2014 LIST OF TOP 10 BILLIONAIRES (Richest People on Earth)
As some of you struggle to put a meal on your table or pay house rent, someone somewhere is filthy rich and has the capability to get all that which money can possibly buy.
According to Forbes Magazine, Bill Gates, Microsoft founder regained his position as the richest person on earth. Estimates show that Bill Gates’ wealth has increased from $67bn to $76bn becoming the richest individual in the whole wide world.
Bill Gates replaced last year’s top billionaire Carlos Slim who is a Mexican telecoms tycoon. Forbes recorded a total of 1,645 billionaires where Bill Gates has been topping the list for 15 years within the 20 years Forbes Magazine has been carrying out the exercise.
Forbes upheld that technology firms featured like never before in the list with Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook being the biggest gainer in net worth.
His rise is directly related to the sharp increase in social network shares. The CEO of social networks Sheryl Sandberg also made it to the list of the richest for the first time ever.
In addition, the WhatsApp founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton joined the league of the most richest in the world at numbers 202 and 551 respectively. Their presence in this list is attributed to the purchase of their message app by Facebook at $19bn.
Region wise, the US continued to dominate the list with most billionaires amounting to 492, Europe coming in second with slight 468 billionaires and Asia with 444 billionaires.
New countries featuring in the list are Uganda, Tanzania, Lithuania and Algeria. Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man from Nigeria made it to the top 25 list of world’s richest people with a net worth of $25bn.
Here is the list of the top ten richest people on earth
Name
Wealth
Main business
Bill Gates $76bn Microsoft, software
Carlos Slim $72bn America Movil, telecoms
Amancio Ortega $64bn Zara, fashion
Warren Buffet $58.2bn Berkshire Hathaway, investment
Larry Ellison $48bn Oracle, software
Charles Koch/David Koch $40bn/$40bn Koch Industries, various
Sheldon Adelson $38bn Las Vegas Sands, casinos
Christy Walton $36.7bn Wal-Mart, retail
Jim Walton $34.7bn Wal-Mart, retail
Liliane Bettencourt $34.5bn L’Oreal, retail