How Many Of The World’s Richest Billionaires Are Still Entrepreneurs?

On Monday morning, Forbes released our annual accounting of the world’s richest people, all 1,826 billionaires with more than $7 trillion among them.

Most (1,191) of the world’s billionaires reached this financial peak as self-made entrepreneurs, rather than inheritors. But how many of the richest on our list are still actively entrepreneurial — still running the company they founded, still actively managing and taking risks? Not many, if you just look at the top 10 wealthiest people.

Bill Gates remains the richest man the world from his amazing entrepreneurial success founding Microsoft MSFT -0.33%. But these days he’s focused on giving his hard-earned money away, not coming up with the next big software product.

Carlos Slim’s Mexican telecom empire places him second overall among the world’s billionaires. But the 75-year-old has stepped away from the day-to-day management of his companies over the last decade, while building his own philanthropic ventures and diversifying into outside investments in companies like The New York Times.

Warren Buffett, #3, has always been more of a brilliant investor and deal-maker than traditional entrepreneur. 4th-ranked Amancio Ortega has a more classic business success story, growing fast-fashion giant Zara from one store. But Ortega too, is now semi-retired.

At #5 overall, Oracle ORCL -0.5% founder Larry Ellison may be the richest man still running his own company. But depends how you define that – Ellison officially stepped down from his long-held CEO role last September. With $54.3 billion, he retains titles of Chairman and CTO and stays actively involved in the software game.

The rest of the top ten wealthiest people inherited their original wealth. Charles and David Koch inherited the original Koch Industries (though they did turn it into a second-largest private company in the US). Christy and Jim Walton took pieces of Wal-Mart after breakthrough retail entrepreneur Sam Walton died. And 92-year-old Liliane Bettencourt, the richest woman in Europe, controls but no longer runs L’Oreal.

To find the next richest active entrepreneurs, you have to go further into the teens of Forbes’ billionaire rankings. Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City, has thrown himself back into the CEO role at his eponymous media and tech company. Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Larry Page spearhead their pioneering tech firms and Sheldon Adelson, at 81 years old, continues to run his gaming empire.

Asian tycoons Lee Shau Kee from Hong Kong and Wang Jianlin from mainland China both run real estate empires they founded and diversified into other areas. Also from China: Alibaba founder Jack Ma, whose ecommerce giant went public on the NYSE last fall, and Li Hejun, founder of renewable power company Hanergy.

While Nike founder Phil Knight has retired to a figurehead chairman role, Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani still runs his oil company Reliance and Italian Leonardo Del Vecchio retains operational control of eyeglass maker/seller Luxottica. Rounding out the top 50 richest people in the world, we would also include Uniqlo’s Tadashi Yanai, Dish Network’s Charles Ergen, Sun Pharmaceutical’s Dilip Shanghvi, and Dell’s Michael Dell.