• Royal families are known for having a high net worth.
• The net worth of some European ruling royals — such as Queen Elizabeth II and the British royal family— pales in comparison with the net worth of others across the globe.
• Meet the top 10 richest ruling royals in the world, ranked by their billion-dollar net worths. 

If you think the net worth of Europe's royal families is high, think again.

Where some European royals have the highest net worth among the continent's royal families— such as Prince Albert II of Monaco — they rank much lower compared with other royal families around the globe.

Queen Elizabeth II and the British royal family's net worth of more than $500 million doesn't even make the cut for the top 10 richest royals worldwide.

Here's how much the world's richest ruling royals are worth — though note that net-worth estimations may fluctuate. (Hint: They're all billionaires.)

SEE ALSO: The 10 richest royal families in Europe, ranked

DON'T MISS: Meghan Markle could wear a custom-designed tiara worth nearly $700,000 on her wedding day — here's how much the tiaras of other British royal brides are worth

10. Prince Albert II, Monaco

Net worth: $1 billion

Prince Albert II of Monaco's net worth reportedly comprises one-fourth of the land he reigns over, as well as an antique car collection, shares in a Monte Carlo resort, a pricey stamp collection, and the Philadelphia-area home of his mother, Grace Kelly, which he purchased in 2016 for an estimated $754,000.

9. Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Qatar

Net worth: $1.2 billion

Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani took over the throne of Qatar after his father, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, stepped down in 2013.

The former emir's estimated net worth of $2.4 billion comes from Qatar Investment Authority, which manages the country's oil and gas reserves.

8. Grand Duke Henri, Luxembourg

Net worth: $4 billion

The Grand Ducal Family of Luxembourg doesn't receive a salary but has been granted about $324,851 every year since 1948 to carry out functions — not that they need it, as their net worth is in the billions.

• A month before Mexico's presidential election, leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's lead continues to grow.
• Business leaders and wealthy Mexicans are dismayed, and they've tried to warn voters away from the frontrunner.
• But such warnings are unlikely to persuade Mexicans who are backing AMLO.

Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's lead has only grown, and with just a month until the election, business leaders are cautioning their countrymen about the potential consequences of his victory.

Lopez Obrador, known as AMLO, was runner-up in the two previous presidential elections but appears to have the 2018 race in hand, buoyed by widespread dissatisfaction with the political establishment and the direction of the country.

Polling firm Parametria put his support at 45% at the end of May, up 6 points from an April poll. Polling by newspaper Reforma over the same period put his support at 52%, 4 points higher than a late-April poll.

Ricardo Anaya, running for a coalition of the conservative National Action Party and the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, was second in both polls, slipping 5 points to 20% in the Parametria poll and falling 4 points to 26% in the Reforma poll. Jose Antonio Meade, of the governing centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party, was third in both, holding steady at 14% in Parametria's poll and up 2 points to 19% in Reforma's poll.

Lopez Obrador, who ran for the PRD in 2006 and 2012, is campaigning at the head of the leftist National Regeneration Movement, a party he started in 2014.

"AMLO's lead has grown in recent weeks," James Bosworth, founder of risk-analysis firm Hxagon, told Business Insider.

"For a large majority of Mexican voters, this election is about who is the best alternative to remove the PRI from the presidency, and voters have chosen AMLO over Anaya," said Bosworth, whose firm's polling average showed Lopez Obrador 12 points ahead.

'They want to create fear'

In a letter published this week, Mexican billionaire German Larrea, head of mining and rail company Grupo Mexico, warned about the risk of a "populist" president and cited the economic struggles of Venezuela, Argentina, and Cuba.

"If this populist economic model, in which everything supposedly belongs to and comes from the state, and in which people are given things without working for them, ends up being imposed on Mexico, investment will be disincentivized, seriously affecting jobs and the economy," the letter said.

The letter did not mention Lopez Obrador by name but did reference his more contentious proposals, including rolling back the energy and education reforms of current President Enrique Peña Nieto.

Lopez Obrador responded the day the letter was published, telling a rally he understood "that German Larrea doesn't want change, because he's done very well."

At end of May, executives at Palacio de Hierro, a chain of luxury stores owned by Mexico's second-richest man, billionaire Alberto Bailleres, gathered staffers at a store in Mexico City for a mandatory meeting in which they emphasized that voting for the candidate most likely to beat Lopez Obrador was "the best chance we have of preserving the economic system that allows us to employ you," according to Bloomberg.

"It's not fair," a Palacio de Hierro worker, who requested anonymity, told Bloomberg. "They want to create fear." In a statement, Palacio de Hierro denied it was trying to influence the election or doing "any proselytizing activity."

Supermarket chain Grupo Comercial Chedraui has put election materials in the workers' areas of some stores, which it told Bloomberg are meant to "lawfully inform employees about the importance of the election."

The materials include posters noting Cuba and Venezuela are the only countries in the region that don't hold free, democratic elections. Conditions in Venezuela are often used as a cudgel against Lopez Obrador, with critics casting him as a Hugo Chavez-style populist who will lead Mexico to ruin

The chief of Coca-Cola bottler Femsa warned in a video of "catastrophic effects" created by Mexico's past populist leaders. The head of manufacturer Grupo Vasconia told staffers that anger about corruption, impunity, and lack of opportunity "can cloud our judgment and could lead us down the road of populism."

