A research instrument — not a rich list
What actually
transfers?
Fifteen of the world’s largest fortunes, taken apart line by line — every fact cited, every interpretation labelled and graded. Wealth figures refresh daily from the Forbes real-time list; the research underneath is hand-written and does not.
- People analysed
- 15fully cited
- Richest in the set
- $857BElon Musk
- Combined net worth
- $3413Bmedian $186B
- STEM background
- 67%10 of 15
- Inherited outright
- 3 of 15no skill reproduces this
Jeff Bezos graduated from Princeton in 1986 with a BSE in electrical engineering and computer science.
Verifiable, and carries a source naming the exact field it supports.
His work shows long-term thinking and customer obsession.
Our reading of public evidence, carrying a confidence level and the specific quote behind it. Never presented as a fact about how he thinks.
The shape of the set
Every field below has a source behind it.
Top industries
Number of people in each industry.
Headcount, not wealth. The Patterns page shows the same industries weighted by money, which looks very different.
Most common fields of study
Distinct fields across all recorded degrees, counted once per person.
Someone who studied two fields appears under both, so the bars sum to more than 15.
STEM vs non-STEM
Share of the group with a documented STEM education.
- STEM10
- Non-STEM5
67% studied a STEM field, but it tracks which industry someone entered far more closely than it tracks wealth — 9 founders here, and the non-STEM fortunes sit in retail, luxury and investing.
Most common mental models
How often each mental model is attributed across the group.
Interpretations of public evidence, not measured traits. Each attribution on a profile carries the specific evidence behind it.
Two archetypes, found without names
A k-means model grouped all fifteen by structure alone — industry, how the wealth arose, education, scale. Every claim prints the counts behind it, including what the sample size cannot support.
Expensive mistakes
6 documented failures by the same people, with what each cost. Buffett's own estimate for buying Berkshire: $200bn in forgone value.
What is actually learnable
Eight traits you can practise, six you inherit or luck into, and an explicit refusal to move the second column into the first.
The dataset
Search by name or company. The full table has every column and filter.
- #1Elon Musk$856.9B
- Industry
- Automotive & Space
- Wealth type
- founder
- Country
- United States
- Age
- 55
- Field of study
- Physics and Economics
- Background
- STEM
- #2Larry Page$281.9B
- Industry
- Technology
- Wealth type
- founder
- Country
- United States
- Age
- 53
- Field of study
- Computer Engineering
- Background
- STEM
- #3Jeff Bezos$266.6B
- Industry
- Technology
- Wealth type
- founder
- Country
- United States
- Age
- 62
- Field of study
- Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
- Background
- STEM
- #4Sergey Brin$260.0B
- Industry
- Technology
- Wealth type
- founder
- Country
- United States
- Age
- 53
- Field of study
- Computer Science and Mathematics
- Background
- STEM
- #5Michael Dell$236.2B
- Industry
- Technology
- Wealth type
- founder
- Country
- United States
- Age
- 61
- Field of study
- Pre-medicine
- Background
- STEM
- #6Larry Ellison$189.0B
- Industry
- Technology
- Wealth type
- founder
- Country
- United States
- Age
- 82
- Field of study
- Pre-medicine
- Background
- STEM
- #7Mark Zuckerberg$189.0B
- Industry
- Technology
- Wealth type
- founder
- Country
- United States
- Age
- 42
- Field of study
- Psychology and Computer Science
- Background
- STEM
- #8Jensen Huang$185.5B
- Industry
- Semiconductors
- Wealth type
- founder
- Country
- United States
- Age
- 63
- Field of study
- Electrical Engineering
- Background
- STEM
- #9Amancio Ortega$149.5B
- Industry
- Fashion & Luxury
- Wealth type
- founder
- Country
- Spain
- Age
- 90
- Field of study
- —
- Background
- Non-STEM
- #10Steve Ballmer$149.2B
- Industry
- Technology
- Wealth type
- operator
- Country
- United States
- Age
- 70
- Field of study
- Applied Mathematics and Economics
- Background
- STEM
- #11Bernard Arnault$142.1B
- Industry
- Fashion & Luxury
- Wealth type
- mixed
- Country
- France
- Age
- 77
- Field of study
- Civil Engineering and Mathematics
- Background
- STEM
- #12Warren Buffett$140.8B
- Industry
- Finance & Investments
- Wealth type
- investor
- Country
- United States
- Age
- 95
- Field of study
- Business Administration
- Background
- Non-STEM
- #13Rob Walton$126.0B
- Industry
- Retail
- Wealth type
- heir
- Country
- United States
- Age
- 81
- Field of study
- Business Administration
- Background
- Non-STEM
- #14Jim Walton$125.3B
- Industry
- Retail
- Wealth type
- heir
- Country
- United States
- Age
- 78
- Field of study
- Business Administration (Marketing)
- Background
- Non-STEM
- #16Alice Walton$115.2B
- Industry
- Retail
- Wealth type
- heir
- Country
- United States
- Age
- 76
- Field of study
- Economics
- Background
- Non-STEM
Net worth, rank and age refresh from the live feed (22 August 2026). Everything interpretive is hand-written and reviewed separately.