These 10 billionaires have serious seniority. Ranging in age from 93 to 99, they are the oldest billionaires in the world right now. When we say right now, we mean it. On March 20th, billionaire David Rockefeller died at the age of 101 and passed the title of oldest billionaire to 99-year-old Maria Franca Fissola, the widow of Nutella founder Michele Ferraro. The Nutella and Tic Tac impresario passed away in February 2015 at the age of 89 – meaning that, even if he was still alive today, he wouldn't be old enough to crack the top 20 oldest billionaires.
The oldest billionaires in the world have seen a great deal of change in the world in the past 93 to 99 years. They have witnessed the evolution of the automobile and air travel. They've seen men go to the moon. They've seen computers go from behemoth machines that took up a whole room to being small enough to carry in your back pocket. In their lifetimes industries were born and died. The fax machine was a revelation until email came along. Transistor radios gave way to albums, eight track tapes, cassette tapes, CDs, MP3s, and finally cloud-based streaming music. Suffice it to say, the world today is vastly different than it was in 1924, when the youngest of the oldest billionaires were born.
The generation gap means that the fortunes of the oldest billionaires come from some traditional sources. Maria Franca Fissola, for instance, comes from candy. Also represented: cosmetics, real estate, insurance, the Dole citrus empire, and Warren Buffett's right hand man. Women take two titles on this list – oldest and richest. As mentioned, Nutella widow Maria Franca Fissola is the oldest, at 99. L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt is the richest of the oldest with a net worth of $35 billion.
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These are the 16 Oldest Billionaires In The World Right Now:
Age: 93
Net Worth: $1.1 billion
Source: real estate, the NFL's Los Angeles Chargers
Country: United States
Age: 93
Net Worth: $1.3 billion
Source: slot machines
Country: Australia
Tang Hsiang-Chien
Age: 93
Net Worth: $1.5 billion
Source: textiles, electronics
Country: Hong Kong
Age: 93
Net Worth: $1.75 billion
Source: Berkshire Hathaway
Country: United States
Age: 93
Net Worth: $3 billion
Source: Dole, real estate
Country: United States
Age: 93
Net Worth: $3.1 billion
Source: real estate, manufacturing
Country: United Arab Emirates
Age: 93
Net Worth: $6.4 billion
Source: media
Country: United States
Age: 94
Net Worth: $1.9
Source: retail, property
Country: Australia
Age: 94
Net Worth: $35 billion
Source: L'Oreal
Country: France
Age: 95
Net Worth: $1.4 billion
Source: insurance
Country: United States
Age: 95
Net Worth: $3.9 billion
Source: construction
Country: Philippines
Age: 96
Net Worth: $1.1 billion
Source: real estate
Country: Canada
Age: 96
Net Worth: $3.4 billion
Source: banking
Country: Brazil
Age: 98
Net Worth: $2.5 billion
Source: investments
Country: United States
Age: 98
Net Worth: $2.5 billion
Source: shipping
Country: Singapore
Maria Franca Fissola
Age: 99
Net Worth: $25 billion
Source: Nutella
