All The People From The Last 200 Years Who Have Been The Richest Person In The World

In the last 200 years, how many different individuals would you guess have been officially the richest person on earth at some point? Hundreds? Maybe over a thousand? The answer? 19. That's right. In the last 200 years, just 19 individuals have worn the crown of the richest person on earth. And that includes the newest member of the club, Larry Ellison.

On Wednesday, Oracle founder Larry Ellison became the richest person in the world for the first time in his life. In just a few hours, Ellison's fortune exploded by $100 billion, vaulting from $300 billion to $400 billion. That surge knocked his longtime friend Elon Musk into second place with a net worth of $385 billion.

Ellison and Musk are now the only two people in history to have personal fortunes surpassing both $300 billion and $400 billion without adjusting for inflation.

Their fortunes are actually intertwined. In 2018, Ellison famously bought 1.7% of Tesla for $1 billion. He still owns about 1.4% of the company today, a stake worth roughly $15 billion. But the majority of Ellison's wealth comes from his 42% stake in Oracle, whose market cap has quintupled in three years, from $200 billion to $1 trillion.

If Oracle's valuation rises another 10%, Ellison would surpass Musk's all-time record from December 2024, when Elon's net worth briefly touched $485 billion. With a bit more upside, Ellison could even become the first person in history to cross the half-trillion mark.

And while many assumed Musk would be the world's first trillionaire, Oracle's surge and Ellison's unusually large ownership stake now put him squarely in pole position to get there first.

Ellison and Oracle have also spent decades as arch-rivals to Microsoft and Bill Gates. Oracle actually went public one day before Microsoft's IPO back in 1986. Within a few years, Bill Gates was a multi-billionaire. Meanwhile, Oracle came perilously close to collapse in 1990 after an accounting scandal. Ellison later admitted the company was "weeks away from bankruptcy."

(Photo by William STEVENS/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

Oracle recovered, but by 1995, Gates had become the richest person on Earth for the first time, thanks to the booming personal computer revolution. Aside from brief interruptions by Warren Buffett in 2008 and Carlos Slim Helú in 2010, Gates held the crown for 22 years straight — from 1995 until Jeff Bezos overtook him in 2017. During that entire stretch, Ellison remained in the billionaire ranks but nowhere near the top. In 2005, his net worth stood at $18 billion, in 2010 it was $28 billion, and by 2017, he was worth $50 billion — good enough for #7 in the world, but still far from Gates.

Today, the tables have turned. Gates ranks #13 with a $120 billion fortune, while Ellison sits at the very top. With patience, persistence, and a little luck, Larry Ellison is now $280 billion richer than Gates — and has finally claimed his rival's former crown.

Below is a full lineage and timeline of the 19 humans in the last 200 years who have been rich enough to wear the crown of the world's richest person…

All The Richest People On Earth 1820-2025

1820s–1840s: Merchants And Financiers

• Stephen Girard: Philadelphia banker who personally financed the War of 1812. At his death in 1831, he was the richest American alive, worth about $7.5 million (billions today).
• Nathan Mayer Rothschild: Patriarch of the Rothschild banking dynasty's London branch. By the 1830s, his fortune from financing governments made him the richest man in Europe, and likely the world.
• John Jacob Astor: The first American multi-millionaire. Astor built a fortune in fur trading and Manhattan real estate, leaving an estate of $20 million in 1848 — equal to hundreds of billions today relative to the economy.

1850s–1870s: The Railroad Age

• Cornelius Vanderbilt: The "Commodore" built a transportation empire in steamships and railroads. At his death in 1877, he was worth $95 million, the largest fortune in the world at the time. His son, William Henry Vanderbilt, briefly carried the torch with about $200 million in the 1880s.

1880s–1930s: Oil, Steel, And Royals

• John D. Rockefeller: Founder of Standard Oil, Rockefeller became the world's first billionaire in 1916. At his peak in 1913, he was worth about $900 million — the equivalent of $336 billion today. He remained the richest person on Earth into the 1920s.
• Andrew Carnegie: Briefly took the crown in 1901 after selling U.S. Steel for $480 million.
• Osman Ali Khan, Nizam of Hyderabad: In 1937, Time magazine declared the Nizam the world's richest man, thanks to his jewels, gold, and land revenues. While Rockefeller's lifetime fortune was greater, the Nizam's personal treasure chest made him the top contender in the late 1930s.

1940s: The Automobile King

• Henry Ford: By the 1940s, the Ford Motor Company founder was the richest man alive. At his death in 1947, Ford's fortune was about $1.6 billion — nearly $200 billion in today's dollars.

1950s–1970s: Oil And Real Estate

• J. Paul Getty: In 1957, Fortune named Getty the richest American, and in 1966, Guinness declared him the richest private citizen in the world. At his death in 1976, his estate was worth more than $6 billion.

1980s: Japan's Bubble Economy

• Yoshiaki Tsutsumi: Heir to the Seibu Railway empire, Tsutsumi topped Forbes' billionaire lists in the late 1980s with a fortune of $20 billion.
• Taikichiro Mori: A real estate developer and former professor, Mori became the world's richest in 1991–92 with $18.5 billion.

1990s–2000s: The Gates Era

• Bill Gates: Gates first claimed the title in 1995 with $12.9 billion. He held the top spot for more than a decade, peaking at $90 billion in 1999 (about $165 billion today).
• Warren Buffett: Briefly passed Gates in 2008 with $62 billion.
• Carlos Slim Helú: Mexican telecom mogul who held the crown at times in 2010, peaking at $74 billion. Gates reclaimed #1 in 2014 and held it through 2017.

2010s–2020s: Tech Titans

• Jeff Bezos: Founder of Amazon, Bezos became the world's richest person in 2017. By 2018, he was worth $112 billion, and he peaked at $170 billion in 2019.
• Elon Musk: Surged past Bezos in 2021, peaking at $340 billion — at the time the largest fortune in modern history.
• Bernard Arnault: The LVMH luxury king briefly became the world's richest in 2022 and 2023, peaking at $211 billion.

2025: Larry Ellison

• Larry Ellison: On September 10, 2025, Ellison became the 19th person in history to be crowned the world's richest. His fortune leapt by $100 billion in a single day, topping $400 billion. If Oracle's growth continues, he may be the first person to hit $500 billion — and maybe even the first trillionaire.

Richest Person In The World Timeline (1820s–2025)

By the Way…

It's worth remembering that wealth rankings are always shaped by personal decisions, market timing, and in some cases, secrecy. For example, when Microsoft went public, Bill Gates owned 40% of the company. He spent the next 30 years selling his shares as fast as possible. If he still owned 30%, he would have remained the richest person on earth without an ounce of competition from 1995 to the present, and he would have become a trillionaire in January 2024.

Similarly, Jeff Bezos' divorce from MacKenzie Scott in 2019 cost him roughly a quarter of his Amazon stake. If that split had never happened, Bezos' fortune today would be closer to $400 billion, making him a rival to Ellison and Musk in the all-time rankings.

And then there are the unconfirmed fortunes. For years, rumors have swirled that Russian President Vladimir Putin secretly controls a web of assets worth more than $200 billion. Had those estimates been accurate, Putin would have been the richest person in the world around 2019 — though without transparency or verification, his name has never officially appeared on any list.

The bottom line: wealth is fluid, fragile, and sometimes hidden. Which is why the list of just 19 people who have ever officially been crowned the richest person on earth remains one of the most exclusive clubs in history.