Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Gates No Longer World's Richest

By Cernig

One of the hallmarks of American economic power last century was the conception that the world's richest person was always an American. Be it a Rockefeller or a Gates, the popular motif was of a Mr. Moneybags or Daddy Warbucks, probably in a stetson hat, from the good old U.S. of A.

Well, the title of "world's richest" just got offshored.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates is no longer the world's richest man! That honour now goes to Indian magnate Mukesh Ambani who is said to be worth around £31.6bn.

That's almost half a billion more than Gates whose fortune now stands at a meagre £31.15bn. He shares second spot with Mexican business tycoon Carlos Slim Helu. Investment guru Warren Buffett has dropped to fourth in the mega-rich list list. He is some way behind the top three with a fortune of just £28bn. Lakshmi Mittal currently ranks as the fifth richest in the world with a net worth of £25.4bn.

Ambani's rise to number one follows a big hike in the share value of his group of three companies. He is the boss of Reliance Industries, Reliance Petroleum and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd, India's biggest firm.
The U.S. is still, undoubtably, home to the majority of the world's wealthiest people - but India, for instance, has more names in Forbes' list of the richest people than ever before. make of that what you will.

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