Amazon chief Jeff Bezos is now the world’s richest person, having snatched the top spot from Microsoft founder Bill Gates who slips to second place, a
Amazon chief Jeff Bezos is now the world’s richest person, having snatched the top spot from Microsoft founder Bill Gates who slips to second place, according to Forbes magazine’s annual billionaires list published on Tuesday. Thanks to a 59-percent rise in Amazon shares over the past 12 months, Bezos almost doubled his fortune, taking it to $120 billion, way ahead of Gates’s $90 billion the biggest gap ever between the number one and two spots.
US President Donald Trump’s ranking on the list fell to 766th place from 544th in the last edition, his wealth now being estimated at $3.1 billion, $400 million less than a year ago. Legendary investor, Warren Buffett held on to his number three ranking, followed by French industrialist Bernard Arnault, who jumped to fourth-richest person from his previous number 11 spot, mostly thanks to euro strength against the dollar. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg was fifth on the list while two Chinese billionaires rose to be among the 20 richest people in the world: Ma Huateng, CEO of Chinese internet giant Tencent who is the richest person in Asia and number 17 in the world, and Alibaba founder, Jack Ma.
There are now a record 2,208 billionaires in the world, Forbes counted, and their combined worth is $9.1 trillion, up 18 percent from last year. The US has the most billionaires (585), followed by China (373). There are 259 newcomers, including the first-ever cryptocurrency billionaires. Falling fortunes or political headwinds, meanwhile, pushed 121 people out of the illustrious list, including all 10 Saudi Arabians.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote has not only been named in Forbes world’s top ten black billionaires, he is placed in the first position all thanks to an increase of $1.9 billion from the 60-year-old billionaire’s net worth in 2017, when he was worth $12.2 billion. While Aliko steps up the billionaire ladder at nos 100th, 51-year-old Russia’s Roman Abramovich landed at position 140 with a total net worth of $10.8 billion. Other Nigerians on the list are Mike Adenuga worth $6,1 billion and Folorunsho Alakija worth N4.9b.
