Gates Open to Allow Slim to Pass as Richest Man on Planet

It has been over 16 years since a person outside the United States earned the top spot as the number one billionaire in the world. For the past several years, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have been trading off and on to take the top shelf in the category of world’s richest person but as of today, Mexico’s Carlos Slim beat them both.

Seventy year old Slim has a net worth of $53.5 billion fro m his monopoly after purchasing Mexico’s state run telecommunications to build his own telephone empire two decades ago. Fifty seven year old Gates, who built his fortune on a computer company, dropped to second place this year because his net worth is on $53 billion and Buffet, who is the eldest of the three at 79, only has a net worth of $47 billion.

It was 1994 when the last time someone outside the United States topped the Forbes Riches Persons list and that honor went to Japanese businessman and real estate tycoon Yoshiaki Tsutsumi.

Slim has five separate stock holdings that make up 80 percent of his holdings and his net worth is a reflection of how well these stock holdings are doing at this point in time.

According to Bloomberg data, American held Movil SAB, which is a wireless carrier controlled by Slim, Mexican shares gained more than 50 percent in just over a year’s time. Mexico, the US and Brazil are among the 18 countries in the western hemisphere that is the biggest carrier of their prepaid wireless services.

One of the editors of Forbes magazine said they had been watching Slim for the past couple of years, wondering when he would take over as the number one richest person in the world; he had been very close for a while now.

Among the other richest people in the world, Mukesh Ambani of India, the chairman of the Mumbai-based energy explorer and refiner Reliance Industries, Ltd., was ranked fourth with a net worth of $29 billion. Lakshmi Mittal, also of India, the chief executive officer of the world’s largest steelmaker – ArcelorMittal – is number five in this elite line up of multi-billionaires.

Another American rose to sixth place, Larry Ellison the chief executive officer of Oracle Corp and Bernard Arnault of France placed seventh in the billionaires list of whose-who this year. Arnault is a chief executive officer and chairman of luxury goods with LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA.

Some may say that billionaire Bill Gates slipped to number two on the billionaires listing because he is also a philanthropist, giving away millions and millions of dollars to needy and worthwhile causes. This may be true, but he believes in paying it forward.