US tycoons are back on top with Microsoft founder Bill Gates again the world’s richest man in a year when even billionaires felt the heat of the global recession, Forbes magazine said on Wednesday.
The wealthy few did not escape big shocks this year, with net worth on the list of 793 billionaires — down from 1,125 billionaires last year — plummeting to US$2.4 trillion from US$4.4 trillion, Forbes said.
“The biggest news today is that we are here and there still are billionaires,” Forbes spokeswoman Monie Begley joked at a press conference.
The much-watched annual rich list put Gates back on top with a net worth of US$40 billion, although he saw his bank balance lose US$18 billion over the last 12 months.
In second came investor Warren Buffett with US$37 billion despite losing US$25 billion this year in the value of his Berkshire Hathaway shares.
Also losing US$25 billion, Mexican telecoms king Carlos Slim still managed to come in third with US$35 billion.
The US surge sent billionaires from India, Russia and Turkey into retreat.
US rich filled 10 of the 20 top spots and New York replaced Moscow as home to most billionaires, with 55 to 27. London comes in second with 28.
Russia, where wealth is closely tied to commodity prices, lost almost two-thirds of its billionaires, down from 87 to 32.
Russian oligarchs have long been famous for flaunting their wealth, but this year, none of them made it into the elite top 20, compared to four in last year’s list.
India lost more than half of its billionaires, with the total going from 53 to 24.
Two Indians appear in the top 20, notably steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal with US$19.3 billion after losing US$25.7 billion over the last year.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, at number 17, was notable as the only top 20 member to see a net gain.
That was not because of his salary, which is a symbolic US$1 a year, but thanks to re-evaluation of Bloomberg financial news agency after the mayor bought a 20 percent stake from Merrill Lynch last year for US$4.5 billion.
About 64 percent of the billionaires are self-made and their average age is 63.7, a slight rise resulting from the lower number of rich Russians and Chinese, whose average ages last year were 46 and 48.
By contrast with that aging trend, Gates is a relatively youthful 53.
The youngest billionaire prize this year goes to Albert von Thurn und Taxis of Germany, who is 25 and listed as having US$2.1 billion.
But one of the young success stories from last year — Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg — dropped off the list altogether.
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to make advanced 3-nanometer chips in Japan, stepping up its semiconductor manufacturing roadmap in the country in a triumph for Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s technology ambitions. TSMC is to adopt cutting-edge technology for its second wafer fab in Kumamoto, company chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. That is an upgrade from an original blueprint to produce 7-nanometer chips by late next year, people familiar with the matter said. TSMC began mass production at its first plant in Japan’s Kumamoto in late 2024. Its second fab, which is still under construction, was originally focused on
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
Opposition parties not passing defense funding harms Taiwan’s national security, two US senators said separately in rare public criticism. “I am disappointed to see Taiwan’s opposition parties in parliament [the legislature] slash President [William] Lai’s (賴清德) defense budget so dramatically,” Roger Wicker, a Republican who chairs the US Senate Armed Forces Committee, said on social media. “The original proposal funded urgently needed weapons systems. Taiwan’s parliament should reconsider — especially with rising Chinese threats,” he added. Wicker’s post linked to an article published by Bloomberg that said that the two opposition parties’ move was “potentially jeopardizing the purchases of billions of dollars of
RSS