Amancio Ortega
| Net worth | $148 billion Forbes 2026 list, March 24, 2026[1] |
|---|---|
| World rank | 10th (Forbes 2026)[1] |
| Source of wealth | Inditex (Zara) |
| Companies | Inditex (founder, former chairman); Pontegadea (investment company) |
| Citizenship | Spain |
| Born | March 28, 1936, Busdongo de Arbas, León, Spain |
| Known for | Founding Zara; fast fashion |
| Net worth figures are estimates by the source named and change every day. | |
Amancio Ortega is a Spanish businessman who founded the fashion group Inditex, best known for its Zara shops, and is seen as a pioneer of fast fashion.[2] On the Forbes 2026 billionaires list, a snapshot taken on March 24, 2026, he was tenth in the world with an estimated $148 billion.[1]
Net worth
Besides his Inditex shares he owns a large property portfolio through his investment company Pontegadea, worth $17.2 billion in 2020, including the Torre Picasso tower in Madrid, and stakes in Spanish and Portuguese energy grid companies.[2]
How the fortune was made
Ortega left school at 14 when his family moved to A Coruña for his father's railway job, and worked as a shop hand for a local shirtmaker, learning to make clothes by hand.[2] In 1963 he started Confecciones Goa, making quilted bathrobes, and in 1975 he opened the first Zara shop with his wife, Rosalía Mera.[2] Inditex went public in 2001. By 2009 he owned 59.29% of it, and the group had more than 6,000 shops, including Zara, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Pull and Bear, Stradivarius and Oysho.[2] He retired as chairman in 2011.[2] He is known for keeping out of the news and has given interviews to only three journalists.[2]
Giving
His Amancio Ortega Foundation, set up in 2001 in Arteixo, supports education and social welfare.[2] In 2012 it gave €20 million to Caritas, the largest single gift in that charity's history, and in 2017 it gave €320 million to Spain's public health services to buy cancer-detection machines.[2]
Sources
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Forbes, "Amancio Ortega", 2026 World's Billionaires list (snapshot of March 24, 2026), read November 3, 2026. Net worth is a Forbes estimate.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 Wikipedia, "Amancio Ortega", read November 3, 2026. Billionaire Wiki's text is written in its own words; facts are checked against this article and its sources.