Bill Gates

Bill Gates was the world's richest person for 18 of the 24 years between 1995 and 2018 — long enough that an entire generation associated 'richest man alive' with his name by default. He has spent the years since giving much of that fortune away: the Gates Foundation has distributed more than $77 billion, mostly toward global health. What's left, a stake in Microsoft he never fully cashed out, still puts him at roughly $130 billion.