{{Short description|Entrepreneur who has achieved wealth and prominence from a particular industry}} {{Redirect-multi|2|Tycoon|Industrialist}} {{For|magnates in the mass media industry|Media proprietor}} {{Verification|date=April 2023}}
A '''business magnate''', also known as an '''industrialist''' or '''tycoon''', is a person who is a powerful [[entrepreneur]] and [[investor]] 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]] word {{Lang|la|magnates}} (plural of {{Lang|la|magnas}}), meaning 'great man' or 'great nobleman'.
The term ''mogul'' is an English corruption of {{transliteration|fa|mughal}}, [[Farsi|Persian]] or [[Arabic]] for 'Mongol'. It alludes to emperors of the [[Mughal Empire]] in [[Early modern India|Early Modern India]], who possessed great power and storied riches capable of producing wonders of opulence, such as the [[Taj Mahal]].
The term ''tycoon'' derives from the [[Japanese language|Japanese]] word {{Nihongo||大君|[[taikun]]}}, which means 'great lord', used as a title for the {{transliteration|ja|[[shōgun]]}}.<ref>{{cite book |title=American English Spelling: An Informal Description |last=Cummings |first= Donald Wayne |year=1988 |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=978-0-8018-3443-1 |page=277 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1OVIqCV57pYC |access-date=22 May 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tycoon |title=tycoon |work=Merriam-Webster |access-date=22 May 2012 |quote=Origin of TYCOON Japanese taikun}}</ref> The word entered the English language in 1857<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tycoon |title=tycoon |work=Merriam-Webster |access-date=22 May 2012 |quote=First Known Use: 1857}}</ref> with the return of [[Matthew C. Perry|Commodore Perry]] to the United States. US President [[Abraham Lincoln]] was humorously referred to as ''the Tycoon'' by his aides [[John Nicolay]] and [[John Hay]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Return of the Samurai |first=Adam |last=Goodheart |url=http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/10/return-of-the-samurai/ |newspaper=The New York Times |date=10 November 2010 |access-date=22 May 2012}}</ref> The term spread to the business community, where it has been used ever since.
==Usage== {{Globalize|date=January 2024|2=US}} 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]], 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 [[natural resource|extractive industries]] such as [[mining]], [[logging]] and [[petroleum]], transportation fields such as [[shipping]] and [[rail transport|railroad]]s, manufacturing such as [[Automobile manufacturing|automaking]] and [[steel]]making, in [[banking]], as well as newspaper publishing. Their dominance was known as the [[Second Industrial Revolution]], the [[Gilded Age]], or the [[Robber baron (industrialist)|Robber Baron Era]].
<!--Please discuss additions to the below list on the talk page so it does not become unwieldy--> Examples of business magnates in the western world include historical figures such as pottery entrepreneur [[Josiah Wedgwood]], oilmen [[John D. Rockefeller]] and [[Fred C. Koch]], automobile pioneer [[Henry Ford]], aviation pioneer [[Howard Hughes]], shipping and railroad veterans [[Aristotle Onassis]], [[Cornelius Vanderbilt]], [[Leland Stanford]], [[Jay Gould]] and [[James J. Hill]], steel innovator [[Andrew Carnegie]], newspaper publisher [[William Randolph Hearst]], 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]], investor [[Warren Buffett]], computer programmers [[Bill Gates]] and [[Paul Allen]], technology innovator [[Steve Jobs]], vacuum cleaner retailer Sir [[James Dyson]], media proprietors [[Sumner Redstone]], [[Ted Turner]] and [[Rupert Murdoch]], industrial entrepreneur [[Elon Musk]], steel investor [[Lakshmi Mittal]], telecommunications investor [[Carlos Slim]], Virgin Group founder Sir [[Richard Branson]], Formula 1 executive [[Bernie Ecclestone]], and internet entrepreneurs [[Larry Page]] and [[Sergey Brin]].<!--Please discuss additions to the above list on the talk page so it does not become unwieldy-->
== Business magnates == {{indiscriminate gallery|date=April 2025}} <!--NOTE:Let's try and keep this list at no more than 24 pictures--> <gallery mode="nolines" heights="200"> 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 (industrialist)|James Finlayson]] File:Cornelius Vanderbilt Daguerrotype2.jpg|[[Cornelius Vanderbilt]] 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|[[John D. Rockefeller]] File:JohnPierpontMorgan.png|[[J. P. Morgan]] File:HearstAbout1910.jpg|[[William Randolph Hearst]] File:Asa G. C..jpg|[[Asa Griggs Candler]] File:Andrew-carnegie-portrait-pd.png|[[Andrew Carnegie]] File:Henry ford 1919.jpg|[[Henry Ford]] File:Kreuger ca1920.jpg|[[Ivar Kreuger]] File:Howard Hughes.jpg|[[Howard Hughes]] 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|[[Ted Turner]] File:Rupert Murdoch - Flickr - Eva Rinaldi Celebrity and Live Music Photographer.jpg|[[Rupert Murdoch]] File:Richard Branson March 2015 (cropped).jpg|[[Richard Branson]] File:Li Ka Shing.jpg|[[Li Ka-shing]] File:Bill Gates 2018.jpg|[[Bill Gates]] 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|[[Jeff Bezos]] File:Elon Musk 2015.jpg|alt=Elon Musk|[[Elon Musk]] File:Larry Page in the European Parliament, 17.06.2009 (cropped).jpg|[[Larry Page]] File:Sergey Brin cropped.jpg|[[Sergey Brin]] File:Mark Zuckerberg F8 2019 Keynote (32830578717) (cropped).jpg|[[Mark Zuckerberg]] </gallery>
== See also == * [[Bloomberg Billionaires Index]] * [[Bourgeoisie]] * [[Business oligarch]] * [[Businessperson]] * [[Chaebol]] * [[Media proprietor]] * [[Real estate investing]] * [[Robber baron (industrialist)|Robber baron]] * [[Software industry]] * ''[[The World's Billionaires]]'' *[[Russian oligarchs]], the term for Russian business magnates
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category}} {{Wikiquote}} * {{cite web |url= https://www.forbes.com/2001/12/13/1213top15.html |title= The Famous 15: America's Most Fascinating Tycoons |work= [[Forbes]] |date= December 13, 2001 |last= Lewis |first= Mark}} * {{cite web |url= http://www.businesspundit.com/25-tycoons-who-run-the-world/ |publisher= Business Pundit |title= 25 Tycoons Who Run the World |date= October 6, 2010}} * {{cite web |url=http://www.mtv3.fi/koti/ajankohtaista.shtml?1035944 |title=Finlayson juhlii klassikkokuosien merkeissä |date=January 18, 2010 |work=MTV3.fi - Koti |publisher=Bonnier AB |language=Finnish |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100123213556/http://www.mtv3.fi/koti/ajankohtaista.shtml?1035944 |archive-date=2010-01-23 |url-status=dead }}
{{Social class}} {{Wealth}} {{Authority control}}
[[Category:Business occupations|Magnate]] [[Category:Business terms]] [[Category:Management occupations]] [[Category:Social classes]]