Good Question: Who Are The World's Richest People?
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- When Amazon's stock price jumped overnight, it briefly made Jeff Bezos the wealthiest guy on Earth. But as the market closed Thursday, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index put Bill Gates back on top.
So, who are the world's richest people? Good Question.
There are 90 billionaires in the world, and two the two Seattle tech moguls are jockeying for first place. Bill Gates has been the world's richest man for 18 of the past 23 years. On Thursday, the man who was selling books from his garage 22 years ago briefly bumped him down.
Third on the list is Amancio Ortega from Spain. He's big into clothes -- the man behind the store Zara. They just opened up a new one at the Mall of America.
Fourth is famous investor and Berkshire Hathaway magnate Warren Buffet, followed by 33-year-old Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Coming in at No. 6 is Carlos Slim – the richest man in Mexico. He's a big name in telecom. Larry Ellison - the guy behind technology giant Oracle is seventh.
Next is France's Bernard Arnault -- he owns Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Dom Perignon. Ninth is Larry Page -- a co-founder of Google.
The Kochs -- the politically active brothers involved in energy and chemicals and refining – are tied for 10th.
So what about Walmart? Three Waltons are at 16, 17 and 18 -- but they have to split their fortune among the siblings.
As evidenced by Bezos's brief stint at the top, the ranking does change - sometimes daily. Because these folks are so rich -- they can gain and lose one of their billion dollars in one day. Forbes keeps a real-time list online.
You might ask, "Where are the women?" The richest comes in 15th -- Lilane Bettencourt. The 94-year-old lives in France and owns one-third of L'Oreal. It was passed down to her from her father.