Amazon founder Jeff Bezos rakes in $106b in 12 months to snare top place
A MAN whose company sells more than three billion products every day is the wealthiest person on the planet, knocking the Microsoft founder off the top of the Forbes rich list for the first time in 24 years. INTERACTIVE LIST
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AMAZON founder Jeff Bezos has relegated Bill Gates to a mere also-ran at the top end of town, raking in $106 billion in a single year to send his net worth to a staggering $225.6 billion.
The man whose company sells more than three billion products online every day is now the wealthiest person on the planet, knocking the Microsoft founder off the top of the Forbes rich list for the first time in 24 years.
Mr Gates, the Harvard dropout who went on to revolutionise personal computing, was knocked down to No.2 on the Forbes 400 list with a net worth of $137 billion, according to the magazine’s annual review of the world’s most ridiculously rich people.
Forbes said its analysts found a record 2208 billionaires in 72 countries and territories who hold a combined wealth of $12.83 trillion — almost twice the $4.87 trillion value of the world’s third-largest economy, Japan.
Share trader Warren Buffett, dubbed the “Oracle of Omaha” for his market nous, was listed as the wealthiest person with a net worth of $118.45 billion.
He was followed by French magnate Bernard Arnault, whose fashion empire including Louis Vuitton and Sephora delivered him and his family $101.5 billion.
Mr Arnault shaded Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, whose net worth was $101.1 billion.
Another European style magnate, Spain’s Amancio Ortega, whose company Inditex owns the fashion chain Zara, is the world’s wealthiest retailer at No.6 with $98.7 billion.
Rounding out the top 10 richest people in the world were Mexican telco mogul Carlos Slim Helu ($94.6 billion); US industrialists David and Charles Koch (equal eighth with $84.6 billion each) and software giant Oracle founder Larry Ellison ($82.5 billion) — while former New York City mayor and financial information guru Michael Bloomberg came it at 11 with $70.5 billion.
US President Donald Trump’s net worth flatlined from the previous year at $4.37 billion, which sent his ranking tumbling 11 spots to 259.
Forbes attributed his drop to deeper reporting about his assets, decline in brick-and-mortar retail, slowdown in real estate, particularly in the luxury sector, and how being president affects his business brand.
The first woman to appear on the richest billionaires list is Alice Walton, the only daughter of the founder of US retail giant Walmart, whose $64.86 billion was only enough to earn her 16th place. L’Oreal owner Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, at 18th with $59.51 billion, was the only other woman in the top 20.
Mining and cattle magnate Gina Rinehart retained her place as the richest Australian on the Forbes list, coming in at 69 with a net worth of $24.54 billion.