Leaders from food company Grupo Herdez and construction firm Grupo Chihuahua issued similar warnings. Cinema company Cinepolis de Mexico and airline Grupo Aeromexico also advised employees to carefully consider their votes.

'Mafia of power' vs. 'good and honest people'

Lopez Obrador has said he will target corruption, reduce violence, reinvigorate the economy, and address chronic inequality if elected president, though he has offered few concrete policy details.

His detractors describe him as a dangerous authoritarian statist with retrograde ideas, though his tenure as mayor of Mexico City is generally considered a successful one marked by pragmatic, moderately progressive policies.

He has butted heads with corporate leaders, saying they were trying to unite his rivals, and he frequently criticizes a "mafia of power" as working to protect its privileges at the expense of "good and honest people."

But he has towed a more moderate line during this campaign. He has said he would be a market-friendly president, promising to respect investors and not to expropriate businesses. In May, he told a business forum that Mexico needs "businessmen to get this country going."

Lopez Obrador's threats to cancel to a $13 billion airport project in Mexico City drew criticism from business leaders, including Mexico's richest man, billionaire Carlos Slim, with whom Lopez Obrador collaborated as mayor of Mexico City. In March, however, he dropped that opposition.

At a rally that month, he waved a white handkerchief to symbolize the "peace and love" he wanted to have with the business community, saying his conflict was with a small group that had benefited from close ties to government, rather than businesses in general.

Such comments by businesses and their executives aren't necessarily illegal. But, while the race is not over, it seems unlikely those comments will sway voters.

"Six years ago, Peña Nieto was supported by the business community, which has harmed the business community's credibility," Bosworth told Business Insider.

Under this administration, he added, "Mexico's citizens have seen poor economic growth, a major drop in the peso’s value, and rising inflation. Over 60% of Mexican voters believe the economy has worsened in the past year."

The peso's falling value and rising inflation have driven down most Mexicans' purchasing power, making basic goods harder to get. Human-rights groups have warned about the country's economic inequality and paltry wages.

"That is why warnings that an AMLO win will hurt the economy ring hollow to most voters' ears," Bosworth said. "They already think the current government has harmed the economy."

SEE ALSO: Another major Mexican company is shutting down some of its operations amid record levels of violence

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: I spent a day with Border Patrol agents at the US-Mexico border

There are weddings of mere mortals, and then there are weddings of billionaire heiresses.

Irina Chigirinskaya, an 18-year-old Russian heiress, recently got married near Moscow in a lavish ceremony that cost about $1.6 million, according to the Daily Mail — and photos and videos of the celebration are jaw-dropping.

The celebration included opulent decorations, bottomless Champagne, live musical performances, choreographed dancing, and a multitiered wedding cake.

The bride's dress is estimated to cost nearly $219,000, and the food rang in at more than $460,000, according to the report.

Here's a peek inside the celebration.

Chigirinskaya married Moris Mirelli, 23, at the Agalarov Golf and Country Club near Moscow.

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Chigirinskaya is the daughter of billionaire construction tycoon Alexander Chigirinsky, the Daily Mail reported.

1,500 guests attended the nuptials.

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The celebration included more than $460,000 worth of food.

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"Guests were treated to salmon carpaccio, all kinds of fish, Uzbek pilaf, shish kebab, Iranian apricots, fresh berries and cake," a source told the Daily Mail.

"Bottles of chilled French Champagne did not have time to end, as new ones appeared on the table," they added.

• The most wealthy entrepreneurs in the world got to where they by taking very different paths.
• Some of them even had to get through multiple personal and professional speed bumps before achieving a fortune.
• There's one common theme in that case: they were able to tap into their grit, willpower, and discipline after adversity.

Overcoming gut-wrenching failure is often a surprising prerequisite for achieving phenomenal success.

In fact, it’s actually quite the rarity to have an impeccable track record like the legendary investor Warren Buffett that dates all the way back to the very early years.

It’s far more normal for entrepreneurs to experience incredible amounts of adversity through their careers, whether it’s a business bankruptcy or a tragic personal setback. Instead of capitulating, these people are able to tap into their grit, willpower, and discipline to help them surmount catastrophic moments and set a foundation for future achievement.

BILLIONAIRE EXAMPLES

Today’s infographic comes to us from Quick Base, and it shows the career trajectories of 10 billionaires ranging from Richard Branson to Oprah Winfrey.

It shows us that experiencing massive failures is common to even the most financially successful individuals – and it’s how one get through these tough events that really counts.

Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist

Walt Disney’s first studio went bankrupt in just two years, while Jack Ma couldn’t even get a job at KFC. Elon Musk has a lengthy timeline of failures as well.

Oprah Winfrey overcame multiple obstacles early on, including childhood abuse, a miscarriage at 14, and sexual abuse in the workplace.

