Biggest industries for billionaires in 2022
The 2,668 billionaires on Forbes' 2022 World's Billionaires list have established their fortunes in all sorts of ways.
While glamorous industries like sports, media and entertainment can mint many millionaire athletes, actors and producers, those whose fortunes rise to the billions are usually the select few with ownership stakes in lucrative brands and companies, reports Forbes.
Below is the full list of the biggest industries for billionaires.
1. Finance and Investments
393 billionaires | 15% of list
Richest: Warren Buffett ($118 billion), chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, which owns stakes in over 60 companies, including Duracell and Dairy Queen.
2. Manufacturing
337 billionaires | 13% of list
Richest: He Xiangjian ($28.3 billion), founder of appliance maker Midea Group. The company has more than 200 subsidiaries and trades on the Shenzhen stock exchange.
3. Technology
332 billionaires | 12% of list
Richest: Jeff Bezos ($171 billion), founder of e-commerce giant Amazon. The second richest person in the world also owns the Washington Post and rocket company Blue Origin.
4. Fashion and Retail
250 billionaires | 9% of list
Richest: Bernard Arnault ($158 billion), chairman and CEO of LVMH, which owns more than 70 brands, including Louis Vuitton, Tiffany and Co. and Sephora.
5.
5. Healthcare
217 billionaires | 8% of list
Richest: Cyrus Poonawalla ($24.3 billion), founder of Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine maker (by doses).
6. Food and Beverage
203 billionaires | 8% of list
Richest: Zhong Shanshan ($65.7 billion), chairman of bottled water company Nongfu Spring. He also controls the publicly-listed Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy.
7. Real Estate
193 billionaires | 7% of list
Richest: Lee Shau Kee ($32.6 billion), cofounder of property developer Sun Hung Kai. Before that, he started Henderson Land Development in 1976, which makes up the majority of his wealth.
8. Diversified
180 billionaires | 7% of list
Richest: Mukesh Ambani ($90.7 billion), chairman of Reliance Industries. The firm holds interests in petrochemicals, oil and gas, retail and telecommunications.
9. Media and Entertainment
109 billionaires | 4% of list
Richest: Michael Bloomberg ($82 billion), cofounder of financial information and media company Bloomberg LP.
10. Energy
95 billionaires | 4% of list
Richest: Fan Hongwei ($18.2 billion), chair of fiber supplier Hengli Petrochemical, which makes polyester and textiles.
Forbes previously categorised social media tycoons as being from the tech industry; but this year we have shifted the founders of Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat and TikTok parent ByteDance to the media and entertainment industry to better reflect how those companies are functioning.
Meanwhile, 38 new tech billionaires joined the list. That includes Australians Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht, the cofounders of graphic design software firm Canva, each worth $6.5 billion.
