<P> A billionaire, in countries that use the short scale number naming system, is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e. a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually major currencies such as the United States dollar, the euro or the pound sterling . Additionally a centibillionaire (or centi - billionaire) is commonly used to reference a billionaire worth one hundred billion dollars (100,000,000,000). The American business magazine Forbes produces a complete global list of known U.S. dollar billionaires every year and updates an Internet version of this list in real time . The American oil magnate John D. Rockefeller became the world's first confirmed U.S. dollar billionaire in 1916 . As of 2017, there are over 2,000 U.S. dollar billionaires worldwide, with a combined wealth of over US $7.7 trillion . According to a 2017 Oxfam report, the top eight richest billionaires own as much combined wealth as "half the human race". Many current billionaires are extremely successful businesspeople, including Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison, Michael Dell, and Meg Whitman . They created their wealth through the ownership and control of major corporations . Some billionaires have inherited their wealth through family owned corporations such as Mars, Walton, Rockefeller, and Koch . </P> <P> According to the Forbes report released in March 2017, there are currently 2,043 U.S. dollar billionaires worldwide, from 66 countries, with a combined net worth of $7.67 trillion, which is more than the combined GDP of 152 countries . The majority of billionaires are male, as fewer than 11% (197 of 1,826) on the 2015 list were female billionaires . In 2015, there were ten LGBT billionaires . The United States has the largest number of billionaires of any country, with 536 as of 2015, while China, India and Russia are home to 213, 90 and 88 billionaires respectively . As of 2015, only 46 billionaires were under the age of 40, while the list of American - only billionaires, as of 2010, had an average age of 66 . </P>

The world's first billionare made his fortune in what industry