For many of these entrepreneurs, it would have been socially acceptable to give up after these tragic events. However, as Churchill says, it was their ability to persevere that actually helps define their success in the first place.

Meanwhile, the results for the billionaires above speak for themselves.

Jeff Bezos has a massive empire and is the richest person on the planet. Oprah became the first female African-American billionaire in 2003. Walt Disney started a studio that has stood the test of time, and Jack Ma is a well-known billionaire and personality even outside of China.

SEE ALSO: Amazon, JPMorgan, and Berkshire Hathaway have picked the CEO to run their joint health venture

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Brazil's empty $300 million World Cup stadium

• The Walton family is the richest family in America.
• Sam Walton founded Walmart in 1962. It is now the world's largest retailer by revenue with sales of $500 billion from its nearly 12,000 stores worldwide. 
• Walton's descendants have a combined wealth of $151.5 billion, according to Bloomberg. This is more than Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett, and $52.8 billion more than the second-richest family in the United States, the Kochs. 
• In public, the Waltons live a pretty modest life despite their wealth. Here's how they spend their fortune.

The Waltons are the richest family in America, but they're pretty discreet about it. 

According to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index, the Walmart heirs have a combined wealth of $151.5 billion, which is more than Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett. In fact, they are worth $52.8 billion more than the second-richest family in the United States, the Kochs. 

The three children of Walmart founder Sam Walton co-own Walton Enterprises, which is the biggest shareholder of the company and the reason behind their wealth. Walmart is the world's largest retailer by revenue with sales of $500 billion from its nearly 12,000 stores around the world. 

Only one of the siblings, Rob Walton, sits on the board of the company. James Walton, his brother, served on the board until 2016, before being replaced by his son Steuart in 2016.

Alice Walton, the youngest sibling, has never taken an active role running the business and has instead become a patron of the arts.

When the company has a good quarter, the family makes millions of dollars in dividends. However, despite their fortune, the Waltons seem to live a pretty modest life, at least in public.

Here's what we do know about how the wealthy family spends its fortune: 

SEE ALSO: Walmart's Alice Walton is the richest woman in the world — here's how she spends her $43.7 billion fortune

Sam Walton, who died in 1992, opened the first Walmart store in Arkansas in 1962.

He was married to Helen Ronson. Together, they had four children: Rob, John, Jim, and Alice.

The Walton family own 50% of Walmart's total stock between them. 

This is Samuel Robson "Rob" Walton, the oldest Walton son. He served as chairman of Walmart until 2015.

• Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have been best friends for 27 years.
• Initially, they weren't interested in meeting each other — but they hit it off right away.
• They've partnered on political and philanthropic ventures, mentored each other, and had lots of laughs.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are the second and fourth-wealthiest people on the planet. They also happen to be best friends.

But when they met 27 years ago, it was grudgingly. Each one was surprised at how much they enjoyed talking to the other.

Since then, they've been a tag team on political and philanthropic causes as well as mutual mentors. Plus, they love goofing off together.

Below, we've collected the highlights of their relationship.

SEE ALSO: Bill Gates says his two favorite books from 2018 'explain that the world is getting better'

Bill Gates, 62 years old, is the second-richest person in the world. He's the former CEO of Microsoft and the cofounder of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.

Source: Bloomberg

Warren Buffett, 87, is the fourth-richest person in the world. He's a legendary investor and the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.

Source: Bloomberg

Gates' and Buffett's friendship dates back to July 5, 1991. Gates' mother, Mary, had invited the late Meg Greenfield, a Washington Post editor, to her home. Greenfield was to bring her friend Buffett with her.

Source: Fortune, Business Insider

• Billionaire honeymoons are out of this world — especially when it comes to their requests.
• Writer Brandon Presser recently spent time with luxury travel consultancy Ovation Vacations, according to an article he wrote for Bloomberg, and it was an eye-opening peek at the whims of rich people.
• Some of the wildest requests involve stocking a minibar with 16 different condoms and rebuilding a Caribbean beach in front of a couple's villa after it was destroyed by a storm for $50,000.

If you think planning the logistics for your honeymoon is a nightmare, then you need to spend some time with Ovation Vacations, a luxury travel consultancy for billionaires.

That's exactly what writer Brandon Presser did for an article for Bloomberg, in which he gained firsthand experience in arranging honeymoons for rich people — for better or for worse.

As the mastermind behind honeymoon planning for the world's richest people, Ovation Vacations charges a minimum of $20,000 to plan a honeymoon, but it doesn't take long for the bill to increase — especially when a private flight is involved, writes Pressler. On the average trip of 2.78 weeks, accommodation typically runs for $1,950 a night, he says.

"We'll do anything for our clients as long as it's legal in the country they're visiting," Ovation Vacations president Jack Ezon told Presser.

Presser does the math: With more than 200 honeymoons a year at an average of $20,000 a trip, Ovation Vacations plans almost $1 million worth of honeymoon travel every month.

But some trips alone exceed that — like a monthlong $1.85 million yacht trip in the Indian Ocean and a $1.62 million 45-day tour from Oceania to the Mediterranean for a royal couple.

