This year a record of 268 first-time faces arises as the world’s billionaires including 42 women in the Forbes annual billionaires' list.
Forbes released its annual list of the world’s richest people on Monday.
The new billionaires minted their fortunes from social media in Silicon Valley, real estate in China, fashion in Nigeria and every combination in between.
The largest contingent – 50 – hails from the United States followed by China (37), Germany (26) and Brazil (23).
Of the new 268 billionaires, top 10 are:
Jan Koum
The 38-year-old has gained wealth worth $6.8 billion. Born and raised outside Kiev, he immigrated to the US at age 16. His mobile messaging startup WhatsApp was sold for $19 billion to Facebook in February.
Patrick Drahi
He took Altice, the multinational telecommunications company he founded, public in January. Drahi built Altice through 20 acquisitions of lagging cable and mobile operators, often at knockdown prices, in places like France, Belgium, Israel, Portugal, and the Dominican Republic.
Sandra Ortega
The daughter of Amancio Ortega, founder of clothing giant Inditex and the third-richest person in the world. Sandra Ortega Mera inherited her fortune from her mother, Rosalia Mera, who died suddenly in August 2013.
She devotes her time to her late mother’s nonprofit Fundación Paideia, which supports vocational training for people with mental and physical disabilities.
Joseph Tsai
The vice chairman of Alibaba Group is now a billionaire thanks to the soaring value of the Chinese e-commerce company ahead of its long-awaited IPO.
The Taiwan-born finance expert earned undergraduate and law degrees from Yale before helping start Alibaba in 1999. A big lacrosse fan, he funds a Hong Kong team.
Evan Williams
The Twitter cofounder saw his net worth soar after his social media company went public to great fanfare in October. Though he still sits on Twitter’s board, Williams now focuses his efforts on blogging platform Medium, which raised $25 million in January.
Issad Rebrab
The son of militants who fought for Algeria's independence from France, Rebrab is now his country's first ever billionaire.
Lawrence Ho
The son of Macau gambling-industry living legend Stanley Ho, becomes a billionaire in his own right this year after a big rise in the stock price of his Hong Kong-listed holding company, Melco International.
Its Melco Crown Entertainment, a venture with Australian billionaire James Packer, owns casino in Macau and Manila.
Brian Acton
He is an experienced engineer with Yahoo and Apple on his resume. In 2009, Facebook declined to hire Brian Acton. A little more than four years later, they’re paying him $3 billion as part of their acquisition of WhatsApp, the mobile messaging startup he and Jan Koum cofounded.
Folorunsho Alakija
Nigeria's first female billionaire Alakija started as a secretary in a bank in the 1970s before studying fashion design in England. Back home, she founded Supreme Stitches, a label catering to high society women.
Her powerful relationships translated into a lucrative oil prospecting licence, which became OML 127 -- one of Nigeria's most prolific oil blocks.
Naruatsu Baba
He owns 59% of Colopl, a game developer, which makes five of the top-grossing apps for Android phones. The company's stock price has shot up nearly tenfold since its IPO in December 2012. Baba founded the company in 2008.
