Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft
After a gap of four years, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has regained his spot as the world’s richest man, The 2014 Forbes Billionaires List reveals.
According to the full list, Gates is now worth an estimated US$76bn, up from US$67bn last year.
After a year of great change at Microsoft, with the appointment of Satya Nadella as its new CEO, the purchase of one of the world’s most iconic mobile phone manufacturers in Nokia, and the launch of its next-generation Xbox One console, the company has emerged having performed above expectations, which has no doubt contributed to Gates’ boost in wealth.
Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecoms billionaire, lost his position in first place after four years and is now only slightly behind Gates on the billionaires list, with an estimated US$72bn.
Gates has been a dominant force in the list, having been in first place in 15 of the last 20 years and he is unlikely to drop much further down the rankings in the coming years.
Only five technology billionaires make up a number of spots in the top 20, however. Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg just misses out in 21st place at US$28.5bn.
In fifth place is Oracle’s CEO and founder, Larry Ellison, who is worth an estimated US$48bn, while all the way down in 17th place is Google’s co-founder and CEO Larry Page, who is worth an estimated US$32.3bn, followed by Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos, worth US$32bn, and Google co-founder Sergey Brin at US$31.8bn.
