There are currently more billionaires in the world than ever before, with 2,781 individuals making Forbes’s annual World’s Billionaires List, with a combined net worth of $14.2 trillion.
While obtaining a prestigious and traditional education may increase the chances of joining this 10-figure-worth class, it is not the only route to success. Among the world’s top ten richest billionaires, some dropped out of education, some attended public schools, while others went to the world’s leading universities.
Several institutions stand out with record numbers of billionaire alumni, notably Harvard, while schools featured in Spear’s School Index, are renowned for providing exceptional academic, social, cultural, and pastoral tools to pupils from UHNW (ultra-high net worth) families from an early age.
From Ivy League universities to public colleges and summer courses, these are the schools attended by the 10 richest billionaires in the world.
[See also: Do super-rich graduates value their universities?]
Where did the 10 richest billionaires go to school?
Bernard Arnault & family, $233 billion
Education: Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau (France); Lycée Faidherbe, Lille (France); Lycée Maxence Van der Meersch, Roubaix (France)
The world’s richest person, Bernard Arnault, is the founder, chairman, and CEO of LVMH, the world’s largest luxury goods company. After attending public high schools in Roubaix and Lille, he graduated from the École Polytechnique, France’s most renowned engineering university, in 1971. He then began his career in his father’s public work construction company, Ferret-Savinel, and instigated a shift towards real estate, which laid the foundation for his future at the heart of the luxury sector.
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Today, LVMH’s portfolio includes the likes of Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., Moët Hennessy, Christian Dior, Fendi, Givenchy, Stella McCartney, Kenzo, CELINE, Princess Yachts, TAG Heuer and Bulgari.
All eyes are on Arnault and his family as questions are raised about which of his five children might succeed him at the top of his empire.
[See also: Succession at the House of Arnault: who will wear the crown?]
Elon Musk, $195 billion
Education: Pretoria Boys High School, Pretoria (South Africa); University of Pretoria, Pretoria (South Africa); Queen’s University, Kingston (Canada); University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (US)
Elon Musk is currently the second richest person in the world, with a fortune worth $195 billion. His varied journey in education began in his birth city Pretoria, where he briefly attended Waterkloof House Preparatory School and state-run Bryanston High School before finishing secondary education at public Pretoria Boys High School. While waiting for a decision on his US visa application, Musk studied computer science at the University of Pretoria for five months. He then pursued a similar degree at Queen’s University in Canada, but did not complete it. Instead, he graduated in physics and economics from the prestigious Ivy League University of Pennsylvania. In 1995, Musk briefly attended a PhD program in energy physics at Stanford University but dropped out after just two days to co-found his first business – an online city guide production company.
He now has six companies to his credit, including electric car giant Tesla and rocket maker SpaceX. In 2022, Musk bought social media platform X (formerly Twitter) for $44 billion.
[See also: Why this generation of billionaire tech barons is a danger to the planet]
Jeff Bezos, $194 billion
Education: River Oaks Elementary School, Houston (US); Miami Palmetto High School, Miami (US); Princeton University, Princeton (US)
Jeff Bezos is known for founding the multinational tech and e-commerce company, Amazon. He attended Houston’s River Oaks Elementary School and later joined Palmetto High School, a public school in Florida. Prior to his higher education, Bezos participated in the Student Science Training Program at the University of Florida. In 1982, he enrolled in Princeton University to pursue a degree in physics, but later switched majors to earn a degree in electrical engineering and computer science.
In 1994, he started Amazon in his garage in Seattle and was president and CEO of the company until he stepped down to become executive chairman in 2021. Bezos owns The Washington Post as well as aerospace company Blue Origin.
Mark Zuckerberg, $177 billion
Education: Ardsley High School, Ardsley (US); Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter (US); Harvard University, Cambridge (US)
Mark Zuckerberg’s education was cut short by his success. Before he famously dropped out of his psychology and computer science course at Harvard University to focus on developing what would become Facebook in 2004, he attended two different schools. First, Zuckerberg studied at the public Ardsley High School, then transferred to a private school, the Phillips Exeter Academy, where he graduated.
While in secondary education, he also followed a computer course at Mercy University and attended the prestigious Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth summer camp.
Today, Zuckerberg is the fourth richest person in the world with a fortune of $177 billion and is the chairman, CEO and controlling shareholder of Facebook’s parent company, Meta.
