics firm 23andMe. She's independently worth $300 million (£248.9m).
Google's Larry Page is worth more than company co-founder Sergey Brin with his fortune currently pegged at $103.8 billion (£86bn).
Page is the former CEO of Alphabet Inc., for which he was paid a symbolic dollar per year.
The computer science mastermind shares his wealth with his wife, biomedical scientist and philanthropist Lucinda Southworth, along with their two children.
Genius investor Warren Buffett has been the chairman and largest shareholder of hugely-successful holding company Berkshire Hathaway since 1970.
A signatory of the Giving Pledge, the so-called Oracle of Omaha, who lives relatively modestly with his children, has promised to give away more than 99% of his wealth during his lifetime or at death.
The co-founder, executive chairman, and CTO of the Oracle Corporation, New York City-born Larry Ellison is one of the world's richest tech entrepreneurs, and a keen yachtsman, aviator, and philanthropist.
Both his children are prominent in the movie industry.
Ellison's daughter Megan (pictured here at the Golden Globe Awards) is a producer who has worked on hit films including Zero Dark Thirty and American Hustle, while his son David is the founder and CEO of Skydance Media.
The co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates is one of the richest men globally and, together with his ex-wife Melinda, the planet's most deep-pocketed philanthropist.
To date, the now-divorced couple, who have three children, have given away more than $50 billion (£41.1bn) via the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the charitable organisation they established in 2000 to eradicate hunger, extreme poverty, and preventable disease.
Bill's fortune is currently $114.2 billion (£94.6bn) while Melinda has $6.5 billion (£5.4bn).
Deriving the bulk of its estimated $150 billion (£124.2bn) fortune from oil, the House of Nahyan has been the reigning royal family of Abu Dhabi since 1793.
The clan counts 200 male members – the number of females is unknown.
The head of the family, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan (pictured), is also the leader of the UAE and chairs the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which manages $875 billion (£720.1bn) in assets, including Dubai's Burj Khalifa skyscraper, the world's tallest building.
Read more about the Burj Khalifa and the most expensive buildings in the world
France's Bernard Arnault and his family control luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, which was created by Arnault in 1987, and boasts some of the world's most prestigious brands, including Dior, Givenchy, and Dom Pérignon.
The company also bought Tiffany and Co for $15.8 billion (£13bn) in 2021.
Taking an active role in the running of the group, Arnault is chairman and CEO. Four of his five children also play an active role in the company.
Jeff Bezos has built up an immense fortune off the back of Amazon, his successful e-commerce, cloud computing, and AI company, which was founded in 1994.
Bezos and his now ex-wife novelist MacKenzie Scott broke records with the most expensive divorce of all time back in April 2019, with a settlement of $38 billion (£31.4bn).
The pair have four children together, and Scott has kept a 4% stake in Amazon. She currently has a net worth of $42.3 billion (£35bn) while Jeff boasts a $167.8 billion (£138.8bn) fortune.
America's most moneyed family, the Waltons control almost 50% of the world's biggest retailer, Walmart.
The fortune is shared between the living heirs of brothers Sam and James, who founded the unstoppable family company in Arkansas back in 1962.
Major scions include Christy, Rob (pictured, left), Alice (centre), and Jim (right).
Learn more about the Waltons and the story behind Walmart's staggering success
The House of Thani has been the ruling family in Qatar since the mid-19th century. The clan, which is headed by the country's leader, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, is said to number in the thousands, possibly around 7,000 or 8,000.
The family controls the country's legendary $328 billion (£271.2bn) sovereign wealth fund, which has assets that include London's Shard skyscraper and Harrods department store, and hefty stakes in famous firms such as Volkswagen and Tiffany & Co.
The clan are worth an estimated $335 billion (£293.6bn).
Numbering some 1,000 members, the Al-Sabah dynasty has reigned over Kuwait for more than two centuries, and the former head of the family was the nation's emir, Sheikh Sabah IV Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (pictured here with Donald Trump).
He died in 2020, and Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber is his successor. In 1991, the clan's wealth, much of which is tied up in US stocks and shares, was estimated by Time magazine to be a whopping $90 billion (£74bn), and experts suggest the fortune has more or less quadrupled since then.
The richest family in the world by a long shot, the royal House of Saud, which has ruled the country that bears its name since 1744, is estimated to be worth an absolutely eye-watering $1.4 trillion (£1.15tn).
This almost-unimaginable wealth is spread out among the gigantic family's 15,000 or so members, but a good chunk of the family fortune is held by the current King Salman, his controversial son Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (pictured here together), and their close relatives.
Discover more about the world's richest royal families