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Nicky Oppenheimer has moved a notch in Africa's wealth order. The South African diamond magnate now ranks as the continent's fourth-richest person and 304th in the world on the 2026 Forbes Global Billionaires list, with a fortune of about $10.6 billion, or roughly R172 billion.
The placing marks a quiet slide for one of South Africa's most storied business names. Where Oppenheimer long sat third among Africa's wealthy, the 2026 list now puts Aliko Dangote first, Johann Rupert second, Abdulsamad Rabiu third and Oppenheimer fourth. He remains South Africa's second-richest individual.
Born in Johannesburg in 1945, Oppenheimer is the third generation of a dynasty built on diamonds. His grandfather, Ernest Oppenheimer, the son of a German cigar merchant, was sent to South Africa at 21 to buy diamonds, mastered the trade and was mayor of the diamond town of Kimberley by 30 before taking the reins of De Beers, the company Cecil Rhodes founded in 1888. His father, Harry Oppenheimer, became one of the world's wealthiest men, chairing Anglo American for 25 years and De Beers for 27.
Nicky was educated in Britain at Harrow before reading politics, philosophy and economics at Christ Church, Oxford, where he also earned a master's degree. Returning home for national service, he found the army unsure what to do with an Oxford graduate. By his own telling to Forbes Africa, he was posted to a parking lot near Pretoria to check that vehicles had four tires and two headlights. At 23, he joined the family business.
His defining moment came in 2012, when he sold the family's 40% stake in De Beers to Anglo American for $5.1 billion in cash, ending 85 years of Oppenheimer control over the global diamond trade. He had taken De Beers private in 2001 as the third generation to lead it.
Since stepping away from diamonds, Oppenheimer has diversified. In 2014 he founded Fireblade Aviation, a Johannesburg-based charter flight operator, and he holds at least 720 square miles of conservation land across South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. During the COVID-19 pandemic he pledged more than $110 million, close to R1.8 billion, to support small businesses in South Africa.
His shifting rank reflects a broader shift at the top of African wealth. Forbes' full list of the continent's 23 billionaires is now worth $126.7 billion, up 21% year on year, as industrialists tied to cement, food and luxury overtake a diamond fortune built generations ago.
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