As if Americans need any other proof that their wealth is on the decline after the stock market’s woes in 2008 and continued unemployment and housing problems, the richest man in the world is no longer a Yankee. That’s right: According to Forbes’ most recent list of the world’s billionaires, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet play second and third fiddle (respectively) to Mexican telecom giant Carlos Slim Helu. The margin Carlos Slim beat out gates by? A mere $500 million.
Here’s the whole list of the Forbes top 10 richest men:
- Carlos Slim: $53.5 billion from telecommunications
- Bill Gates: $53 billion from founding software giant Microsoft (MSFT)
- Warren Buffett: $47 billion from shrewd Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) investing
- Mukesh Ambani: $29 million from petrochemicals in India
- Lakshmi Mittal: $28.7 million from steel giant ArcelorMittal (MT)
- Lawrence Ellison: $28 billion from founding software giant Oracle (ORCL)
- Bernard Arnault: $27.5 billion from luxury brands Louis Vuitton and others
- Eike Batista: $27 billion in mining and oil in Latin America
- Amancio Ortega: $25 billion from South America fashion firm Inditex
- Karl Albrecht: $23.5 billion from grocery discounter Aldi
If you don’t know Bill Gates or Warren Buffet by now, you’ve been living under a rock. But telecom tycoon Carlos Slim has quietly been taking Latin America by storm for the last decade or so. Slim pounced on the privatization of Mexico’s national telephone company in the 1990s, right at a time when wireless communication and the Internet were about to explode. He came in third place last year on theForbes list, and gets top honors for the first time in the latest ranking.
It’s easy to see why. The 70-year-old Mexican native has a net worth that’s up $18.5 billion from last year, with no sign of slowing down. Slim recently received approval from Mexico regulators to merge his fixed-line assets into American Movil (AMX), Latin America’s biggest mobile phone company.
Oh, and did we mention construction conglomerate, Impulsora del Desarrollo y el Empleo, builds roads and energy infrastructure in the booming Latin American region?
It looks like the days of American software icons are numbered in the Top 10 list … but Slim better not get comfortable. Energy and mining tycoons from around the world are picking up momentum.
Take Elke Batista, who comes in at #8 and has vowed publicly that his goal is to be the world’s richest man. He was this year’s biggest gainer on the Forbes list, adding $19.5 billion to his piggy bank. As the son of Brazil’s former mining minister who presided over mining giant Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (VALE), Batista insists he wasn’t given anything and earnings his keep from his start in gold trading and mining. At 50, he’s a driven businessman in a booming emerging market. It’s probably only a matter of years before he takes the #1 spot.
Get the complete Forbes list of billionaires here.
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