A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

and

investor An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future Return on capital, return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital the investor usually purchases some species of pr ...

who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or services are widely consumed.

Etymology and history

The term '' magnate'' derives from the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

word (plural of ), meaning 'great man' or 'great nobleman'. The term ''mogul'' is an English corruption of , Persian or

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

for 'Mongol'. It alludes to emperors of the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an Early modern period, early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to ...

in Early Modern India, who possessed great power and storied riches capable of producing wonders of opulence, such as the

Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal ( ; ; ) is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was commissioned in 1631 by the fifth Mughal Empire, Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his belo ...

. The term ''tycoon'' derives from the Japanese word , which means 'great lord', used as a title for the . The word entered the English language in 1857 with the return of Commodore Perry to the United States. US President

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

was humorously referred to as ''the Tycoon'' by his aides John Nicolay and

John Hay John Milton Hay (October 8, 1838July 1, 1905) was an American statesman and official whose career in government stretched over almost half a century. Beginning as a Secretary to the President of the United States, private secretary for Abraha ...

. The term spread to the business community, where it has been used ever since.

Usage

Modern business magnates are entrepreneurs that amass on their own or wield substantial family fortunes in the process of building or running their own businesses. Some are widely known in connection with these entrepreneurial activities, others through highly-visible secondary pursuits such as

philanthropy Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

, political fundraising and campaign financing, and sports team ownership or sponsorship. The terms ''mogul'', ''tycoon'', and ''baron'' were often applied to late-19th- and early-20th-century North American business magnates in extractive industries such as

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, truckspetroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring un ...

, transportation fields such as

shipping Freight transport, also referred to as freight forwarding, is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been ...

and

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

s, manufacturing such as automaking and

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

making, in

banking A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

, as well as newspaper publishing. Their dominance was known as the

Second Industrial Revolution The Second Industrial Revolution, also known as the Technological Revolution, was a phase of rapid Discovery (observation), scientific discovery, standardisation, mass production and industrialisation from the late 19th century into the early ...

, the Gilded Age, or the Robber Baron Era. Examples of business magnates in the western world include historical figures such as pottery entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood, oilmen

John D. Rockefeller John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was one of the List of richest Americans in history, wealthiest Americans of all time and one of the richest people in modern hist ...

and Fred C. Koch, automobile pioneer Henry Ford, aviation pioneer

Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American Aerospace engineering, aerospace engineer, business magnate, film producer, and investor. He was The World's Billionaires, one of the richest and most influential peo ...

, shipping and railroad veterans

Aristotle Onassis Aristotle Socrates Onassis (, ; , ; 20 January 1906 – 15 March 1975) was a Greek and Argentine business magnate. He amassed the world's largest privately-owned shipping fleet and was one of the world's richest and most famous men. He was marri ...

Cornelius Vanderbilt Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into lead ...

Leland Stanford Amasa Leland Stanford (March 9, 1824June 21, 1893) was an American attorney, industrialist, philanthropist, and Republican Party (United States), Republican Party politician from Watervliet, New York. He served as the eighth governor of Calif ...

Jay Gould Jason Gould (; May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who founded the Gould family, Gould business dynasty. He is generally identified as one of the Robber baron (industrialist), robber bar ...

and James J. Hill, steel innovator

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie ( , ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the History of the iron and steel industry in the United States, American steel industry in the late ...

, newspaper publisher

William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His extravagant methods of yellow jou ...

, poultry entrepreneur Arthur Perdue, retail merchant Sam Walton, and bankers J. P. Morgan and Mayer Amschel Rothschild. Contemporary industrial tycoons include e-commerce entrepreneur

Jeff Bezos Jeffrey Preston Bezos ( ;; and Robinson (2010), p. 7. ; born January 12, 1964) is an American businessman best known as the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce and clou ...

