World
Mexican beats Bill Gates to be world's richest
Carlos Slim Helu of Mexico has knocked Bill Gates out of the top spot on the latest Forbes list of the World's Richest People. Helu has a net worth of $53.5 billion. Photo/REUTERS
Posted Thursday, March 11 2010 at 10:59
The second-youngest self-made billionaire is Japan's Yoshikazu Tanaka, 33, who made $1.4 billion from social networking firm Gree. The oldest is 99-year-old Walter Haefner from Switzerland who has $3.3 billion.
The sixth-richest man is Oracle Corp Chief Executive Larry Ellison with $28 billion. At No. 7 is the richest man in Europe, Bernard Arnault, CEO of luxury goods group LVMH, who has a fortune of $27.5 billion.
"The bling is back," said Forbes Senior Editor Luisa Kroll of Arnault's wealth.
Rounding out the top 10 is Spanish clothing retailer Inditex founder Amancio Ortega with $25 billion and German supermarket king Karl Albrecht, who is valued at $23.5 billion.
While Gates's and Buffett's fortunes far exceed most others in the top 10, Forbes Senior Editor Matthew Miller said their fortunes would be far greater if they hadn't given away a lot of their money.
"They would be far richer today if it wasn't for their tremendous philanthropy," he said. "Buffett would be worth at least $55 billion ... and Gates' net worth would exceed $80 billion had it not been for his philanthropy."
The Forbes ranking of the world's billionaires can be seen at www.forbes.com/billionaires.
(Additional reporting by Elzio Barreto; Editing by Mark Egan and Eric Walsh)
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