The age of the centibillionaires is here. Now 15-strong, the immensely powerful members of the club wield their $100 billion+ (£77bn) fortunes to drive technological progress, transform economies, influence global politics, and more. Their jaw-dropping wealth enables them to pursue ambitions as grand as eradicating all diseases and colonising Mars.

Read on to discover the 15 people with the kind of money to make virtually anything happen, and five billionaires on the verge of hitting the 12-figure jackpot, for the second time in some cases.

Net worth estimates are courtesy of the Forbes World’s Billionaires List  2025. All dollar amounts in US dollars.

The first centibillionaire was Bill Gates, who achieved the milestone for a brief time in 1999 amid the dot-com boom, before his fortune plummeted by almost half when the bubble burst.

Jeff Bezos followed in 2017 when his wealth also hit 12 figures, thanks to a Black Friday-driven surge in Amazon stock. Bill Gates made a triumphant return to the club in 2019, exited in 2020 and returned again in 2021 when he and Bezos were joined by Elon Musk and Bernard Arnault. By last year, the number of centibillionaires had climbed to 14. The total stands at 15 in 2025. So who are the 15 members?

Making her debut in the 12-figure club, art patron and philanthropist Alice Walton is the second woman in history (more on the first later) to boast a net worth of over $100 billion (£77bn) and the sole female in the group of 15. Alice Walton has smashed through the glass ceiling as Walmart shares have soared.

The world's richest heiress is the daughter of the late founder Sam Walton and owns a sizeable chunk of the retail behemoth, together with two of her siblings, who also now belong to the world's most exclusive club.

Michael Bloomberg became a member of the dozen-digit cohort last year. The media mogul embodies the intersection of extreme wealth and political ambition. After serving as New York City Mayor, Bloomberg leveraged the fortune he gleaned from his eponymous media and financial information company to fund a 2020 presidential run.

These days, Bloomberg devotes much of his time to charity and is among America's foremost philanthropists, having promised to give away the bulk of his fortune. To date, he's donated over $17.4 billion (£13.3bn) to an array of good causes.

The first centibillionaire, Bill Gates is also making a major difference by funnelling his enormous wealth into philanthropic endeavours. Like Michael Bloomberg, the former Microsoft boss has signed the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away the majority of his wealth.

The charitable foundation Gates set up with his ex-wife Melinda French Gates in 2000 has donated over $100 billion (£77bn), equivalent to the size of the Bulgarian economy. Its work includes major efforts to eradicate polio, develop vaccines for numerous diseases and address issues like HIV/AIDS and agricultural development in developing nations.

Like his sister, Jim Walton is a new member of the 12-figure club. The major Walmart shareholder has joined the fray off the back of the retailer's soaring share price, which hit a record high in February and remains elevated.

Jim Walton takes a more active role than his sister in the family's business affairs, chairing the clan's Arvest Bank Group.

Rob Walton is the wealthiest of the Walmart siblings. The eldest of the founder's children, he served as chairman of the retailer from 1992 to 2015 and only recently retired from the company's board.

That makes three new members for 2025, yet the total number has only increased from 14 to 15. That's because two individuals, who we'll come to later, saw their net worth drop below the $100 billion (£77bn) threshold.

CEO of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014, Steve Ballmer is thought to own 4.5% of the tech giant and derives the lion's share of his wealth from this significant stake.

Ballmer acquired the Los Angeles Clippers NBA team the year he quit the Redmond-headquartered company. As well as his hands-on role overseeing the Clippers, the former tech exec takes an active approach when it comes to philanthropy, having given away $4 billion (£3.1bn) to worthy causes. He made his debut in the dozen-digit club last year.

Spain's richest person, Amancio Ortega owns 60% of Inditex, the fast-fashion group that counts Zara and Massimo Dutti among its portfolio of brands. Ortega founded the massively successful company together with his late wife Rosalía Mera, starting with a single store in A Coruña.

Like Steve Ballmer, he joined the 12-figure clique last year.

Another 2024 inductee into the world's most elite club, Sergey Brin co-founded Google with his Stanford University classmate Larry Page in 1998 and took the world's leading search engine firm public in 2004. It was later renamed Alphabet.

Brin relinquished his role as company chairman in 2019 but still owns 5.7% of the business. His current activities include developing a state-of-the-art airship and partaking in various philanthropic initiatives via his family foundation.

Brin's fellow Google co-founder Larry Page also joined the club in 2024. Like Brin, Page stepped down from his active role at Alphabet in 2019, resigning from the position of CEO, but he remains a key shareholder.

Page's piece of the pie is bigger than Brin's at around 6%, hence his larger net worth.

Warren Buffett's net worth also surpassed the $100 billion (£77bn) mark in 2024. One of the most successful investors in history, the legendary 'Oracle of Omaha' has the Midas touch and then some. As the chairman and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway, his savvy investment strategies have proved exceptionally fruitful, making him gargantuan sums of money, 99% of which he plans to give away.

