Forbes recently published its billionaires list and as usual, quite a few Saudis made the cut. Of course leading this list of rich old men is self made man
Prince Al Waleed bin Talal al Saud at #35.
You've heard of him before, he made it to Time's 100 Most Influential People in
2008, He started off wealthy, being a member of the royal family, and he became richer through his investments. He's behind Kingdom Holding Company which owns both private and public companies in Europe, the US, and the Middle East. He's married to Princess Ameera Al Talweel, who's 17 years his junior. And he
sued Forbes for libel for not making him look cool back in 2013. Oh and he's worth $21 billion. No biggie.
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Who he tries to doesn't look like: Tony Stark. Tumblr |
The next richest Saudi is
Mohammed Al Amoudi, at #86. He's worth $12.6 billion and made his fortune from construction, agriculture, and energy companies. His story really is quite interesting. He was born to an Ethiopian mother and Saudi father and lived in Ethiopia until he was 19 and moved to Saudi. He probably struggled with racism and with fitting in as an outsider and he certainly didn't have the family connections that Prince Al Waleed does, but he became rich through construction projects in the kingdom. And he didn't forget where he came from either! He is the single biggest investor in Ethiopia and is helping in the construction of Africa's largest observatory there. He also donates funds to fighting AIDS in Africa and to the Clinton Health Initiative. He may not be a genius playboy, but he certainly is a billionaire philanthropist.
The last Saudi on the list is
Sulaiman al Rajhi and family at #940. He like most of the men on the list, is a self made man with his $1.9 billion fortune coming from banking. In fact he transferred his nearly 20% stake in Al Rajhi Bank to an an endowment with the same name, three years after announcing that he was giving away most of his wealth to charity. He's 95 and has 23 children so I guess he wants to spite them for being ungrateful ingrates? No just kidding, he
set aside money for them.
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