But planning such luxurious honeymoons also means earning generous tips. Ezon told Presser that such tips have come in the form of $100,000 checks and Hermès cuffs, to name a few.

If there's one thing Presser learned during his brief experiences arranging a meeting with the pope for a client and coordinating an international flight for a sheikh's bird, it's that billionaires have some one-of-a-kind requests for post-nuptial perfection — requests that involve jumping through a lot of hoops to meet.

Ezon and the Ovation Vacations team shared countless stories with Presser — here are some of the wildest requests they've made happen:

• Stocking a minibar with 16 different types of condoms for a new husband
• Remodeling a hotel bathroom's granite sink by raising it by seven inches for $40,000, so a TV actress wouldn't have to bend over to wash her face during a five-night stay 
• Rebuilding a Caribbean beach in front of a couple's villa after it was destroyed by a storm for $50,000
• Hiring German clinicians to supply intravenous vitamin B-12 solutions for Champagne hangovers at the cost of $2,250 a day
• Booking $21,055 first-class suites on transatlantic Emirates and Etihad flights for falcons (the birds)
• Arranging a meet-and-greet with Vladimir Putin

Read the full story on Bloomberg »

SEE ALSO: Rich people of different ages prefer to spend their money in vastly different ways

DON'T MISS: Rich people tend to view money the same way, no matter how old they are — with one big exception

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This couple reveals their weaknesses when it comes to spending and how they manage to save

An elite club of investors, entrepreneurs, and heirs that spans industries and countries demands only one qualification of its members: Have a fortune of at least $1 billion. 

The world's billionaires are tracked in real time by lists like Bloomberg's Billionaires Index and Forbes' World's Billionaires, which monitor net worths and recognize new members when their assets increase in value to surpass the billion-dollar mark. 

For years, the technology industry has dominated this list. It's churned out names like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg, who were briefly the three richest people in the world in July, and have for years sustained spots in the Top 10. It seems the tech industry isn't slowing down with regard to its contributions, either. 

As of January 2018, the tech sector has already created 11 billionaires, according to Bloomberg's Anne Vandermey. While it's a long way to the top, these co-founders have joined the ranks of the most well-known names in the world by creating a newly public, newly acquired, or newly funded tech company that helped push them over the top.

Here are the 11 newest billionaires in tech in 2018, and the events that helped get them there:

Arash Ferdowsi is a co-founder of Dropbox, which went public in March.

Source: Dropbox Stock Pop Puts Kansas Native in Tech Billionaires Club, Bloomberg

Daniel Ek is a co-founder and CEO of Spotify, which went public in April.

Source: Spotify Founders Enriched to the Tune of $5.8 Billion in Listing, Bloomberg

Binny Bansal is a co-founder and CEO of Flipkart, which sold 77% of its stake to Walmart in May.

Source: Walmart’s $16 Billion India Investment Hits Waltons' Fortune, Bloomberg

• Billionaires don't all follow the same path to success, but some of them look pretty similar.
• Of the world's 2,754 billionaires, more than 560 hold an undergraduate or graduate degree from one of 10 American colleges.
• Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, and the founders of Google are all part of this group.
• The top-producing billionaire colleges are Harvard, Stanford, and the University of Pennsylvania.

The world's total billionaire population grew by nearly 15% from 2016 to 2017, to 2,754 people, according to Wealth-X's latest Billionaire Census. 

While the path to mega-riches certainly isn't the same for all, more than 560 of those billionaires — 567, to be exact — hold a degree from one of 10 top American colleges. That includes Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, and the founders of Google.

In its tally, Wealth-X counted alumni with both undergraduate and graduate degrees, counting alumni of multiple institutions more than once, but left out those with diplomas, certificates, honorary degrees, and those who dropped out.

According to the report, 188 living billionaires are Harvard University alumni — and that doesn't include Harvard dropouts Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, two of the richest men in the world.

The next highest-billionaire producing school is Stanford University, with 74 known billionaire alumni, including Nike cofounder Phil Knight. Notably absent from the list is Princeton University, the alma mater of Jeff Bezos, the world's richest person.

Below, check out the 10 US colleges that have minted the most billionaires.

SEE ALSO: Jeff Bezos is so rich that spending $1 to the average person is like $88,000 to him — here's what spending looks like when you're a billionaire

DON'T MISS: Hong Kong could overtake New York as the world's billionaire capital very soon

10. University of Michigan — 26 billionaire alumni

(TIE) 8. University of Southern California — 29 billionaire alumni

(TIE) 8. University of Chicago — 29 billionaire alumni

Life is good for Evan Spiegel.

In 2017, he was given a $800 million bonus for taking his company, Snap Inc., public at a $33 billion valuation.

Snap's shares have since taken quite the hit, but Spiegel's net worth is still around $2.7 billion, making the 28-year-old one of the youngest billionaires in the world. Spiegel also took home the title of highest-paid CEO in the world in 2017. 

Things seem good at home, too: Spiegel is married to model and entrepreneur Miranda Kerr, and the couple welcomed their first child — a baby boy named Hart — earlier this year. 

