Breakdown: In LATAM’s Billionaire Class, Little has Changed

A lot can be learned from a region’s history, economy and socio-politics by taking a closer look at its billionaire class. 

We decided to track Latin America’s richest people over the past decade –using Forbes’ World Billionaires lists– to get a glimpse at the names and industries that have molded the region. The story told is one of abundance and opportunity, but also of stagnation and glaring inequalities.

The names: LATAM’s billionaires ranking has remained relatively unchanged over the past decade. Ten names have dominated the list since 2014, with slight changes to their positioning through the years. You’ll find them listed below, in no particular order:

• Carlos Slim (Mexico; telecom)

• Jorge Paulo Lemann (Brazil; beer)

• Marcel Hermann Telles (Brazil; beer)

• Carlos Alberto Sicupira (Brazil, beer)

• Germán Larrea (Mexico; mining)

• Iris Fontbona (Chile; mining)

• Eduardo Saverin (Brazil; Facebook)

• Joseph Safra & family (Brazil; banking)

• Ricardo Salinas Pliego (Mexico; banking, mass media, retail)

• Luis Carlos Sarmiento (Colombia; banking)

Absolute dominance: Three industries come up very frequently in the list above: banking, mining and beer. All three are considerably “old” industries, with more than a century of history in the region. 

• The ranking is also dominated by Brazilian and Mexican billionaires. Mexico and Brazil are the biggest economies in Latin America, as well as the more populous countries in the region.

Barely any progress: Though some names, countries and industries have remained dominant in Forbes’ World Billionaires List, there have been enough changes across the years to reflect shifts in the dynamics of global business and economics.

• In the first years of the ranking, the top spots were taken by infrastructure, retail and transportation companies. Those gave way later to the titans of technology, which have dominated the list for the past decade.

• In Latin America, the picture has remained about the same since the early 90s: mining, infrastructure, banking and beverage companies pretty much own the business landscape in the region.

Same old faces: Nine of Latin America’s ten richest people were born between 1933 and 1950. The only outlier is Eduardo Saverin, born in 1982.

Mr. Monopoly: Carlos Slim –infamously known as “Mr. Monopoly”– has been ranked by Forbes as the richest man in Latin America since 1994. He has been listed among the region’s richest since 1991. 

• Slim’s fortune skyrocketed right after he bought Telmex, Mexico’s publicly-run phone company, in 1990. Back then, the company was, effectively, the only major player in Mexico’s phone industry. Today, the vast majority of telecom infrastructure in Mexico is owned by Telmex. 

• Slim’s telecom operation is the biggest in Latin America, with a growing presence all over the region. He’s also a big player in the mining, retail, banking and infrastructure industries.

Brazil’s beer boys: Three of Brazil’s richest men –Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Hermann Telles and Carlos Alberto Sicupira– made the bulk of their fortune from  brewing company Ambev, where they are major stakeholders.

• Ambev owns the Stella Artois beer brand and is the second largest bottler of PepsiCo beverages outside of the US. 

The copper queen: Iris Fontbona –the only woman ranked among Latin America’s richest– inherited her fortune from her late husband, copper magnate Andrónico Lukšić Abaroa, who passed away in 2005.

• Fontbona owns Antofagasta Minerals, the largest copper mining company in Chile.

• Chile is the largest copper producer in the world. The mineral represents almost 80% of Chile’s total exports. 

The Facebook kid: Eduardo Saverin is the youngest among Latin America’s richest and the only one who has made his fortune in a relatively new industry: technology.

• Saverin is a Facebook co-founder and was one of Mark Zuckerberg’s roommates back in college. He still owns stock in Meta, a situation that has slowly pushed his name up the ranks of LATAM’s richest. In 2024, he was listed as the second wealthiest man in the region.

• Severin was born in Brazil, but spent most of his early years in Florida. He currently lives in Singapore, where he’s the richest man in the country.

• He was interpreted by Andrew Garfield in The Social Network, a biopic about Facebook’s founding.

NSAM’s Take: The list speaks for itself. Although the positioning of several of LATAM’s wealthiest in the global billionaires ranks is proof of the opportunities in the region, the fact that little has changed in ranking over 10 years underscores the unequal access to those opportunities.

The consolidation of Latin America’s wealthiest –and their family members– in their country’s economic landscapes has effectively turned them into business royalty. It’s highly probable that, when some of them pass away, their spots in Forbes’ billionaires list will be taken by their children or spouses for several years to come.

Such a circumstance has effectively frozen the landscape of business in the whole region. While the rest of the world sees hardware and software companies taking over the pinnacles of business, in Latin America, the old kings remain.

The fact also speaks to economies that haven’t been able to catch up with the already established digital economy. Countries like Brazil, Chile and Mexico are still highly dependent on the extraction of raw, exportable materials and century-old manufacturing processes. In the services sector, banking still reigns.

One might look at Eduardo Severin, a tech entrepreneur in his early 40s, as an early sign of things to come. While Severin is a very particular case –his fortune comes from a US company– there’s a crop of tech entrepreneurs in Latin America who are making their way through the ranks. Such is the case of Nubank co-founders David Vélez (Colombia) and Cristina Junqueira (Brazil) and of Mercado Libre’s CEO, Marcos Galperin (Argentina). Though far from the top, the growing presence and influence of their companies speaks to the changes taking place in the region.

It will be a while before we see a considerable shift in the ranks of Latin America’s wealthiest. Political connections are a must for any person trying to do business in the region, and the top players have been cultivating their most powerful friendships for decades. Their kin will most likely inherit those relationships –along with vast fortunes– to keep the wheels spinning. 

The young up-and-comers in tech bring hope for a change. But even if they manage to crown themselves as the wealthiest of Latin America, there’s the risk that, instead of tearing down the old oligarchy, they’ll build their castles on top of it.