Rubens Ometto Net Worth

Rubens Ometto has an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion, according to Forbes Real-Time Billionaires, Rubens Ometto profile (figures as of October 20, 2026). That is down from a peak of $2.3 billion.

Rubens Ometto Silveira Mello is a Brazilian businessman and the chairman of Cosan and Raízen, two of Brazil's biggest energy companies. In 2007 Forbes called him the world's first ethanol billionaire. He was born in 1950 in Piracicaba, in the state of São Paulo.

He attended the University of São Paulo and interned at Unibanco. After college he became a financial director at the Votorantim Group, thanks to his mentor Antônio Ermírio de Moraes, one of Brazil's leading industrialists.

Ometto is known for his combative style. He earned the nickname the tractor, partly because of the long legal fights he waged to gain control of Cosan, including suing his own family for a decade to own the company. He is also a director of UNICA, Brazil's sugarcane industry association.

How Rubens Ometto made his money

Cosan's roots go back to 1936, when Ometto's grandparents set up a sugarcane mill in São Paulo state. After he won control of the family business, he expanded it through a series of takeovers. Cosan became one of the world's largest growers and processors of sugarcane and one of the largest producers of ethanol, the cane-based fuel that powers many cars in Brazil. That growth turned a single family mill into a national champion of Brazil's sugar and ethanol industry.

Cosan is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and he chairs both Cosan and Raízen, the group's fuel and energy business. Besides his Cosan shares, Ometto holds a portfolio of real estate investments. His fortune therefore rises and falls with the share price of Cosan, which in turn depends on sugar and fuel markets.

How Forbes has valued Rubens Ometto

Forbes valued Ometto at $1.4 billion in 2017 and 2018. After a gap, he returned at $1.6 billion in 2021, and his figure peaked at $2.3 billion in 2022. That 2007 milestone made him a symbol of the wealth built on Brazil's cane fields, and Forbes has tracked his fortune ever since.

It fell to $1.5 billion in 2023, rose to $1.9 billion in 2024 and then settled at $1.5 billion in 2025 and on the 2026 World's Billionaires List. As of October 20, 2026, the Forbes real-time billionaires tracker showed $1.4 billion. That volatility is typical of fortunes tied to commodities like sugar and ethanol, which can swing sharply from year to year.