The world’s richest 1% are amassing wealth at impressive speed.
Elon Musk, the controversial boss of Tesla and X among others, is worth an astounding £344 billion, making him the world’s richest person.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos previously occupied the topspot, and is worth a huge £193 billion according to reports.
Fortunes such as these are impossible for most to even comprehend, but they still pale in comparison when it comes to the richest person to ever walk the Earth.
That’s because, when adjusted for inflation, Genghis Khan is actually reportedly the richest person to ever walk the planet.
According to one estimation, the ruler of the Mongol Empire was worth an unfathomable £120 trillion in today’s money.
For context, the GDP of the entire world is estimated to have been £90 trillion in 2024 and is likely to be a similar figure in 2025.
It is no surprise Genghis Khan amassed a huge fortune given his status as one of the most powerful men in history.
He brought together Mongol tribes to sweep through much of China and Central Asia, building the largest empire of all time.
However, other estimates suggest that a different man may have been the richest person of all time – Mansa Musa.
Ruler of the Mali Empire, Mansa Musa was tremendously rich with gold, land, and salt in abundance.
It has been estimated that he would have been worth £417bn in today’s money.
However, one expert says it is difficult to put a figure on Mansa Musa’s wealth.
Speaking to the BBC, Rudolph Butch Ware, a historian of West Africa at the University of California said: “Contemporary accounts of Musa’s wealth are so breathless that it’s almost impossible to get a sense of just how wealthy and powerful he truly was”.
