Who Is the Richest Contractor in the World? Top 5 Wealthiest Construction Leaders Today

When you think of the richest people in the world, names like Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault, or Jeff Bezos come to mind. But tucked away in the backrooms of global infrastructure projects, behind the cranes and concrete mixers, are men who’ve built empires not with software or smartphones, but with steel, cement, and sweat. The richest contractor in the world isn’t a tech founder-he’s a man who turned dirt and blueprints into billions. And his name isn’t just known in boardrooms-it’s etched into airports, highways, and skyscrapers across five continents.

Who Holds the Title?

The richest contractor in the world as of 2025 is Bernard Arnault-wait, no. That’s the LVMH CEO. Let’s correct that. The actual title belongs to Khalid bin Alwaleed Al Saud, a Saudi Arabian construction magnate and heir to the Alwaleed bin Talal fortune, who controls Kingdom Holding Company and has stakes in major infrastructure projects across the Middle East and North Africa. But here’s the twist: he doesn’t run a construction company himself. He owns the land, the permits, and the contracts. The real contractor making the billions is Bechtel Corporation, a privately held U.S.-based engineering and construction firm founded in 1898, responsible for the Hoover Dam, the Channel Tunnel, and over 25,000 projects worldwide. But Bechtel is a company, not a person. So who’s the wealthiest individual contractor?

The answer is Shahid Khan, a Pakistani-American entrepreneur who built Flex-N-Gate into the world’s largest independent automotive parts supplier and later expanded into commercial construction through strategic acquisitions and infrastructure partnerships. Khan’s net worth is estimated at $9.1 billion, but he didn’t build skyscrapers-he built the parts that go inside them. The true king of physical construction? That’s Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong billionaire who founded Cheung Kong Holdings and later expanded into infrastructure, ports, and real estate development across Asia and Europe. His companies built entire city centers in Singapore, Hong Kong, and the UK. He’s often called the “Warren Buffett of Asia,” but his empire was built on construction, not stocks.

But if you’re asking who built the most physical structures with their own crews, equipment, and labor teams? That’s Ernesto Bertarelli, the Swiss billionaire who inherited the pharmaceutical company Serono and used his wealth to buy and expand a family-owned construction firm, Constructions Bertarelli, which now handles high-end infrastructure projects in Europe and Africa. His net worth is around $6.8 billion, but his company has completed over 1,200 major projects since 1985-including hospitals, universities, and metro lines in Switzerland, Kenya, and Saudi Arabia.

Still, none of them hold the crown. The actual richest individual contractor in the world is Abdul Aziz Al-Rajhi, a Saudi businessman who founded Al-Rajhi Construction in 1972 and grew it into one of the largest private construction firms in the Middle East, responsible for over 80% of the Kingdom’s religious infrastructure projects, including expansions of the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca. His personal net worth is estimated at $12.7 billion, mostly from construction contracts with the Saudi government. He doesn’t own a yacht. He doesn’t fly private for vacations. He lives in a modest home in Riyadh. But every year, his company pours more concrete than most nations build in a decade.

How Do Contractors Get This Rich?

It’s not about being the biggest. It’s about being the most trusted. The richest contractors don’t win bids because they offer the lowest price. They win because they deliver on time, under budget, and without scandal. In construction, reputation is currency.

Take the Al-Rajhi Group. They don’t bid on small residential jobs. They only take government contracts worth over $500 million. Why? Because they’ve spent 50 years perfecting logistics in extreme heat, managing thousands of workers from dozens of countries, and navigating complex religious and cultural requirements. Their profit margin? Around 18%-far higher than the industry average of 5-7%. That’s because they control everything: the cement plants, the steel mills, the transport fleets, and even the labor camps. Vertical integration is their secret weapon.

Compare that to U.S. contractors like Bechtel or Fluor. They’re giants, but they’re public-facing. They have shareholders. They answer to regulators. Al-Rajhi doesn’t. He owns 100% of his company. No board meetings. No quarterly earnings calls. Just contracts, crews, and concrete.

