The investment world holds immense opportunities for people interested in building wealth over the long term. However, only a few manage to achieve success and make their name in the world of finance. While every individual is unique, there are legendary investors who continue to inspire generations of wannabe investors. In this blog post, we will profile top investors in the world who made their name as the richest investors in the world. The carefully curated list includes value investors, hedge fund managers, and some who made their names synonymous with the firms they founded.
Top 10 richest investors
Meet the 10 richest investors in the world who are true inspirations for young investors and finance enthusiasts alike.
1. Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett, widely known the apostle of value investing, belongs to the league of the richest, most successful investors of all time. Warren Buffett was born on 30th August 1930, the second child of a stockbroker father. Buffett has a strong interest in making money from a very young age as he believes that if you can’t find a way to earn money while sleeping, you have to work until you die. He began his career by selling soft drinks and investing his money in acquiring an estate land and renting it out for profit. By his 30s, Buffett was already a millionaire. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is a holding company which has investments in several thriving businesses.
2. Jim Simons
Another popular name among the top 10 investors in the world is Jim Simons. If you are into stock market investment or just a finance enthusiast you would have heard his name. Simons, born on 25th April 1938, is popularly known as the Quant King. After starting his world-famous Quant fund, Renaissance Technologies, he founded Rentech in 1982 when he was only 44 years old. He was Rentech’s CEO and chair until 2010. Simons is also an award-winning mathematician and a code breaker for IDA.
3. Carl Icahn
Carl Icahn ranks among the biggest investors in the world. Carl, the American investor, began his career on Wall Street as a stockbroker. His investment philosophy is unique, which is to find exceptions and buy when no one is really interested in the stock. As a result, he mostly looks for companies with share prices that indicate a poor P/E or price-to-earnings ratio. Carl created a portfolio of company stocks with book value exceeding current market value and later invested significantly in these companies. Icahn is also known as an activist investor, who pushes for management changes in the companies he holds stakes.
4. George Soros
George Soros’ investments made him the stock market’s richest person. Soros is the most famous and biggest hedge fund manager in the world. One of the finest examples of his work is the Quantum Fund that he began to manage in 1970, fetching a 30% average annual return by the year 2000. However, in Soros’s words, he is no different than any next door investor, it is just that he recognizes and admits his mistakes faster than others. He also added that instinct plays a pivotal role in his investment strategies. Soros is known for exploiting market inefficiencies with highly leveraged and extensive bets.
5. Paul Tudor Jones
Billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones is also known as one of the biggest investors in the world. Paul also began his investment career at a very early age and started his investment firm at the age of 16. He began investing after trading cotton to the commodity pits. His 28 years of constant wins are truly exceptional where he made most of his wealth. Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp has equity investments across global markets, investing in ETFs based on emerging markets and investments in firms such as Microsoft and Google.
6. Steve Cohen
Steve Cohen is one of the top investors in the world famous for his remarkable investment career. Steve is a famous American investor and hedge fund manager who inspires thousands of budding investors across the world. Cohen’s investment firm is Point72 Asset Management. Cohen’s investment approach is quite opposite to Buffett’s investment ideology. While Buffett prefers to make money from investments over the long term, Cohen adheres to short-term investment strategy. Cohen is known for his short-term transactional gains.
7. Peter Lynch
Peter Lynch, a well-known and successful investor of all time, is the former manager of Magellan Fund. Peter Lynch’s investment strategy revolves around individual retail investors as he believes they have more flexibility compared to large money managers. Simplistic as it may sound, Lynch underlines investing in only what you understand.
8. Bruce Kovner
Bruce Kovner figures in the list of richest investors in the world, who has inspired millions of new-age investors with his astonishing investment career. Kovner graduated from Harvard while driving a cab as a part of his side hustle. Bruce’s investment strategies primarily focus on currencies and commodities to make money. In fact, Kovner used a credit card loan to fund his first big trade. Kovner, a self-made billionaire, made his fortune trading in futures contracts.
9. Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg is one of the youngest billionaires in the world. He is also one of the top investors in the world who revolutionized the world of social media. He founded the global social media platform, Facebook along with his Harvard friends in 2004. Zuckerberg used profitable trading strategies for the expansion of his business. At present, he is the CEO and executive chairman of Meta Platforms and oversees social media channels such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Threads. The American philanthropist, entrepreneur, and investor has a net worth of around $132 billion and is counted among the richest persons in the world.
10. Elon Musk
One of the richest investors in the world who is always in the news is Elon Musk. He is often called “The Visionary Investor”. Musk as a business person and an investor, takes a special interest in technology and space exploration. Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla Motors are renowned in the world of technology and innovation. He is also a venture capitalist and owns other globally reputed companies such as X Corp, xAI, OpenAI, Neuralink, and Boring Company. Musk primarily invests in electric vehicles and space exploration technologies. He is considered the wealthiest business person, with more than $260 billion in net worth.
Conclusion
We have discussed the top 10 investors in the world who count among the richest investors in the world. Be it hedge funds, strategic investments in firms, or investments in businesses they started, these investors continue to inspire legions of aspiring investors across the world. As a newbie investor, you can always take their journey as a practical guidance book and learn a lot about stock market investment from their success and failures.