, investor Warren Buffett, computer programmers

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend ...

and Paul Allen, technology innovator Steve Jobs, vacuum cleaner retailer Sir James Dyson, media proprietors Sumner Redstone,

Ted Turner Robert Edward Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and Philanthropy, philanthropist. He founded the CNN, Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour United States cable news, ...

and

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...

, industrial entrepreneur

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in th ...

, steel investor Lakshmi Mittal, telecommunications investor Carlos Slim, Virgin Group founder Sir

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is an English business magnate who co-founded the Virgin Group in 1970, and controlled 5 companies remaining of once more than 400. Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneu ...

, Formula 1 executive Bernie Ecclestone, and internet entrepreneurs

Larry Page Lawrence Edward Page (born March 26, 1973) is an American businessman, computer engineer and computer scientist best known for co-founding Google with Sergey Brin. Page was chief executive officer of Google from 1997 until August 2001 when ...

and Sergey Brin.

Business magnates

File:Portrait of Josiah Wedgwood gupjg13 4 ics8nad.tiff, Josiah Wedgwood File:Samuel Slater industrialist.jpg, Samuel Slater File:James Finlayson (1771-1852).jpg, James Finlayson File:Cornelius Vanderbilt Daguerrotype2.jpg,

File:JNTata.jpg, Jamsetji Tata File:Henry John Heinz by the Pach Brothers Studio, c. 1914, gelatin silver print, from the National Portrait Gallery - NPG-NPG 93 388 14.jpg, Henry J. Heinz File:Portrait of 49-year-old John D. Rockefeller.jpg,

File:JohnPierpontMorgan.png, J. P. Morgan File:HearstAbout1910.jpg,

File:Asa G. C..jpg, Asa Griggs Candler File:Andrew-carnegie-portrait-pd.png,

File:Henry ford 1919.jpg, Henry Ford File:Kreuger ca1920.jpg,

Ivar Kreuger Ivar Kreuger (; 2 March 1880 – 12 March 1932) was a Swedish civil engineer, financier, entrepreneur and industrialist. In 1908, he co-founded the construction company Kreuger & Toll Byggnads AB, which specialized in new building techniques. B ...

File:Howard Hughes.jpg,

File:Dhirubhai Ambani 2002 stamp of India.jpg, alt=Dhirubhai Ambani, Dhirubhai Ambani File:Sam-Walton.jpg, Sam Walton File:Warren Buffett at the 2015 SelectUSA Investment Summit (cropped).jpg, Warren Buffett File:Ted Turner at the LBJ Foundation.jpg,

File:Rupert Murdoch - Flickr - Eva Rinaldi Celebrity and Live Music Photographer.jpg,

File:Richard Branson March 2015 (cropped).jpg,

File:Li Ka Shing.jpg, Li Ka-shing File:Bill Gates 2018.jpg,

File:Paul G. Allen (cropped).jpg, Paul Allen File:Steve Jobs Headshot 2010-CROP (cropped 2).jpg, Steve Jobs File:Lakshmi Mittal LM.jpg, Lakshmi Mittal File:Larry Ellison picture.png, Larry Ellison File:Carlos Slim (45680472234) (cropped).jpg, Carlos Slim File:Mike Bloomberg Headshot (cropped).jpg, Michael Bloomberg File:Bernard Arnault (2) - 2017 (cropped).jpg, Bernard Arnault File:Jeff Bezos at Amazon Spheres Grand Opening in Seattle - 2018 (39074799225) (cropped).jpg,

File:Elon Musk 2015.jpg, alt=Elon Musk,

File:Larry Page in the European Parliament, 17.06.2009 (cropped).jpg,

File:Sergey Brin cropped.jpg, Sergey Brin File:Mark Zuckerberg F8 2019 Keynote (32830578717) (cropped).jpg, Mark Zuckerberg

References

External links

* * * {{Authority control Magnate Business terms Management occupations Social classes

Etymology and history

Usage

Business magnates

See also

References

External links