Unusual Billionaires: The World’s Strangest Wealth Stories

There’s something irresistible about billionaires.

The world is full of celebrity billionaires whose larger-than-life personas are amplified by immense wealth. There are more of them now than ever before — over 2,000 at last count.

Whether you admire them or resent them, billionaires attract attention: for how much money they have, how they made it, and the often eccentric lives they lead. Some are constantly in the headlines — Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett, Richard Branson, Bill Gates, and others — but this piece highlights less familiar names with distinctive quirks.

In compiling this list, we looked for unusual traits or lifestyles that set these wealthy individuals apart, focusing on people who are not necessarily household names. Our approach was informal and aimed to capture the “je ne sais quoi” among some of the world’s most affluent.

In no particular order, they are …

J.K. Rowling

Residence: Scotland

Estimated worth: $650 million (Forbes, 2017)

Age: 52

J.K. Rowling’s story is unusual among the ultra-wealthy: the author of the Harry Potter books once ranked among the world’s richest people, yet she has given away such a large portion of her fortune that her net worth dropped below billionaire status.

Rowling’s seven Harry Potter novels have sold more than 450 million copies worldwide and the films have grossed billions, yet she has long taken a different view of wealth. A single mother who lived on welfare before her success, Rowling has donated substantial sums to charity — reported donations of around $150 million — demonstrating a philanthropic approach that sets her apart from many peers who hoard wealth rather than redistribute it.

John Fredriksen

Residence: London, Cyprus

Estimated worth: $9.9 billion (Forbes, 2017)

Age: 73

Shipping magnate John Fredriksen is a strikingly old-school and eccentric businessman. Once Norway’s richest man, he relocated to Cyprus in the 1990s and maintains a high-profile fleet of supertankers. His past includes trading oil in Beirut in the 1960s and running supply shipments to the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam War. At times he earned nicknames like “lifeline of the Ayatollah” for transporting crude oil during fraught geopolitical periods.

Fredriksen’s personal habits underline his individuality: he shuns computers, reads everything on paper, keeps company records in 19 suitcases, and prefers a cravat to modern corporate attire. He’s a high-school dropout who built an empire through instinctive decision-making and a relentless focus on the tanker market.

Ion Țiriac

Residence: Romania

Estimated worth: $1.25 billion (Forbes, 2017)

Age: 78

Ion Țiriac is a former professional athlete turned entrepreneur who embodies eccentricity. A one-time ice hockey Olympian who later won the men’s doubles title at the 1970 French Open, Țiriac earned colorful nicknames like “Count Dracula” and “Brasov Bulldozer.” He speaks several languages and was once famous for an enormous breakfast routine that became part of his legend.

After his sports career, Țiriac founded Romania’s first post-communist bank in 1990 and diversified into retail, insurance, automotive, and aviation. Known for his deadpan humor and stoic expression, he now manages players and remains a prominent figure in European tennis and business circles.

Ivan Chrenko

Residence: Slovakia

Estimated worth: $1.1 billion (Forbes, 2017)

Age: 49

Ivan Chrenko stands out for his reclusiveness. Slovakia’s best-known private developer is famous for keeping a very low profile: he rarely gives interviews, declines media attention, and even lacked a public photograph for many reports about his wealth. As co-founder and long-time CEO of HB Reavis, Chrenko built a major real estate business across Central and Eastern Europe, but he remains personally enigmatic, choosing to operate behind the scenes and avoid fame.

Wu Yan

Residence: China

Estimated worth: $1.9 billion (Hurun Report, 2017)

Age: 36

China produces more self-made female billionaires than any other country, and Wu Yan is a notable example. Starting her career as a journalist — a modest beginning compared with her later success — she pivoted into media and entertainment and became chairwoman of Hakim Unique, a diversified media and technology company. Hakim produces TV and film, runs theme parks and theaters, develops video games, and works on smart-city projects. Wu Yan is often described as a media and entertainment entrepreneur who reflects China’s fast-changing opportunities for ambitious women.

Ingvar Kamprad

Residence: Sweden

Estimated worth: ranges widely from $3.5 billion (Forbes, 2015) to $46.8 billion (Bloomberg, 2017)

Age: 91

Ingvar Kamprad, the man behind IKEA, is famous for frugality that borders on iconoclastic. He built a global brand around affordable, functional design while personally rejecting the trappings of conspicuous consumption: he flew economy, stayed in budget hotels, drove an older Volvo, and wrote about thrift as a personal and business guiding principle. Kamprad later expressed regret for youthful political associations and spent much of his life defending the complex ownership structure of IKEA, which has led to widely varying estimates of his net worth.

Stewart Rahr

Residence: New York

Estimated worth: $2.2 billion (Forbes, 2017)

Age: 71

Stewart Rahr, self-styled as “Number One King of All Fun,” made his fortune in pharmaceuticals and gained notoriety for an extravagant, sometimes scandal-prone lifestyle. Known for flamboyant parties, provocative email blasts, and high-profile incidents that have attracted tabloid attention, Rahr has also been a generous philanthropist. His personality mixes ostentation with philanthropy, making him both a controversial and intriguing figure among the wealthy.

Dustin Moskovitz

Residence: California

Estimated worth: $14.2 billion (Forbes, 2017)

Age: 33

Dustin Moskovitz, an early Facebook co-founder, is notable for combining vast tech wealth with thoughtful philanthropy and an unconventional social outlook. His experiences at events like Burning Man informed his belief in community-focused solutions, and he co-founded Good Ventures to support causes such as malaria eradication and marriage equality. Though young relative to many billionaires, Moskovitz has used his resources to pursue ideas about improving society rather than mere accumulation.

Paul Allen

Residence: Washington

Estimated worth: $20.7 billion (Forbes, 2017)

Age: 64

Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, has used his wealth to pursue wide-ranging interests: expensive yachts, professional sports team ownership, aerospace projects, and major philanthropic investments in science, technology, and conservation. Unlike some billionaires who focus on lineage, Allen’s legacy emphasized projects, institutions, and causes he funded during his life.

God Nisanov

Residence: Russia

Estimated worth: $3.9 billion (Forbes, 2017)

Age: 45

God Nisanov, a Russian real estate developer with a memorable name, built significant assets in Moscow and beyond. Among his distinctive projects is Moskvarium, an expansive aquarium that is one of Europe’s largest and even offers swimming-with-dolphins experiences. Nisanov’s large-scale, sometimes whimsical developments and relatively low public profile make him an intriguing figure in the world of real estate wealth.

Nicolas Berggruen

Residence: California

Estimated worth: $1.82 billion (Forbes, 2017)

Age: 56

Nicolas Berggruen has been called “the homeless billionaire” for his long stretches without a permanent residence. He lived a nomadic, luxury lifestyle in hotels and private jets while developing big ideas about governance and culture. The son of a prominent art collector, Berggruen founded the Berggruen Institute and has funded initiatives to rethink political institutions. His mix of cosmopolitanism, philanthropy, and intellectual ambition distinguishes him from many of his peers.