Uğur Şahin

Net worth: $4.5 billion

Citizenship: Germany

Source of wealth: Biotechnology

Physician and immunologist Şahin co-founded German Biotech firm BioNTech with his wife in 2008, of which he currently owns 18%. He joined the billionaires’ club in mid2020 with his net worth reaching $5.3 billion in December thanks to the COVID-19 vaccine that his company produced in partnership with American pharma giant, Pfizer. Using the messenger RNA molecule, Şahin initiated “Project Lightspeed” in January 2020 to create a COVID-19 vaccine. In November, BioNTech and Pfizer announced that their vaccine was 95% effective. The news raised BioNTech’s stocks and boosted Şahin’s net worth, making him eligible for the threecomma-club for the first time.