September 10, 2025
October 26, 2025
The people who are generally known as the richest at the moment are probably not the richest people on earth and never have been or ever will be, for the following reasons:
Bloomberg, Forbes and other similar sites that estimate wealth rely on public information. People can put their wealth into hidden assets and make a lot of profit without Bloomberg or Forbes knowing.
Anonymity comes into play here, because it is impossible to say how much wealth is held in offshore bank, corporate, and investment accounts. Someone else commented: “There are certainly individuals and families who are limited partners in every hedge fund and private equity firm that are held in shell companies and empty corporations.” The Panama Papers were just a glimpse of how much untaxed money is circulating.
There were wealthy families and individuals before Musk and Ellison existed. For example, the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, and the Saudi Arabian royal family have been around for centuries. These families earned billions of dollars before the current wealthy individuals were born, so why wouldn't they continue to earn billions after their birth?
No. It's unlikely that Ellison and Musk are the richest people on Earth; we simply don't know who they are.