NEW JERSEY – Forbes’ annual list of the world’s billionaires includes a record-breaking 2,755 billionaires, topped by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos for the fourth year in a row, the media company said on Tuesday (April 6).
The ranks of the ultra-rich are growing after a year of coronavirus pandemic weighing on the global economy and threatening the livelihoods of people around the world.
This year’s billionaires are worth $ 13.1 trillion (S $ 17.5 trillion) together, up from $ 8 trillion last year, Forbes said.
“The very, very rich got very, very rich,” said Randall Lane, Forbes chief content officer, in an interview with Reuters Video News.
Bezos led with $ 177 billion. Tesla chief executive Elon Musk jumped to second place on the list at $ 151 billion, compared to 31st place last year.
Bernard Arnault, CEO of the luxury goods company LVMH, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, round off the top 5 richest billionaires in the world.
Investor and business tycoon Warren Buffett fell out of the top 5 for the first time in over two decades when tech managers dominated the Forbes rankings. It came in 6th at $ 96 billion.
This year’s list has 493 newcomers, including Whitney Wolfe Herd, CEO of the dating app Bumble, which went public this year.
The Asia-Pacific region has the highest number of billionaires at 1,149, followed by the US with 724 and Europe with 628.
Three Asian billionaires make the top 20 on the list – Mukesh Ambani (No. 10, $ 84.5 billion), Zhong Shanshan (No. 13, $ 68.9 billion), and Ma Huateng (No. 15, $ 65.8 billion).
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From Singapore, Zhang Yong from Haidilao took 75th place with $ 23 billion, the color tycoon Goh Cheng Liang (No. 80, $ 21.7 billion), the Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin (No. 140, 14, $ 6 billion) and Far East Organization real estate siblings Robert and Philip Ng (No. 158, $ 13.3 billion), Forrest Li, Founder and Group Chief Executive of Tech Unicorn Sea (No. 177, 12, $ 4 billion).
