New Delhi
Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has become the third richest person on the globe. He has overtaken Warren Buffett to sit at the third position in the global ranking of richest persons, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Interestingly, it is also the first time when the top three slots of the wealthiest persons in the world have been occupied by global technology giants.The richest person, according to the index, is Jeff Bezos, founder, chairman, and CEO of Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer. His wealth accounted for USD 142 billion.
The next in line is Bill Gates with USD 94.2 billion. Gates is the co-founder of Microsoft, the world’s biggest software maker, and owns about 1 per cent of the Redmond, Washington-based company. The rest of his fortune is managed through closely held Cascade Investment, which controls stakes in dozens of publicly traded companies, according to the index.
Warren Buffet, with a net worth of USD 81.2 billion occupies the fourth spot. Buffett is the chairman and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway. The Omaha, Nebraska-based company owns Geico, Clayton Homes, and Dairy Queen, and has stakes in Coca-Cola and American Express.
Amancio Ortega is the fifth richest person, according to the Bloomberg index, with a net worth of USD 76.1 billion. Ortega owns 59 percent of Inditex, the world’s largest clothing retailer. The Arteixo, Spain-based company is the parent of Zara and eight other retail brands, and operates more than 7,400 stores. It had revenue of 25.3 billion euros ($29 billion) in the year to January 2018. Ortega also owns premium office and retail properties worldwide.
Meanwhile, India’s richest person, Mukesh Ambani, is at the 18th place, according to the index. The business tycoon has a net worth of USD 39.6 billion.
The index clearly underscores that technology is shaping the world business order. The advancement of technology and its reach could be a major factor behind rising fortunes of these technology giants.
The pace and growth of technology fortunes can be understood from the fact that they made up about a fifth of the more than USD 5 trillion in wealth tracked by the index.
Buffet’s slide in the list has been attributed to his charities. Buffet has donated shares worth millions to charities, out of which Bill Gates’ foundation received the most. The value of those shares is now USD 50 billion.
Bloomberg Billionaires Index views profiles for each of the world’s 500 richest people, see the biggest movers, and compare fortunes or track returns.
It is a daily ranking of the world’s richest people. The details about the calculations are provided in the net worth analysis on each billionaire’s profile page. The figures are updated at the close of every trading day in New York, USA.
