Question: Who became the world’s first billionaire?
Answer: John D. Rockefeller became the world’s first billionaire in 1916, driven by the rise of Standard Oil, the company he co-founded in 1870. By the early 1880s, Standard Oil controlled more than 90 percent of oil refining in the United States. In 1911, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Standard Oil violated antitrust laws and ordered its breakup into 34 companies—some of which later became ExxonMobil and Chevron. Rockefeller’s fortune grew even after the split, and he spent the final decades of his life funding major philanthropic efforts in medicine, education, and public health.