Buffett founded the Giving Pledge along with Bill Gates in 2010 and has already donated $62 billion (£47.4bn).

Along with his family, Bernard Arnault has a 48.6% stake in LVMH, the luxury goods juggernaut that owns scores of distinguished high-end brands, from Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior to Moët & Chandon and Tiffany & Co.

LVMH's share price – and Arnault's wealth – have taken a battering over the past year as shoppers cut back on premium purchases. But despite seeing $55 billion (£42bn) shaved off his net worth, the French tycoon remains firmly in the 12-figure club, as he has been since 2021, with a fortune of $178 billion (£135.9bn).

Larry Ellison co-founded the company that would morph into Oracle in 1977 and hasn't looked back. The software firm has mopped up a bunch of competitors over the decades and is now worth more than $387 billion (£295.6bn).

Ellison, who resides on his very own Hawaiian island, owns around 40% of the business and is still very much involved, serving as Oracle's chairman and chief technology officer. He joined the 12-figure club in 2023.

As we've mentioned, Jeff Bezos was the second person to enter the 12-figure club, gaining admittance in 2017. And in 2020, the Amazon founder attained yet another wow-factor milestone, becoming the first person in history to amass a fortune of over $200 billion (£152.7bn) amid the online retailer's pandemic boom.

On top of his almost 9% stake in Amazon, Bezos owns space company Blue Origin and venerable newspaper The Washington Post. When it comes to philanthropy, Bezos hasn't signed the Giving Pledge but has said he plans to give away the majority of his wealth in his lifetime.

Meta co-founder, chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg owns 13% of the Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp parent. He took his place among the centibillionaires last year.

The tech tycoon and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are planning to give away 99% of their Meta stake during their lifetimes and have made it their mission to eradicate all diseases by 2100.

Elon Musk has been part of the dozen-digit club since 2021. That same year, he became the first person ever to boast a net worth of over $300 billion (£229bn). And while his fortune has fluctuated wildly since then, it currently stands at an astronomical $342 billion (£261.1bn), with the Tesla and SpaceX boss, who aims to colonise Mars, expected to be the first person to achieve trillionaire status.

Musk's recent foray into politics is proving highly controversial, fuelling concerns the ultra-rich are buying their way oligarch-style into political power and influence.

Now, let's look at the five billionaires knocking on the door of the 12-figure club... 

First up is Jensen Huang, who owns 3% of Nvidia, the chipmaker he co-founded in 1993. Buoyed on by the AI boom, Nividia stock shot up in price in 2023 and 2024. Huang very briefly enjoyed centibillionaire status last year, an impressive feat given his net worth stood at $21.1 billion (£16.1bn) before the shares' spectacular rally. But the stock has faltered in 2025 amid a slew of headwinds, from increasing competition out of China to the Trump administration's tariffs.

The future is, however, looking bright for the semiconductor manufacturer, so there's every chance Huang will return to the centibillionaire fold at some point in the future.

Michael Dell founded his eponymous computer company in 1983 when he was a student at the University of Texas at Austin. His bulging net worth derives from his 50% stake in the firm. Like Jensen Huang, Dell fleetingly achieved centibillionaire status last year as the company's share price surged, but the recent mass sell-off of tech stocks has also hit Dell hard, and its head-honcho's net worth has fallen back as a consequence. Neither he nor Huang made the official Forbes centibillionaires list.

Nevertheless, Dell's fortune isn't far off $100 billion (£77bn), and a change in the market could push it back above that threshold again.

Asia's richest person, Mukesh Ambani holds a 42% stake in Reliance Industries, a monster Indian conglomerate with interests in oil, retail, media and a whole lot more besides.

Ambani made headlines last year for bankrolling his son Anant's star-studded nuptials to heiress Radhika Merchan. With an estimated cost of $600 million (£459m), the wedding is the most expensive on record. Ambani also celebrated becoming a member of the 12-figure club in 2024. But while his wealth has fallen below the coveted threshold in 2025, a return to the clique could be on the cards going forward.

Carlos Slim Helú reigned supreme as the world's richest person from 2010 to 2013 and is no stranger to centibillionaire status, achieving it at the start of last year. Together with his family, the Mexican business magnate owns 76% of the vast conglomerate Grupo Carso, which counts mobile telecoms titan América Móvil among its extensive portfolio.

Grupo Carso's stock has tumbled throughout much of 2024 and 2025, so Slim Helú is no longer in the 12-figure club. But the share price has recovered of late, which could spell a return to the clique sometime soon.

The richest woman in the world before Alice Walton took the crown, Françoise Bettencourt Meyers briefly achieved centibillionaire status last year. Whether she can become a fully paid-up member of the club depends on how L'Oréal stock performs.

Bettencourt Meyers and her family own more than a third of the French cosmetics colossus, which has been struggling for months, mainly due to flagging sales in China, one of its key markets.

Now discover music's six billionaires and how they joined the club