Billionaires and Strategies: Some Invest in Companies, Others in Islands

Individuals who have built some of the most successful and influential companies in the world have expanded their business empires in various ways by acquiring different brands and companies. However, the world’s richest billionaires, including Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates, have employed different strategies to build their vast empires.

While some have not tired of bringing similar entities under the umbrella of their initial ventures, others have strayed from their paths to explore other industries. For instance, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos did just this in 2013 when he purchased The Washington Post. The deal was finalized on August 5, 2013. Besides being part of the media industry, which is nice to own, because who will write nicely about you if not your own, Bezos also ventured into space in 2000 when he founded the spaceflight company Blue Origin. Media, then space, and then more. Through his ownership of Amazon, of which he is still the largest shareholder, Bezos has acquired a number of companies, among which the most notable acquisitions were Audible (2008), Twitch (2014), and Whole Foods (2017), but it is less known that Amazon also owns IMDb (Internet Movie Database – acquired in 1998) and Zappos.com (acquired in 1998 and 2009).

Elon Musk is another billionaire with a diverse taste for acquisitions, and recently he has also been drawn to fights. His brands Tesla, Space X, and The Boring Company already come from different industries, which continued with the acquisition of Twitter now known as X. Musk also owns Neuralink Corporation, a company that experiments with brain implants. Musk has branched out well into industries, which could further expand in the future with who knows what Musk’s acquisitions.

Islands, Islands

And while some invest in companies, others, like Larry Ellison, the largest shareholder of Oracle, invest in islands. Ellison owns 98 percent of the island of Lana’i, the sixth largest in Hawaii, where he now lives. He also founded Sensei Ag, a company that he says aims to bring healthy and affordable food to the world through innovative growing techniques. We shall see!

The unpopular Bill Gates is a billionaire who has probably strayed the furthest from his original creation, Microsoft, and is now involved in everything and anything and has opinions on everything, such as healthcare, infectious diseases, climate, and so on. The worst part is that he is listened to, even though the man has absolutely nothing to do with the aforementioned. One of the richest people in the world founded the most prolific philanthropic venture, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, through which he penetrates all industries.

Among the seven richest in the world are also Bernard Arnault, Warren Buffett, and Mark Zuckerberg. Frenchman Arnault, who is still the largest shareholder in the luxury conglomerate LVMH, controls his eponymous brands Louis Vuitton, Moët & Chandon, and Hennessy, as well as Tiffany & Co., Dior, Sephora, and Bulgari through entities.

Warren Buffett and Mark Zuckerberg, also still the largest shareholders of the companies that made them famous, have followed a similar path. Zuckerberg, through Meta (formerly Facebook), acquired major tech brands like Instagram, WhatsApp, and during his foray into virtual reality, the VR glasses manufacturer Oculus VR (now restructured as Reality Labs). Buffett has amassed a whole list of consumer product companies through Berkshire Hathaway, including Dairy Queen, sports shoe manufacturer Brooks, Duracell, Fruit of the Loom, and the car insurance company Geico.

That one hand washes the other, especially in the billionaire world, is also shown by the fact that many among them are interconnected. For example, Larry Ellison owns 1.4 percent of Tesla while the largest part of the Bill Gates Foundation is held by Berkshire Hathaway.