Larry Ellison, $141 billion
Education: South Shore High School, Chicago (US); University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana (US); University of Chicago, Chicago (US)
Co-founder, chairman and CTO of software giant Oracle, Larry Ellison attended two different universities but never obtained a higher education degree. After attending Chicago’s public South Shore High School, he joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a premed student. He dropped out of the program when his mother passed away, and later enrolled in a physics and mathematics course at the University of Chicago, but left it after one term to move to California and begin writing computer code for big tech companies and building databases for the CIA.
Today, Ellison owns almost 40% of Oracle, although he gave up the CEO role in 2014 after 37 years. He sat on the board of Elon Musk’s Tesla between 2018 and 2022 and still owns shares in the company.
[See also: Introducing the Spear’s Schools Index 2024]
Warren Buffett, $133 billion
Education: Alice Deal Junior High School, Washington D.C. (US); Woodrow Wilson High School, Washington D.C. (US); Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (US); University of Nebraska, Lincoln (US); Columbia Business School, New York (US); New York Institute of Finance, New York (US)
Warren Buffet is “one of the most successful investors of all time” and the sixth richest billionaire, according to Forbes. His long education journey started at Alice Deal Junior High School followed by the Woodrow Wilson High School (known today as the Jackson-Reed High School), both public institutions in Washington DC. While studying, he worked side jobs and cultivated his interest in finance. He attended the Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia, a private Ivy League school but did not graduate, instead gaining a degree in business administration from the University of Nebraska.
After being rejected by Harvard Business School, Buffet graduated in economics from Columbia Business School and attended the New York Institute of Finance for two years, a finance-focused institute created by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
Buffett now runs Berkshire Hathaway, a multinational conglomerate that owns several companies including sports equipment giant Brooks Sports and battery maker Duracell. His success as an investor earned him the nickname of the “Oracle of Omaha,” his native city.
Bill Gates, $128 billion
Education: Lakeside School, Seattle (US); Harvard College, Cambridge (US)
Co-founder of tech giant Microsoft, Bill Gates started programming and coding very early in life, when he first joined the private Lakeside School in the late ’60s, one of the first educational institutions that had computers on campus. Part of the billionaires that went to school at Harvard, Gates went on to study maths and computer science at Harvard College but dropped out after two years in 1975 to start Microsoft with his childhood friend Paul Allen.
In addition to the tech company, Gates’s current fortune is made up of several holdings including the Canadian National Railway Company and waste disposal firm Republic Services.
Steve Ballmer, $121 billion
Education: International School of Brussels, Brussels (Belgium); Detroit Country Day School, Detroit (US); Harvard University, Cambridge (US); Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford (US)
Steve Ballmer was CEO of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014. His education started at the International School of Brussels, which he attended for three years before moving to Michigan and joining the private prep school Detroit Country Day School. He then participated in Lawrence Technological University’s summer institute maths classes and got into Harvard University to study maths and economics, where he met Bill Gates.
After graduating, he attended Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business but dropped out after less than a year to join Microsoft at 24.
Today, Ballmer owns the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, which Forbes values at $4.65 billion.
Mukesh Ambani, $116 billion
Education: Hill Grange High School, Mumbai (India); St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai (India); Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai (India); Stanford University, Stanford (US)
Mukesh Ambani is the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, a multinational conglomerate founded by his father Dhirubhai Ambani. He attended the private Hill Grange High School in Mumbai and the private Catholic St. Xavier’s College, before graduating in chemical engineering from Mumbai’s Institute of Chemical Technology. Ambani then moved to the US where he enrolled in an MBA at Stanford University. He quit in 1980 to help his father run Reliance.
The family-owned corporation owns businesses in sectors ranging from petrochemicals to telecommunications, making Ambani the richest person in Asia.
[See also: The 10 best schools in the Asia Pacific region 2024]
Larry Page, $114 billion
Education: Okemos Montessori School, Okemos (US); East Lansing High School, East Lansing (US); University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (US); Stanford University, Stanford (US)
Known for co-founding Google, Larry Page is the 10th richest billionaire in Forbes’ 2024 ranking. His education has played a particularly significant role in his venture as Google began as the subject of his PhD research project at Stanford University.
As a pupil, Page attended Okemos Montessori School and the public East Lansing High School. He then studied computer engineering at the University of Michigan before graduating in computer science from Stanford University in 1998. After obtaining a Master’s in science, he stayed at Stanford to work on his now-historic PHD thesis about search engine development.
Although Page stepped down as CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet in 2019, he is still a board member and a controlling shareholder.
