worlds richest man

Bill Gates Gives Up "World's Richest Man" Status for Philanthropy

Filed under: Charity, Big Givers, Wealth

On Wednesday, Forbes magazine will publish its annual list of the richest billionaires in the world. It's almost certain to include Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Carlos Slim in the top three, but while Gates has topped the list nearly every year since 1995 (losing out only once to Buffett by a margin of half a billion), this year we're not expecting to see the Microsoft co-founder in the top spot.

The reason for Gates' displacement? His overwhelming philanthropic activity. Although his personal fortune today is estimated around $49 billion, he and his wife Melinda have funneled some $28 billion into their non-profit foundation. As a result, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim – who contributes far less than Gates or Buffett to charity - is expected to top the list.

[Source: Reuters]

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Tags: bill gates, billionaire, billionaires, carlos slim, philanthropy, warren buffett, worlds richest man

Indian Billionaire to Be World's Richest Man by 2014

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wealth

Forget Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Carlos Slim: in four years' time the world's richest man will be Indian commodity king Mukesh Ambani (above), Forbes predicts in a new special report on the coming decade in finance and economics. The magazine estimates that Ambani's fortune will have swelled to $62 billion by 2014, outpacing the rest of the contenders, including current world's richest man Carlos Slim who's currently worth $53.5 billion. Mexico's Slim, who's made some risky investments including a large stake in the struggling New York Times, will be "hit hard by Mexican political and financial chaos," Forbes predicts. Ambani, 53, is currently the fourth richest man in the world with a fortune of $29 billion. He is the owner of Antilia, a 27-floor building in Mumbai which includes his family's private residence of 400,000 square feet, making it the world's first billion-dollar home and the largest private home in the world.

Tags: Bill Gates, billionaire, Carlos Slim, Forbes, Mukesh Ambani, Warren Buffet, wealth, worlds richest man

World's Richest Man Buys Duke-Semans Mansion for $44 Million

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Wealth

Mexican telecommunications mogul Carlos Slim, who beat out Warren Buffet and Bill Gates to capture the title of World's Richest Man earlier this year with an astonishing net worth of $53.5 billion, has purchased the stunning Duke-Semans Mansion in New York for a cool $44 million. As we reported back in January, cab driver-turned-fertilizer king Tamir Sapir had listed the palatial townhouse, said to be the only private mansion left on Fifth Avenue, for $50 million. According to the Wall St. Journal, Slim cut the deal to snag it for $6 million less with Sapir directly. Sapir bought the historic seven-story Beaux Arts mansion located across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art from relatives of Doris Duke for $40 million in 2006. The 20,000-square-foot mansion, built in 1901, currently has a doctor's office in the basement, a five-story main residence, a penthouse duplex on top, 12 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, and 11 wood-burning fireplaces.

Gallery: Duke Semans Mansion

Tags: billionaire, Carlos Slim, celebrity real estate, Doris Duke, Duke Semans Mansion, Duke-Semans Mansion, Fifth Avenue, mansion, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mexico, New York, New York City, real estate, Tamir Sapir, worlds richest man

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

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wealth

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.

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