Many individuals have made significant contributions differently, and therefore it is difficult to make a definitive list of the top 50 entrepreneurs in history. However, here is a list of some notable entrepreneurs from history:
- Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company
- Andrew Carnegie, steel industry magnate and philanthropist
- John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil
- Cornelius Vanderbilt, shipping and railroad tycoon
- Charles Merrill, founder of Merrill Lynch
- J.P. Morgan, financier and founder of J.P. Morgan & Co.
- Sam Walton, founder of Walmart
- Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple
- Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft
- Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook
- Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon
- Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla
- Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group
- Larry Page and Sergey Brin, co-founders of Google
- Oprah Winfrey, media mogul and philanthropist
- Walt Disney, founder of Disney
- Thomas Edison, inventor and businessman
- Alexander Graham Bell, inventor and founder of Bell Telephone
- Henry Ford II, president and CEO of Ford Motor Company
- Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s
- Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway
- Ingvar Kamprad, founder of IKEA
- Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle
- Frederick Weyerhaeuser, founder of Weyerhaeuser Company
- Carl Sagan, founder of Carl Sagan industries
- Akio Morita, co-founder of Sony Corporation
- Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group
- Michael Dell, founder of Dell Technologies
- Herb Kelleher, co-founder of Southwest Airlines
- Howard Schultz, former CEO of Starbucks
- Andrew Grove, co-founder of Intel
- Jack Welsh, former CEO of General Electric
- Ted Turner, founder of Turner Broadcasting System
- Sheldon Adelson, founder of Las Vegas Sands
- David Geffen, founder of Geffen Records
- Fred Smith, founder of FedEx
- Ralph Lauren, founder of Ralph Lauren Corporation
- Estée Lauder, founder of Estée Lauder Companies
- Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal
- Robert Noyce, co-founder of Intel
- Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft
- Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay
- Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino’s Pizza
- Tony Hsieh, former CEO of Zappos
- Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg L.P.
- Tony Robbins, motivational speaker and self-help author
- Nick Woodman, founder of GoPro
- Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla
- Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx
- Tony Fadell, co-founder of Nest Labs
This list is not exhaustive, and there are many other entrepreneurs who have made significant contributions throughout history.