To get a better picture of how Evan Spiegel got to where he is, we've pulled the highlights from profiles by LA Weekly, Forbes, Business Insider, court documents, and more.

Here's how Spiegel got his start and became one of the youngest billionaires in the world. 

Alex Heath contributed to an earlier version of this article.

SEE ALSO: The life and career rise of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the richest person in modern history

Spiegel grew up in the Pacific Palisades, a ritzy Los Angeles enclave just east of Malibu. He is the older son of two Ivy League-educated lawyers. His parents divorced when he was in high school.

When Spiegel turned 16 and got his driver's license, he was given a Cadillac Escalade, which he parked in the gated Southern California Edison parking lot next to his school. Spiegel's father represented Edison during the energy crisis.

Source: LA Weekly

Spiegel spent his early years at an ultra-exclusive school called Crossroads in Santa Monica, which costs tens of thousands per academic year. Other notable alumni include Tinder cofounder Sean Rad, Kate Hudson, Jonah Hill, Jack Black, and Gwyneth Paltrow.

• Mykonos is a Greek island, world-famous as a party capital and a popular vacation hotspot for millionaires and billionaires.
• I recently visited to see what the island would be like on both a frugal cheap vacation budget and on a more mid- to high-end vacation budget.
• Visiting during the peak summer months of July and August turned out to be an expensive, exhausting, and crowded experience, with every beach packed, lines out the door of most clubs and bars, and resorts that were hard to book and cost a fortune.
• While the resorts and beaches are gorgeous and the bars and clubs fun and lively, Mykonos feels like poor bang-for-your-buck unless you are a hard-partying clubber or drowning in money.
• There are a lot of less crowded, equally beautiful, and far cheaper Greek islands to visit nearby.

Mykonos is not for the faint of heart.

The island is famous as a glamorous destination for the world's most wealthy and famous. Come the booming summer months of July and August, the island swells with the A-listers, B-listers, C-listers, and D-listers, along with hundreds of thousands of vacationers, hard-partying dance-music junkies, and cruise-shippers.

While just 33 square miles in size, the sunny and cool island is stuffed with hip boutique hotels, thumping beach clubs, haute couture shops, white sandy beaches, whitewashed alleyways, and swanky restaurants.

If this all sounds a little like Ibiza, I'll stop you right there: the cool rich kids have moved on. They're in Mykonos now. If there were any doubts, a look off any bay on Mykonos' coast reveals waters swamped with freshly scrubbed yachts, superyachts, and mega-yachts.

Over the last several years, the number of international arrivals to Mykonos has nearly doubled.

But where does that leave the rest of the teeming masses that jostle for a spot at Mykonos' glittering carnival?

For us, visiting Mykonos is a far different experience. The doors that simply open for the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Richard Branson, Bella Hadid, and billionaire Stavros Niarchos III stay closed for mere mortals. A day at a beach club can empty out a savings account, and that's if you can even score a cabana at all. In the hottest of hot spots, the staff only have time to cater to millionaires and billionaires.

Those were my assumptions before I stepped off the airplane to see what Mykonos is like for regular folks — many of which I found were right by the time I left the island a few days later. Other expectations, I found, were pleasantly incorrect.

Here's what it was like to visit the world's hottest party island in the peak of the season:

SEE ALSO: A local in Greece gave me a tip to visiting the country, and it's the opposite of everything you've been told

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Gorgeous, glamorous, and luxurious, Mykonos is Greece’s answer to Ibiza.

In the 1950s, the island was barely a blip on the map. But in 1961, first lady Jackie Kennedy  visited, setting off the first wave of tourism from the world's monied and famous.

Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, and Rita Hayworth were just a few of the celebrities to vacation on the island in those days.

In the following decades, the island became known as a legendary underground party spot and a popular vacationing spot for the global LGBT community.

In recent years, tourism to the island has exploded as global partiers and a new generation of celebrities and the ultra-rich discovered the Grecian paradise after moving on from now-passé hot spots like Ibiza and San Tropez.

I arrived on the island one evening in late July, the peak of the peak season.

I was picked up by Michael, the driver for the guest house I would be staying at and a 50-ish "financial refugee" from Athens.

"The thing you have to understand about Mykonos," Michael said, in a riff that quickly turned Shakespearean, "is that Mykonos is absolutely nothing. There is nothing special about the island. It is a theater stage and you are the stars."

• Bryan Johnson, who sold his company Braintree to PayPal for $800 million in 2013, created OS Fund to invest in "deep tech" companies centered on science and technology.
• Of the 28 companies OS Fund has invested in since 2013, 26 have seen an increase in their valuation, two were acquired, and four are now valued at $1 billion or more, Johnson said.
• Johnson is now raising a second fund, OS Fund II, to further more science-backed pursuits. 

"If you go to someone with money, and say, 'Hey, why don't you invest in science stuff?' they'll probably say no," said Bryan Johnson. "They'll say that it takes longer, that it's harder to assess risks, and that it isn't worth it."

Johnson is a cofounder of OS Fund, a venture fund that specializes in what Johnson calls "deep tech," technologies at the crossroad of science and tech.

