Jeff Bezos, the chief of the e-commerce behemoth Amazon, is the richest person in the world as per Forbes’ list of billionaires. Also the owner of The Washington Post, Bezos is worth $131 billion dollars. Bezos founded Amazon in 1994 and owns a 16% stake in the organization. The astute entrepreneur is also consistently ranked as one of the most influential and powerful people across the globe.
He was followed by another tech entrepreneur, Bill Gates at the number two spot. Gates’ net worth is $96.5 billion and he currently is the board member of Microsoft, which he co-founded in 1975. Currently, he is extensively involved with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the biggest private philanthropic organization in the world. Also, he currently owns only 1% of the shares of Microsoft, and has sold or given away most of his share.
Warren Buffett, one of the most successful investors of all time, is at number three with a net worth of $82.5 billion. Currently the chief of Berkshire Hathway, which owns over 60 organizations, he is also known for his philanthropic ventures. Berkshire Hathway owns battery marker Duracell, restaurant chain Dairy Queen, and insurer Geico, among others.
Frenchman Bernard Arnault, the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of LVHM, occupied the fourth position on the list. LVHM is the world’s largest luxury-goods company that oversees a massive empire of 70 brands including Sephora and Louis Vuitton. He is also a patron of arts and a philanthropist and has a net worth of $76 billion.
The richest man in Mexico – Carlos Slim occupied the fifth position on the list with a net worth of $64 billion. He and his family own America Movil, Latin America’s biggest mobile telecom firm. Also, he is currently the largest single shareholder of The New York Times Company. His conglomerate also deals with sectors such as real estate, education, hospitality, and entertainment among others.
The list saw a huge number of technology entrepreneurs with Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle at the seventh spot. He currently serves as the Chairman of the board of Oracle. Also, technology entrepreneur and co-founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg was on the eighth spot in the list with a net worth of $62.3 billion. Micheal Bloomberg, the co-founder of the media company Bloomberg was at number nine with $55 billion. Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, occupied the tenth position on the list with $50.8 dollars while Sergey Brin, the other co-founder of Google and the President of Alphabet Inc. was on number 14. Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries was the only Indian on the list of top 20 billionaires.
American reality television personality, model, and entrepreneur Kylie Jenner was the youngest billionaire at merely 21. She is the owner of the cosmetics company, Kylie Cosmetics.
The total number of billionaires dwindled to 2,153. This figure is 55 less than last year’s. Also, there were 195 newcomers on the list this year with the richest newcomer being Colin Huang, the founder of Pinduoduo – the Chinese discount web retailer. While China saw a drop in billionaires to 324 this year from 372 last year, the United States saw an increase from 586 in 2018 to 607 this year.
Read more about the billionaires here.
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