Carlos Slim Beats Buffet & Gates for World's Richest Man Title

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed)
Mar 10th 2010 at 10:02PM

Mexican telecommunications mogul Carlos Slim has beat out Warren Buffet and Bill Gates to capture the title of World's Richest Man, according to Forbes' newly-released rich list. With an astonishing net worth of $53.5 billion, Slim, whose most recent acquisition is a major stake in the struggling New York Times, is the first person from a developing nation ever to be named the world's richest person. The 70-year-old mogul's ever-expanding fortunes - his net worth jumped by $18.5 billion over the past year - is attributable to a spike in value for his his enviable cell phone holdings.

Gates (No. 2) and Buffet (No. 3) have not suffered any reversal of fortune that knocked them down on the list; in fact, Gates is up by $13 billion and Buffet by $10 billion for the year. Rather, the magazine notes, their declining position is due to having given so much money to charitable causes. Slim is known for wearing inexpensive suits and rarely using the computers his companies sell, preferring old-style paper notebooks. While he owns an impressive collection of art, including works by French sculptor Auguste Rodin, the AP notes that he works out of a set of somewhat dowdy, 1970s-style offices.

Tags: bill gates, billionaire, Carlos Slim, Forbes, Mexico, new york times, warren buffet, worlds richest man