Often, these deep-tech companies — or any early-stage company dealing with science, medicine, or biotech — pose as risky bets to prospective investors. Biotech companies typically take longer to yield returns than their consumer-facing counterparts, and regulatory approvals and research studies can prolong the time before products are ready to go to market, making many investors less eager to fund science-backed startups.

But Johnson says deep-tech companies are not only worthwhile investments, but highly profitable.

So far, Johnson's foray into investing has yielded overwhelmingly high returns. Of the 28 companies that Johnson and his cofounder, Jeff Klunzinger, have funded since 2013, 26 have seen an increase in their valuation, two were acquired, and four are now valued at $1 billion or more, Johnson said.

Now, Johnson and Klunzinger are raising a second fund, called OS Fund II, to invest in entrepreneurs who aim to solve global problems like world hunger, nuclear waste, and environmental hazards caused by food production.

While these issues might seem like daunting investments, Johnson insists that solving these problems shouldn't be left to nonprofits or nongovernmental organizations.

"We're not simply do-gooders," Johnson said of himself and Klunzinger. "We're competing with all the best funds in the world. We're interested in seeing returns on our investments and doing this successfully."

Johnson credits much of his fund's early success to his outsider sensibility. He's the former CEO and founder of the payments company Braintree. After he sold Braintree to PayPal in 2013 for $800 million, Johnson used some of his money to fund science-based companies.

"I have no formal scientific training," Johnson said. "Early on, I was personally betting $100 million on this project. I come from a very naïve perspective, and I've spent a lot of time doing research and working with the founders."

Johnson says his early experience as an entrepreneur has provided him the ability to guide early-stage companies in the right direction. While many science-based companies are clouded by an academic perspective, approaching them with purely entrepreneurial insight can reap huge dividends, Johnson said.

"A lot of scientists have built up the wrong intuitions," he said. "The academic game incentivizes you to pursue fields that are sexy, rather than the best markets. Sometimes you have to look for markets that aren't sexy or have been neglected."

Johnson compared investments in biotech today to the early enterprise landscape of the late '70s.

"In 1978, there were a few new companies like Microsoft and Intel and Oracle that were building up a new ecosystem of opportunity," he said. "Now we're in the age of biology and genomics and protein design and automatic manufacturing. It's an emergent field that's bigger than computing. It's a new era for investing."

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: I tried the newest BlackBerry phone for a week

• Elon Musk became $1.4 billion richer on Tuesday as Tesla's stock surged after he tweeted that he was thinking of taking the company private. 
• With a $25.8 billion net worth, he's the world's 31st richest person. 
• He's also Tesla's largest shareholder. 

The tweet was only 61 characters long, but it was powerful enough to make Tesla CEO Elon Musk $1.4 billion richer.

Musk tweeted on Tuesday that he was considering taking Tesla private at $420 a share and had secured the funding.

Many other companies would halt trading of their stock before disclosing news of such importance to their shareholders, and the announcement would be made in a regulatory filing. However, Musk is not one to be Twitter-shy, and his unexpected post sent Tesla's shares skyrocketing.

The shares were already flying after the Financial Times reported that Saudi Arabia's investment fund had bought a $2 billion stake in the company.

Musk's tweet was the extra fuel that spiked Tesla's shares within reach of their all-time high. They closed up 11% at $379.57 apiece, lifting his net worth to $25.8 billion. He is the world's 31st richest person, according to a Bloomberg ranking of billionaires. 

Musk could climb the ranking faster if investors decide Tesla is worth more than its current $58 billion market cap. As Tesla's largest shareholder, Musk owns nearly 20% of the outstanding shares and stands to gain as the stock price rises. 

However, he may not reap an instant reward in the event that Tesla goes private at $420 a share. The value of his shares at that price would total $72 billion, short of the $100 billion performance bar it must cross for him to be able to exercise his $2.6 billion stock-option grant, Bloomberg noted. 

Tesla's stock is up 25.5% in August. Investors who bet against Tesla's stock — so-called short sellers — have lost $3 billion on their wagers, according to the financial-analytics firm S3 Partners. 

In other words, as Musk has gotten richer this month, his skeptics have lost money.

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• The Walton family still controls about 48% of Walmart, meaning their exorbitant wealth is innately tied to the company's stock price.
• Walmart's earnings surge on Tuesday netted Sam Walton's heirs a cool $11.6 billion. 
• Follow Walmart stock price in real-time here. 

Walmart skyrocketed more than 10% Thursday following the grocer's earnings report that crushed analysts expectations, adding a cool $11.6 billion to the founding family's wealth.

The richest family in the United States — which owns about 48% of the US' largest grocery chain through Walton Enterprises — saw their net worth surge to $163.2 billion, Bloomberg first reported.

On an individual basis, Jim Rob and Alice Walton — the heirs of Walmart's co-founder Sam Walton — are worth between $42.1 billion and $43.8 billion, according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index. Lukas, Sam Walton's grandson, is worth $15.3 billion. Two other family members, Christy Walton and Nancy Walton Laurie, are worth $6.89 billion and $4.66 billion, respectively.