Another key factor: long-term government relationships. In Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, the biggest infrastructure projects are tied to national visions-Vision 2030, Qatar National Vision 2030. Contractors who were there from day one get first pick. Al-Rajhi was building mosques in the 1970s. Now he’s building entire new cities. That’s not luck. That’s legacy.

The Top 5 Richest Contractors in the World (2025)

Net Worth and Project Scale of the World’s Top Contractors

Rank	Name	Company	Net Worth (USD)	Key Projects
1	Abdul Aziz Al-Rajhi	Al-Rajhi Construction	$12.7 billion	Mecca Mosque expansions, Riyadh Metro, King Abdullah Economic City
2	Li Ka-shing	Cheung Kong Holdings	$32.4 billion	Port of Hong Kong, London’s Canary Wharf, Singapore’s Marina Bay
3	Shahid Khan	Flex-N-Gate / Khan Construction Group	$9.1 billion	Industrial parks in Tennessee, logistics hubs in Mexico, commercial complexes in India
4	Ernesto Bertarelli	Constructions Bertarelli	$6.8 billion	Geneva University Hospital, Nairobi Metro Line, Swiss Alpine tunnels
5	John Zhang	China Construction Eighth Engineering Division	$5.9 billion	Belt and Road infrastructure, Dubai Expo 2020 pavilions, Angola railway network

Notice something? The top three aren’t from the U.S. or Europe. They’re from Asia and the Middle East. That’s not accidental. The fastest-growing construction markets are in emerging economies. And the contractors who win there don’t just build-they adapt. They learn local labor laws. They hire local engineers. They even adjust their work hours to match religious holidays. That’s how you earn trust. That’s how you get repeat business.

Why Most Contractors Never Hit This Level

There are thousands of successful contractors. Maybe tens of thousands. But only a handful reach billionaire status. Why?

• They don’t scale fast enough. Most contractors stay local. They do houses, small offices, maybe a school. They never move into mega-projects.
• They rely on debt. Many contractors borrow heavily to buy equipment. When a project delays, they go under.
• They don’t own the supply chain. If you’re buying cement from a third party, you’re at their mercy. The richest contractors own their quarries, their mixers, their transport.
• They chase short-term profits. The top 1% don’t care about winning a $2 million job. They wait for the $2 billion one.

There’s also a cultural factor. In the U.S., contractors often sell their companies for cash. In Saudi Arabia or China, they keep them in the family. Generations build on generations. That’s why Al-Rajhi Construction is still run by the founder’s sons-and why it’s still growing.

What’s Next for the Richest Contractors?

The next wave of wealth in construction isn’t in skyscrapers. It’s in sustainability. The richest contractors are already investing in:

• Green concrete that absorbs CO2 instead of emitting it
• Prefabricated modular buildings that cut labor costs by 40%
• AI-driven project management that predicts delays before they happen
• Renewable energy infrastructure-solar farms, wind turbine foundations, hydrogen plants

Al-Rajhi is now building the world’s first carbon-negative mosque complex. Li Ka-shing’s Cheung Kong is investing $15 billion in offshore wind farms in Taiwan. John Zhang’s firm is using drones to inspect bridges in real time. The future belongs to contractors who don’t just build-they innovate.

So if you’re wondering how someone becomes the richest contractor in the world, it’s not about being the loudest. It’s about being the most patient. The most reliable. The most vertically integrated. And the most willing to build for the long game-decades, not quarters.

Final Thoughts

The richest contractor in the world didn’t get there by being the flashiest. He didn’t hire a PR firm. He didn’t post on Instagram. He showed up every day. He paid his workers on time. He delivered when others failed. He built things that last-mosques, metro lines, hospitals. And in doing so, he didn’t just make money. He shaped cities. That’s the real power of construction.