The ranks of the world’s ultra-wealthy are expanding after a year in which the coronavirus pandemic upended world economies and threatened the livelihoods of people across the globe, according to a new listing revealed Tuesday.
The annual world’s billionaires list by Forbes included a record-breaking 2,755 billionaires, with Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos topping it for the fourth consecutive year.
This year’s billionaires are worth a combined $13.1 trillion, up from $8 trillion last year, Forbes said.
“The very, very rich got very, very richer,” said Forbes’ Chief Content Officer Randall Lane, in an interview with Reuters Video News.
Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk jumped into the second spot on the list, up from 31st last year.
Bernard Arnault, chief executive of luxury goods firm LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA., Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates and Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg round out the top five of the world’s richest billionaires.
Investor and business tycoon Warren Buffett fell out of the top five for the first time in over two decades, as tech executives dominate the Forbes rankings.
This year’s list has 493 newcomers, including Whitney Wolfe Herd, chief executive of the dating app Bumble, which went public this year.
The U.S. continued to be the country with the highest number of billionaires with 724 billionaires. The country was followed by China with 698 billionaires and India with 140.
The list of billionaires this year included 26 from Turkey.
Yıldız Holding Chairperson Murat Ülker, with a wealth of $6.3 billion, was named Turkey's richest while he ranks 421th worldwide.
Ülker was followed by Rönesans Holding Chairperson Erman Ilıcak with a fortune of $4.4 billion, and Doğuş Holding Chairperson Ferit Şahenk with $3 billion.
The total wealth of Turkish billionaires was revealed as $53.2 billion.
