Forbes lists 6 UAE billionaires, 15 Saudi
US tech bosses head the list
The fortune of Hussain Sajwani, the chairman of Dubai-based Damac Properties, has doubled in the last year as he takes his place among the world’s wealthiest individuals to become the richest businessman in the Middle East.
The 72-year-old real estate magnate is worth $10.2 billion as per the annual rich list from Forbes, significantly higher than the $5.1 billion reported in 2024 and almost 10 times that recorded just five years ago.
Over the past year Sajwani has made some major bets on the tech scene with a vow to invest $3 billion in data centres across southeast Asia over the next three to five years.
He made a further $20 billion commitment in January to US president Donald Trump to fund data centres across America.
Sajwani’s Damac is one of Dubai’s largest property developers, controlling a portfolio that spans luxury real estate, hotels and data centres.
This week Edgnex, Damac Group’s data centre subsidiary, acquired Finland-based data centre company Hyperco for an undisclosed sum.
Overall six billionaires from the UAE were included on the list, headed by Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire founder and owner of the Dubai-based Telegram messaging app. The 40-year-old came in at 118th spot, with a personal fortune of $17.1 billion.
The list does not include wealthy heads of state and members of royal families who may have wealth greater than that analysed in the report.
According to the New York consultancy Wealth-X’s Billionaire Census 2023, 48 billionaires lived in the UAE in 2023, with a combined wealth of $205 billion.
Elsewhere in the Gulf, Forbes counted 15 billionaires in Saudi Arabia, topped by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud, founder and CEO of Kingdom Holding Company, who is worth $16.5 billion.
Qatar had two billionaires on the rich list, Oman one and Lebanon six.
Across the wider Middle East and North Africa region five Egyptians, an Algerian and three Moroccans, including Aziz Akannouch, the prime minister who is majority owner of Akwa Group, made the list. Turkey provided 32 billionaires on the list.
According to Forbes there are now over 3,000 billionaires around the world worth a combined $16.1 trillion.
This year’s list was dominated by US-based tech giants. Elon Musk, head of Tesla and Space X, retained his position as the richest person in the world. The 53-year-old, who is also heading up President Trump’s controversial Department of Government Efficiency in the US, is worth $342 billion.
Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, at 40 years old, placed second with a fortune of $192 billion, Forbes said.
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