It isn't just wealth. And it isn't just control over people or resources. No, true power is a potent combination of money and influence that enables people to help shape the world. But only a select group of people really possess the economic and political clout to effect global change. For better or worse, their decisions affect millions, shake industries, and change nations.
Business Insider has compiled the following list of the world's most powerful people — heads of state, billionaires, CEOs, and entertainers. To determine the ranking, we considered more than 100 of the most influential players in business, politics, and entertainment, and we evaluated their influence by using metrics in four major areas: economic power, command, newsworthiness, and impact— a subjective measure that captures how important they are in their respective spheres.
Because the majority of these people span several industries, we took the logarithm of each and mapped those logarithms to a standardized scale, which allowed us to combine the metrics. (See our full methodology here.)
US President Barack Obama, leader of the world's chief superpower, takes top honors, followed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, ruler of the a country making a serious challenge to US supremacy. Read on to see the full list of the world's 50 most powerful people right now:
Editing by Alex Morrell with additional research by Andy Kiersz.
SEE ALSO: The 50 most powerful companies in America
SEE ALSO: The 25 richest self-made billionaires
50. Jay Z and Beyoncé
Titles: Singer (Beyoncé), rapper and entrepreneur (Jay Z)
Country: US
Age: 34 (Beyoncé), 45 (Jay Z)
Music's biggest power couple, Beyoncé and Jay Z turn nearly everything they touch into gold, which has helped them mint a combined fortune of $950 million.
Beyoncé shocked the music industry in 2013 when she released an album on iTunes without promotion — it went on to sell over 5 million copies thanks to hits like "Drunk in Love" and "Partition."
Jay Z is consistently one of the highest earners in music, reportedly raking in $56 million last year through his many ventures, including his Roc Nation music label and its sports division. Though his streaming service, Tidal, encountered some turbulence— the hip-hop mogul himself forgot he owned it— Jay Z is still just about everywhere in the entertainment industry.
49. Mukesh Ambani
Title: Chairman, managing director of Reliance Industries
Country: India
Age: 58
Mukesh Ambani took over as the chairman of Reliance Industries when his father, the company's founder, Dhirubhai Ambani, died in 2002. The enormous industrial conglomerate generates $61 billion in annual sales from its interests in energy, petrochemicals, textiles, natural resources, retail, and, more recently, telecommunications.
Ambani is the richest person in India with a personal fortune of over $23 billion. He owns a 27-story Mumbai mansion that cost $1 billion to build.
And if Ambani's projections for India's economy prove correct, expect that net worth to soar. Four years ago, Ambani predicted that India would grow from a $1.4 trillion economy in 2011 to a $30 trillion economy by 2030 — a bullish estimate considering that India's GDP today stands at $2.2 trillion.
48. Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán
Title: Sinaloa Cartel leader
Country: Mexico
Age: 60
Mexican drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán is perhaps the wealthiest and most notorious gangster on the planet, with a net worth of $1.1 billion. The leader of the infamous Sinaloa Cartel, El Chapo has been accused of importing over 180,000 kilos of cocaine into the US. Drug-enforcement experts estimate his cartel's annual revenues at greater than $3 billion.
Cunning and evasive, El Chapo escaped from a Mexican prison in July (not for the first time) by way of a labyrinthine tunnel he may have paid $50 million in bribes and construction costs to have built. The US State Department is offering a reward of up to $5 million to anyone with information leading to his arrest.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider