Forbes’ much-awaited ranking of the world’s billionaires is out, and there are some major surprises! Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has become the richest person in the world, beating Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
And in India, Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma has now become the youngest billionaire on the coveted Forbes list of the wealthiest.
Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries, is still the richest Indian.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma: Youngest Indian Billionaire
In the Forbes annual list of the richest human beings on this planet, Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma has been declared as the youngest Indian billionaire, with a net worth of $1.7 billion.
He has been ranked #1374 on the list.
In fact, he is the only billionaire under 40 on the list.
Forbes said,
“One of the biggest beneficiaries of India’s demonetisation, Paytm has notched up 250 million registered users and 7 million transactions daily. Sharma owns 16 percent of Paytm, which is now valued at $9.4 billion,”
Mukesh Ambani from Reliance is still the still richest Indian, with a fortune of $40 billion. He lost fortune worth $844 million compared to last year.
92-year-old Samprada Singh, chairman emeritus of Alkem Laboratories is the oldest Indian billionaire on the list.
Jeff Bezos Is The Richest Human Being
Meanwhile, grabbing the top slot is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who beat Bill Gates to become the richest human being.
In fact, with a fortune of $112 billion, Jeff is also the first centi-billionaire in the Forbes list.
His wealth increased by $39.2 billion in last year, as share prices of Amazon zoomed by 39% in the same period.
After Jeff, it was France’s Bernard Arnault who made the maximum fortune in the last one year: His his luxury goods empire LVMH helped him to make over $30 billion last year.
Ma Huateng (also known as Pony Ma) is Asia’s wealthiest person, as the founder of Tencent now has a fortune of $45.3 billion, and was ranked #17 on the list.
Here are the top 10 wealthiest persons:
- Jeff Bezos – $112 billion
- Bill Gates – $90 billion
- Warren Buffett – $84 billion
- Bernard Arnault – $72 billion
- Mark Zuckerberg – $71 billion
- Amancio Ortega – $70 billion
- Carlos Slim Helu – $67.1 billion
- Charles Koch – $60 billion
- David Koch – $60 billion
- Larry Ellison – $58.5 billion
Some interesting highlights:
- A record number of people entered the billionaire list of Forbes this year: 2,208
- The combined wealth of all billionaires stands at $9.1 trillion, which is 18% more compared to last year
- The top 20 richest people are now worth $1.2 trillion, which is almost equal to Mexico’s entire GDP
- US President Trump lost $400 million last year, which pushed down his ranking to 766 from 544 last year.
You can find the complete list here.