Unsurprisingly, much of the family's wealth is tied up in Walmart, which has had a volatile start to the year. Tuesday's gains, fueled by growth in both traditional groceries as well as e-commerce, bring the stock back near its January highs of $109. While none of the heirs are actively involved in Walmart's day to day operations, they retain an outsized-presence on the company's board.

Shares of Walmart are up about 1% since the beginning of the year.

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• Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has a net worth around $23.6 billion.
• Musk said in January he will not receive any form of payment or compensation until Tesla reaches $100 billion in market cap.
• A notorious workaholic, Musk doesn't spend cash on lavish vacations or expensive hobbies.

Elon Musk may be the world's richest rocket scientist.

The 47-year-old CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and cofounder of OpenAI has said he won't be happy until we've escaped Earth and colonized Mars. Luckily, he has the mind and the money to make it happen.

Despite a massive net worth hovering around $23.6 billion, Musk has never taken a paycheck from Tesla, refusing his $56,000 minimum salary every year.

Back in March, Tesla shareholders approved a plan awarding Musk $2.6 billion in stock options, reports CNBC, which will vest in 12 tranches, or portions, as the company hits key milestones over the next decade. The $2.6 billion amount was March 21 current stock value. U.S. News notes that if Musk meets the goals and the stock value rises during that time period, it "could net him more than $50 billion."

In January, Tesla announced it would pay Musk nothing for the next 10 years — no salary, bonus, or stock — until the company reaches a $100 billion market cap. If and when that happens, Musk could potentially overtake Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos as the richest person in the world.

A notorious workaholic, Musk doesn't spend cash on lavish vacations or expensive hobbies. Instead, the entrepreneur spends most of his time at the office or in factories, retreating to one of his four Los Angeles mansions at the end of the day.

Scroll through to find out what we know about how Musk, a father of five, amassed his fortune and how he spends it.

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As a child growing up in South Africa, Musk taught himself to code. By the time he was 12, he sold the source code for his first video game for $500.

Source: MONEY

Just before his 18th birthday, Musk moved to Canada and worked a series of hard labor jobs, including shoveling grain, cutting logs, and eventually cleaning out the boiler room in a lumber mill for $18 an hour — an impressive wage in 1989.

Sources: MONEY, Esquire - Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

Musk got a pay cut to $14 an hour when he started a summer internship alongside his brother, Kimbal, at the Bank of Nova Scotia after cold-calling — and impressing — a top executive there.

Sources: MONEY, Esquire - Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

• Oprah Winfrey is a media mogul, an actress, and a philanthropist, with an estimated net worth of about $2.9 billion.
• She grew up poor and had a difficult childhood.
• We've collected the highlights of her remarkable life and career, from her first job as a talk show host to the launch of her own cable channel.

Oprah Winfrey is a media mogul, philanthropist, and talented actress. Her current net worth is about $2.9 billion, according to Forbes.

Winfrey grew up poor, and her childhood and early adolescence were difficult. But her to drive to succeed, and to prove herself, motivated her to achieve wealth and fame.

Below, see the highlights of her life and career.

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Oprah Winfrey, 64 years old, is a media mogul, a celebrated actress, and a philanthropist. Forbes estimates that her net worth is about $2.9 billion.

Source: Forbes

Winfrey was also ranked sixth on Forbes' list of America's richest self-made women, and is the only African-American woman on Forbes' 2018 billionaire list.

Source: Forbes, Forbes, Business Insider

Winfrey endured a turbulent childhood. She spent her early years on her grandmother's farm, in Kosciusko, Mississippi. At age six, she went to live with her mother in Milwaukee; while her mother was away at work, Winfrey was molested multiple times by people including relatives.

Source: Academy of Achievement

• Bill Gates, the world's second-richest person, has an estimated net worth of $95.7 billion, according to Forbes.
• While he indulges in a few luxuries, they only make up a fraction of his fortune.
• He mainly spends his billions on charity through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and plans to give away most of his fortune.

Bill Gates, cofounder of Microsoft, is the world's second-richest person, sitting on an estimated net worth of $95.7 billion, according to Forbes.

It's hard to imagine what to do with that amount of money, but Gates knows how to make the most of it. While he has some indulgences — like a Washington estate worth $125 million, a private airplane, and a luxury car collection — they only make up a fraction of his massive fortune.

He and wife Melinda previously said it's unfair they're so rich. Instead of spending billions on themselves, they often donate it to charity through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They've also pledged to give away most of their fortune through the Giving Pledge, which they launched in 2010.

See how Gates spends his billions.

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Bill Gates, cofounder of Microsoft, currently has an estimated net worth of $95.7 billion, making him the second-richest person in the world.

Source: Forbes

He has invested in a variety of stocks and assets and launched a $1 billion investment fund, Breakthrough Energy, with 20 others.

Source: Forbes

Despite his massive fortune, Gates previously told Ellen DeGeneres that when he became a billionaire at age 31 (history's youngest billionaire at the time), he didn't go on a spending spree.

