Famous businessman and former professional tennis and ice hockey player, Ion Tiriac, is the only Romanian included in the latest edition of Forbes billionaires list, with a fortune of USD 1.1 billion, ranking 1,795 worldwide.
Bill Gates is the number one richest for the fourth year in a row, and the richest person in the world for 18 out of the past 23 years. He has a fortune of USD 86 billion, up from USD 75 billion last year. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos had the best year of any person on the planet, adding USD 27.6 billion to his fortune; now worth USD 72.8 billion, he moved into the top three in the world for the first time, up from number five a year ago.
Warren Buffett had the second-best year, and the biggest gain since Donald Trump was elected president in November 2016. His USD 14.8 billion jump in 12 months was enough for him to grab back the number two spot from Amancio Ortega, founder of Spanish clothing chain Zara. Ortega’s fortune was up USD 4.3 billion since last year, but he still fell to fourth in the world, unable to keep up with the outsize gains of others.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg moved up to number five for the first time, after his fortune rose USD11.4 billion in 12 months. Meanwhile Carlos Slim Helu of Mexico, once the world’s richest man, fell to number six, the first time he’s been out of the top five in a dozen years.
There were 195 newcomers. Mainland China had the most new ten-figure fortunes with 76. The U.S. was second with 25.
It was a record year for the richest people on earth, as the number of billionaires jumped 13 percent to 2,043 from 1,810 last year, the first time ever that Forbes has pinned down more than 2,000 ten-figure-fortunes. Their total net worth rose by 18 percent to USD 7.67 trillion, also a record.