Aug 13, 2025

ARGENTINA The latest Forbes Argentina cover features Horacio Daniel Marín, CEO of oil-and-gas company YPF S.A., which trades on the New York Stock Exchange and is majority-owned by the Argentine government. Marín details growth plans that, he hopes, will nearly triple the company's $12.7 billion market value in five years. That was before a U.S. judge ordered Argentina in June to forfeit its 51% stake in YPF as partial repayment of a $16 billion judgment owed to former investors after the cash-strapped country's former president expropriated shares and nationalized YPF in 2012. Argentina's current president, Javier Milei, plans to appeal the decision. BULGARIA “The search for meaning and adding value to a business is what makes me feel alive.” —Angel Kanchev, a Bulgarian entrepreneur who recently left Bright, the Sofia-based IT consultancy he started nearly 20 years ago, and is now considering a pivot into private equity. Kanchev, 49, had opened Bright offices in London and Warsaw before selling the company to U.S. firm Virtusa in 2024 for at least $21 million, Forbes Bulgaria estimates. CROATIA Fashion entrepreneur , 39, was raised in Croatia but has spent the past decade living in Milan making a name for himself as a writer, consultant and social media strategist. He counts nearly 200,000 followers on Instagram, runs a popular blog called Glas Mode (“voice of fashion” in Croatian) and founded an incubator this year called Milan Fashion Department to help launch brands with an emphasis on developing talent from the Balkans. “I want young people from countries that are often on the margins of the global fashion scene to take their place equally, professionally and with pride,” he says. GHANA A member of Forbes Africa 's 11th annual , Ghanaian entrepreneur (top row, center) started Accra-based MinoHealth AI Labs in 2017 after waiting seven hours to see a doctor. He's using AI to address the continent's shortage of physicians, starting with an AI-driven radiology tool now used in 50 countries. In 2023, MinoHealth received a $150,000 grant from the Gates Foundation to harness AI in service of people lacking medical access. HUNGARY “We need meritocracy, not equality,” says , a Florida and Mar-a-Lago regular, in an interview with Forbes Hungary about his friendship with Donald Trump. “We need the best people who can become leaders and build companies, organize society for a better future.” Peterffy, a native of Hungary, left his homeland for the U.S. as a penniless 21-year-old. He later pioneered digital trading and, at age 80, now ranks among the 30 richest Americans. SAUDI ARABIA —the Arab on Forbes ' billionaires list, with an estimated net worth of $16.5 billion, thanks to his Saudi conglomerate Kingdom Holding Company—recently spoke with Forbes Middle East about his investments, his views on AI and global trade, and the country's efforts to move its economy beyond oil. Before Elon Musk's xAI acquired X in March, Alwaleed was the second-largest shareholder of the social media company (behind Musk); his Kingdom Holding invested in xAI last year. SLOVAKIA As a teenager, identified a molecule that can purify water in the presence of light. Now the 23-year-old Slovak scientist appears on Forbes Slovakia 's . She cofounded Toronto-based Xatoms to produce and sell the molecule as a powder. Having filed multiple patent applications and raised $3.5 million from investors including Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian, Xatoms projects $1.8 million in revenue this year from processing nearly 800 million gallons of water in Kenya, South Africa and indigenous communities in the Canadian province of Ontario. SOUTH KOREA South Korea native John S. Kim founded and heads Sendbird, a San Francisco–based company that reached unicorn status in 2021. Some 4,000 clients around the world including Yahoo, DoorDash and Virgin use its suite of customer-service communication tools. As an alternative to clients' customer service staffers and algorithms that surface rote answers to common questions, Kim recently introduced “AI agent” technology designed to produce personalized responses to its 300 million monthly users. TURKEY Forbes Turkey calls a magician of mobile games. The Turkey native in 2017 cofounded London-based Tripledot Studios, which attracts 25 million daily users with addictive smartphone versions of classic titles like solitaire. Babayiğit has advised or invested in more than 30 gaming companies around the world while building Tripledot, which acquired the mobile game portfolio of tech firm AppLovin for $800 million in June. UKRAINE As Donald Trump talks up a deal to access Ukraine's vast supply of natural resources such as graphite, lithium and titanium as well as oil and gas, press-shy businessman finds himself the center of attention. Forbes Ukraine details how the 67-year-old's investment group, BGV, grew to become the country's leading owner of licenses for extracting critical minerals. Got a tip? Share confidential information with Forbes.