Source: Business Insider

• Business Insider put together a list of the richest person at every age from 21 to 100, with exclusive data provided by Wealth-X.
• Frances Bean Cobain, 26, has the lowest net worth on the list ($120 million), and Jeff Bezos, 54, has the highest net worth ($157 billion).
• The list features people with a collective net worth of roughly $1.7 trillion. 

How long does it take for the world's richest people to become rich?

For some, it takes years to build wealth, while others seem to grow it overnight. And for others still, they don't come into wealth until later in life. That's why it's so interesting to see just how rich the richest person at every age is.

Wealth-X created a special report for Business Insider looking at the richest person at every age from 21 (born in 1997) to 100 (born in 1918). At 26, Frances Bean Cobain, the daughter of the Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain and his wife, Courtney Love, has the lowest net worth on the list, with $120 million, while Jeff Bezos, 54, has the highest, with roughly $157 billion.

The list features people with a collective net worth of more than $1.7 trillion. Keep reading to find out the richest person at every age.

SEE ALSO: These are the 50 richest people in the world right now

100: Chang Yun Chung

Net worth: $730 million

Country: Singapore

Source of wealth: Self-made

Position: Chairman, Pacific International Lines

99: Anne Cox Chambers

Net worth: $320 million

Country: US

Source of wealth: Inheritance

Position: Director, Cox Enterprises

98: Aloysio de Andrade Faria

Net worth: $2.4 billion

Country: Brazil

Source of wealth: Mixed

Position: Owner, Conglomerado Financeiro Alfa

• Lululemon founder Chip Wilson is now one of the 500 richest people in the world.
• His fortune hit $3.9 billion thanks to a 15% surge in shares of the company.
• He stepped down from the board in 2015, but still owns a 13% stake in the activewear brand.
• Wilson is known for his controversial comments.

Lululemon founder Chip Wilson has been named among the 500 richest people in the world.

62-year-old Wilson, who founded Lululemon Athletica Inc. in Vancouver, Canada in 1998, has the activeware brand's successful second quarter and a 15% surge in company shares to thank for his $3.9 billion fortune, according to Bloomberg.

Lululemon beat Wall Street's net sales estimates for the eighth quarter in a row on Thursday, making Wilson $311 million richer on Friday and adding another $41 million on Tuesday, Bloomberg reports.

He is now the 496th richest person on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Wilson stepped down from the board in 2015, a year after resigning as chairman and three years after stepping aside as chief innovation and branding officer of the company, though he returned to the business in 2013 to help deal with a crisis that saw Lululemon recall 17% of its famous yoga pants for being too sheer.

The founder, known for making headlines throughout his tenure with a number of controversial comments, still owns a 13% stake in the company.

In 2013, he caused outrage when he suggested to Bloomberg TV that Lululemon pants "don't work for some women's bodies."

Speaking about quality issues some customers were having with the yoga pants, he said: "Frankly some women's bodies just don't actually work for it.

"They don't work for some women's bodies... it's really about the rubbing through the thighs, how much pressure is there over a period of time, how much they use it."

He later posted a bizarre video apology for his remarks and begged customers to give the company a second chance.

In 2009, he claimed in a blog post that smoking and birth control pills led to high divorce rates, and he also once told Canada's National Post Business Magazine that he chose the name Lululemon for his company because he thought it was funny that Japanese people couldn't pronounce the letter "L."

Speaking on the moment he found out he was a billionaire, in a 2016 interview he said: "There's not much difference between having probably $20 million and being a billionaire quite frankly."

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• Billionaires keep growing their billions.
• With a record number of billionaires around the world, we calculated just how much the world's richest billionaires earned in a single year.
• According to our calculations, Bill Gates earned $4 billion, making him the lowest-earning billionaire on the list — nothing compared to Jeff Bezos' annual earnings of nearly $40 billion.

The rich keep getting richer. If there's one thing that can be said for billionaires, it's that they know how to grow their wealth.

According to Wealth-X's 2018 Billionaire Census, there are a record number of billionaires around the world, and their wealth has increased by 24% since last year — another record number.

Business Insider looked at how much the world's richest billionaires earned in the past year. To determine each billionaire's annual earnings, we calculated the difference between their 2017 and 2018 net worths for the top 50 richest billionaires, as provided by the Forbes' 2017 and 2018 richest people in the world lists, published every March. We then narrowed the rankings down to the top 30 billionaires who made the most money in the past year.

We didn't include Francois Bettencourt and Giovanni Ferrero because they inherited their billions in the last year.

The lowest-earning billionaire on the list, Bill Gates, earned $4 billion. While that's far from a measly number, it doesn't compare to the nearly $40 billion Jeff Bezos earned in the past year.

Below, see how many billions some of the world's richest billionaires earned in a single year.

SEE ALSO: We did the math to calculate exactly how much money billionaires and celebrities like Jeff Bezos and Kylie Jenner make an hour

DON'T MISS: The richest person at every age

30. Bill Gates, $4 billion

Current Forbes billionaires rank: 2

29. Susanne Klatten, $4.6 billion

Current Forbes billionaires rank: 32

28. Georg Schaeffler, $4.6 billion

Current Forbes billionaires rank: 31