Warren Buffett has just entered the world’s most elite club of the mega-rich.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index, The legendary American investor was worth $100 billion on Thursday. As a result, it puts him in the club of just five other men above that threshold. He’s now the sixth richest person globally, ranking just behind Facebook (FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
90-year-old Buffett has gained nearly $13 billion to his net worth this year as shares in his industrial and insurance conglomerate have grown. Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) is higher by nearly 15% in 2021, giving the company more than $600 billion of market capitalization.
Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway are well-known for investing principally in slow growth, “value” stocks — many of which have done very well this year. Moreover, markets continued to recover from the pandemic-fueled crash a year ago. He recently announced that Berkshire bought stakes in Dow components Chevron and Verizon, indicating a new interest in Big Oil, telecom and media.
Chevron (CVX) is higher by 31% as crude prices recover the ground they lost during the pandemic’s early months. Verizon (VZ) hasn’t increased nearly as well — the stock is down by 3% this year — but it’s still above the lows that it hit in March 2020.
Other elites on the list
Buffett has cracked the $100 billion mark, but he’s still a long way behind the world’s richest person, Amazon (AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos, worth $180 billion. Jeff has been swapping the title with Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk, who’s now worth $173 billion as shares in his electric carmaker rally from recent declines.
Microsoft (MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates is No. 3 on the list at $138 billion. Chairman of luxury goods group LVMH (LVMHF) Bernard Arnault ranks No. 4 with $122 billion. Arnault is the wealthiest non-American on the list. On the other hand, Mark Zuckerberg is No. 5 with a net worth of $101 billion.
Buffett has donated billions of dollars to charitable causes, and in 2006, promised to give away almost all of his fortune to charity.