The list includes Italy’s longest-lasting post-war prime minister, a singer-turned-businessman and Warren Buffet’s right-hand man.
The list of those who have passed away after accumulating more than US$1 billion (R$4.85 billion) includes singer Jimmy Buffett , who turned his song Margaritaville into a lifestyle empire, Silvio Berlusconi , the cruise ship singer who became a media mogul and Italian Prime Minister, as well as owner of Milan for a time, and Charlie Munger , the direct business partner of investment mogul Warren Buffett.
Nine of them were US citizens .
India and Malaysia were the only other countries to have multiple billionaires killed: three Indians and two Malaysians. Zhao Ning, a pharmaceutical entrepreneur, was the only woman among them. She had US$1.2 billion (R$5.82 billion) and died at the age of 56, after a two-decade battle with cancer.
Few could have imagined that singer Buffett, who launched Margaritaville in 1977, would become a billionaire. He ended up founding a chain of restaurants, resorts and gated communities that earned the king of “cheeseburgers in paradise” a fortune estimated at US$1 billion (R$4.8 billion) at the time of his death, aged 76, in September. . “I didn’t realize until later that I had spoken to the hearts of the people who associated that lifestyle with that music,” Buffett told Forbes in 2022.
Gordon Moore made a risky bet when he co-founded Intel Corporation in 1968. With Moore, Intel was able to pioneer new memory technologies for computers, making the company one of the largest semiconductor chip manufacturers in the world. A gifted engineer known for his Moore’s Law (which stated that the number of transistors in a circuit doubles every two years), Moore died in April.
He and his wife have donated almost $6 billion of their fortune to charity by the end of 2022, much of it through their Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The couple received the Carnegie Medal for Philanthropy in 2009. Betty died at age 95 in early December last year.
Indian paint magnate Ashwin Dani , who died aged 80 in September, was the richest of the billionaires who passed away in 2023, with a fortune estimated at US$8 billion (R$38.8 billion). Others who died and accumulated more than US$5 billion (R$24.2 billion): Italian Silvio Berlusconi (US$6.9 billion or R$33.4 billion), Intel co-founder Gordon Moore (US$6 .8 billion or R$33 billion), real estate tycoon Sam Zell ($5.2 billion or R$25.2 billion) and the chairman of the Dubai conglomerate Micky Jagtiani, an Indian citizen ($5.2 or R$ $25.2 billion).
The average age of these billionaires is 85 years old. Almost half of those killed were at least 90 years old, including the Egyptian and owner of Harrod’s and the Ritz, Mohamed Al Fayed, who was 94 years old. Automotive entrepreneur Red McCombs was 95 years old. And Indian businessman Keshub Mahindra and Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger were the two oldest billionaires who died: both were 99 years old.
The most recent death was that of Gaston Glock, the Austrian engineer and inventor of the Glock pistol. Glock, who was 94 when he died on Dec. 27, began his career designing and manufacturing handguns for the Austrian army in the 1980s.
In 2020, his company, Glock GmbH, had an estimated market share of nearly 65% of handguns in the US. Glock did not appear on the Forbes World’s Billionaires list in 2023, as did the rest mentioned in this article; his last appearance on the list was in 2021, with an estimated fortune of US$1.1 billion (R$5.3 billion).
10 billionaires who will be gone in 2023:
Ashwin Dani
Citizenship: India
Net worth at time of death: US$8 billion (R$38.83 billion)
Day of death: September 28, 2023
Age: 80
Dani’s $8 billion fortune at the time of his death in September makes him the richest billionaire to die in 2023. Dani, a chemist who studied pigments and paints, joined Asian Paints, a company co-founded by his father in 1968 and was appointed to the board two years later. He spent 55 years at the company, now India’s largest paint company, serving as vice-president and managing director from 1998 to 2009. He transformed Asian Paints by introducing computerized color matching. Asian Paints reported US$4.2 billion (R$20.39 billion) in revenue in the fiscal year to March 2023.
Mohamed Al Fayed
Nationality: Egypt
Net worth at the time of death: US$2 billion (R$9.71 billion)
Died: August 30, 2023
Age: 94
The Egyptian businessman grew up on the streets of Alexandria, reportedly selling bottles of Coca-Cola to survive. But after marrying into a Saudi arms trading family (his first wife, Samira Khashoggi, died in 1986 at age 51) and founding his own shipping company in the 1960s, Al Fayed became known for several high-profile acquisitions in the 1980s and 1990s, including the Ritz Hotel in Paris, the Harrods department store in London and the UK football club Fulham. His son Dodi Fayed died in a car accident alongside Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997.
Jimmy Buffett
Nationality: USA
Net worth at the time of death: US$1 billion (R$4.85 billion)
Died: September 1, 2023
Age: 76
A top-paid singer-songwriter known for his hits Margaritaville and Cheeseburger In Paradise, Jimmy Buffett said he didn’t even learn to play guitar until he was a student at Auburn University. “I picked up the guitar in college to meet girls,” he told Forbes. The musician managed to capitalize on his laid-back, island-breezy vibe, turning the Margaritaville brand into a chain of restaurants, clothing, tequila, resorts, a radio station, and even a retirement home and gated community.
By 2022, his global licensing company, Margaritaville Holdings, had US$2.2 billion (R$10.68 billion) in revenue, making Buffett worth an estimated US$1 billion (R$4.85 billion) in 2023.
Chen Lip Keong
Citizenship: Malaysia
Net worth at the time of death: US$1.3 (R$6.31 billion)
Died: December 8, 2023
Age: 76
Chen began his career in the gaming industry somewhat by accident. While on a business trip exploring oil opportunities in the Gulf of Siam, he jumped at the opportunity to obtain a casino license in Cambodia, seeing it as a combination of steady cash flow and real estate development. Chen founded NagaCorp in 1995, a hotel and gaming company and the first casino company listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Chen was the seventh richest man in Malaysia at the time of his death, worth an estimated US$1.3 billion (R$6.30 billion).
