Bill Gates Reclaims Title As World's Richest

WASHINGTON – The surging price of
Microsoft shares returned US tech
tycoon Bill Gates back to the top of
Forbes’s world’s billionaires list, with
his $76 billion beating out Mexico’s
Carlos Slim’s $72 billion.
The annual list, released Monday,
counted 1,645 men and women as
billionaires, with an average wealth of $
4.5 billion and a collective wealth of $
6.4 trillion, up $1 trillion from a year
ago.
Gates, co-founder of the US software
firm, showed his staying power at the
top — the world’s richest man for 15 of
the past 20 years, according to Forbes
— despite spending recent years giving
away large sums of money to global
health and anti-poverty programs.
Gates owns about 4.4 percent of
Microsoft, making up less than 20
percent of his total fortune.
But the company’s share price has
risen 25 percent over the past year,
and, along with gains in other assets,
he has added $7 billion to his fortune
since a year ago, according to Forbes.
Slim, with a hand in everything from
telecommunications (America Movil) to
mining, finance and industry (Grupo
Carso), to retailing and real estate
across the Americas region, was worth
$1 billion less than a year ago, hit in
part by sagging markets in South
America.
In third was Spain’s Amancio Ortega,
whose pockets have filled with profits
from fashion: his hugely successful
Inditex garment empire, parent of
popular chains Zara, Pull & Bear, and
Bershka. More recently, Ortega heavily
invested in real estate in Europe and
the United States; his worth was put at
$64 billion.
A familiar cast of mega-wealthy filled
out the rest of the top ten: US
investment guru Warren Buffett ($58.2
billion); software group Oracle’s
founder and chief executive Larry
Ellison ($48 billion); US industrialists
and brothers Charles and David Koch
(each with $40 billion); Las Vegas
casino king Sheldon Adelson ($38
billion); Walmart heiress Christy Walton
($36.7 billion) and her brother Jim
Walton ($34.7 billion).
Together the $507 billion held by the
top ten is larger than the entire size of
the economy of Norway, or Belgium or
Poland in 2012.
- 31 billionaires under 40 -
US billionaires dominated the list, with
492, followed by 152 from China and
11 from Russia.
Forbes said two-thirds of them made
their own fortunes, while 13 percent
inherited. The rest took fortunes they
received and built them up to the $1
billion-plus level.
The biggest climb on the list in the year
came from Facebook’s Mark
Zuckerberg. The public sale of the
company’s stock more than doubled
his net worth to $28.5 billion, leaving
him at number 21, just behind Hong
Kong’s venerable tycoon Li Kashing
and just ahead of Italian chocolatier
Michele Ferrero.
Zuckerberg, 29, led a group of 31
billionaires under 40 years old.
Youngest, at age 24, was Perenna Kei
— also known as Ji Peili — the 85
percent shareholder of real estate
company Logan Property Holdings,
which went public in Hong Kong in
December. Her father Ji Haipeng is
chairman and chief executive of the
company.
Saudi investor Prince Alwaleed bin
Talal, a nephew of the oil giant’s king,
was likely to remain unhappy with
Forbes after blasting it last year for
allegedly understating his wealth.
Forbes put his fortune this year at just
$20.4 billion — enough for a ranking of
number 30 — compared to $20 billion
a year ago.
Defending itself last year, Forbes said
the prince “systematically
exaggerates” his wealth.
Last week Alwaleed sent out a press
release noting that the Bloomberg
Billionaires Index, a rival of Forbes, put
his fortune at $30.5 billion.
In the statement, he assailed Forbes for
“use of incorrect data” and said its
approach “seemed designed to
disparage Middle Eastern financial
institutions such as the Saudi stock
exchange