Carl DeSantis
Citizenship: USA
Net worth at the time of death: US$1.7 billion (R$8.25 billion)
Died: August 10, 2023
Age: 84
Carl DeSantis was a serial entrepreneur whose most profitable investment – in Celsius energy drinks – came late in his career. The beverage company’s shares rose 1,000% in 2021, putting it on Forbes’ list of billionaires. He made his fortune by initially founding the vitamin company Rexall Sundown in his garage in 1973 as a mail-order business and selling it for $1.8 billion in 2000. DeSantis’ investments ranged from real estate and restaurants featuring the Tabañero hot sauce brand. “Some people collect cars,” John Fieldly, CEO of Celsius Holdings, told Forbes. “That wasn’t his thing – Carl collects business.”
G. Gnanalingam
Citizenship: Malaysia
Net worth at the time of death: US$1.4 billion (R$6.8 billion)
Died: July 11, 2023
Age: 78
G. Gnanalingam was executive chairman of Westports Malaysia, one of the country’s leading port operators. Gnanalingam began his career as a salesman with the British American Tobacco group in the late 1960s and was appointed marketing director in 1980. In 1994, he co-founded Westports Holdings, the parent company of Westports Malaysia.
Thomas Lee
Nationality: USA
Net worth at date of death: US$2 billion (R$9.71 billion)
Died: February 23, 2023
Age: 78
Tom Lee was a private equity pioneer in the 1970s, best known for taking control of Snapple in 1992 and selling it two years later to Quaker Oats for more than 12 times his company’s purchase price. Lee began his financial career at First National Bank of Boston in 1965, where he rose to the position of vice president.
He founded his own investment firm, Thomas H Lee Partners, in 1974. Lee’s success in the industry made him a billionaire with a net worth of US$2 billion at the time of his death. Over the course of his life, he donated more than $22 million to his alma mater, Harvard University, and served on the boards of the Museum of Modern Art, Lincoln Center and the Museum of Jewish Heritage. . The New York Post reported that Lee was found dead in his office, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Keshub Mahindra
Nationality: India
Net worth at date of death: US$1.2 (R$5.82 billion)
Died: April 12, 2023
Age: 99
Keshub Mahindra began his business career at his father’s automotive company, Mahindra & Mahindra, which has brands ranging from technology and software services to aerospace and defense. Today, the Mumbai-based group operates in more than 100 countries and recorded revenue of US$15 billion (R$72.81 billion) in 2023. During his period as chairman of the multinational conglomerate from 1963 to 2012, Mahindra was responsible for lead partnerships with companies such as British Telecom, Mitsubishi and Ford Motors, and has been appointed to serve on several committees by the Indian government.
Billy Joe McCombs
Nationality: USA
Net worth at date of death: US$1.7 billion (R$8.25 billion)
Died: February 20, 2023
Age: 95
Billy Joe “Red” McCombs’ first income came from selling peanuts for twenty-five cents a bag when he was 10 years old. But when he died at age 95, he owned more than 400 companies over the course of his career, investing in everything from professional basketball teams to oil and real estate. McCombs began his career selling Ford Edsels, which he later expanded to a network of 55 dealerships. He switched to the media industry in 1972 and co-founded broadcasting giant Clear Channel, which became iHeartMedia in 2014. The Texas mogul brought Formula One to Austin and also held stakes in the San Antonio Spurs, Minnesota Vikings and at the Denver Nuggets.
Shi Wen-long
Nationality: Taiwan
Net worth at date of death: US$1.9 billion (R$9.22 billion)
Died: November 18, 2023
Age: 95
Shi Wen-long was the founder of Chimei Corp., one of Asia’s largest plastics producers, which also has investments in technology. Shi started his own plastics business in 1952 with just US$700 (R$3,390) and four other employees. He founded Chimei in 1960, which became the world’s largest producer of ABS resin, a product used in computer keyboard components as well as in the automotive industry. Alongside his business interests, Shi supported Taiwanese independence and founded a museum housing valuable string instruments such as those of Antonio Stradivari.
Tang Xiao’ou
Nationality: China (Hong Kong)
Net worth at date of death: US$1.1 billion (R$5.34 billion)
Died: December 15, 2023
Age: 55
Tang Xiao’ou founded SenseTime, a Chinese artificial intelligence and facial recognition company listed in Hong Kong. Tang was 55 at the time of his death, making him the youngest billionaire to die this year. He was also a professor of information processing at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He launched SenseTime in 2014 with two of his PhD students, Xu Li and Xu Bing. Although Tang helped foster partnerships between SenseTime, universities and companies, the company struggled to gain investor enthusiasm and was blacklisted from U.S. investments in 2021 over allegations of violating the human rights of the Uyghur population
Zhao Ning
Citizenship: USA
Net worth at death: US$1.2 billion (R$5.82 billion)
Died: May 16th
Age: 56
The co-founder of contract pharmaceutical research firm WuXi AppTec was the only female billionaire to die this year. Zhao founded WuXi, listed in Shanghai and Hong Kong, in 2000 with her husband Li Ge, whose net worth is currently close to US$7 billion (R$33.98 billion).
Wuxi Apptec has become one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical research companies and has collaborated with companies such as Johnson & Johnson, providing services to around 6,000 customers in more than 30 countries. WuXi reported that Zhao died after a two-decade battle with cancer. “Dr. Ning Zhao’s strong sense of purpose led her to tireless global philanthropic efforts to support cancer research and foster future leaders so that new treatments and cures benefit patients around the world,” the company’s obituary for Zhao said.
