FORBES 2011 BILLIONAIRES-WORLDS MOST RICHEST

WORLDS MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE-MOST OF THESE WILL BE NEW WORLD ORDER-ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT FREAKS AS WELL AS THE RICHEST BILLIONAIRES.
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2011 RICHEST
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World's Billionaires 2011: A Record Year In Numbers, Money And Impact
Luisa Kroll and Kerry A. Dolan, 03.09.11, 03:30 PM EST
BRIC countries surge; Carlos Slim widens lead atop list.

This 25th year of tracking global wealth was one to remember. The 2011 Billionaires List breaks two records: total number of listees (1,210) and combined wealth ($4.5 trillion). This horde surpasses the gross domestic product of Germany, one of only six nations to have fewer billionaires this year. BRICs led the way: Brazil, Russia, India and China produced 108 of the 214 new names. These four nations are home to one in four members, up from one in ten five years ago. Before this year only the U.S. had ever produced more than 100 billionaires. China now has 115 and Russia 101.

Atop the heap is Mexico's Carlos Slim Helu, who added $20.5 billion to his fortune, more than any other billionaire. The telecom mogul, who gets 62% of his fortune from America Movil ( AMX - news - people ), is now worth $74 billion and has pulled far ahead of his two closest rivals. Bill Gates, No. 2, and Warren Buffett, No. 3, both added a more modest $3 billion to their piles and are now worth $56 billion and $50 billion, respectively. Gates, who now gets 70% of his fortune from investments outside of Microsoft ( MSFT - news - people ), has actually been investing in the Mexican stock market and has holdings in Mexican Coke bottler Femsa and Grupo Televisa ( TV - news - people ).While nearly all emerging markets showed solid gains, wealth creation is moving at an especially breakneck speed in Asia-Pacific. The region now has a record 332 billionaires, up from 234 a year ago and 130 at the depth of the financial crisis in 2009. Sizzling stock markets are behind the surge. Three-fourths of Asia's 105 newcomers get the bulk of their fortunes from stakes in publicly traded companies, 25 of which have been public only since the start of 2010.America's wealthiest still dominate the global ranks, but the U.S. is losing its grip. One in three billionaires is an American, down from nearly one out of two a decade ago. It has 10 more than last year but 56 fewer than its 2008 peak. The U.S. is adding new billionaires at a much slower pace; just 6% of its 413 billionaires are new this year compared with 47% of China's and 30% of Russia's.

Still there are plenty of inspiring newcomers who figured out clever ways to get rich. The most obvious example is the success of Facebook, whose soaring valuation over the past couple of years--based on the most recent institutional round the company is worth $50 billion--has spawned six billionaires. Leading the group is Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose fortune jumped 238% to $13.5 billion in the past year. Also joining him in the world ranks are his cofounders Eduardo Saverin and Dustin Moskovitz, its first president Sean Parker (played by Justin Timberlake in The Social Network) and the Russian Internet investor Yuri Milner. Moskovitz, 26, is eight days younger than his former college roommate Zuckerberg, making him the world's youngest billionaire.The frenzy among big investors for all things social pushed up private market values of online gaming outfit Zynga and online group-buying site Groupon, creating two more new billionaires, Mark Pincus (who taught people to farm on Facebook) and Eric Lefkofsky (who was Groupon's lead investor).

So these are the people who are making money off the backs of the 99% of the population who are losing money. The list should be titled: World's Criminals Against Humanity 2011: A record Year In Nu.Other notable American newcomers include Do Won and Jin Sook Chang, the cofounders of Forever21, and Chris Cline, who owns 3 billion tons of coal reserves, mostly in Illinois.Why do we spend so much time counting other people's money? Because these moguls have the power to shape our world. Telecom billionaire turned prime minister Najib Mikati is keeping Lebanon's government together. Ernesto Bertarelli, who lost the America's Cup to Larry Ellison last year, is now focusing on saving the oceans from mass extinction. Gates and Buffett have already traveled to three continents working to change giving practices among the ultra-rich.Where their inspiration leads, we will follow.Coming later today: feature stories, online bios and complete coverage of all 1,210 billionaires.

A note on methodology:
More than 50 reporters in 13 countries worked on compiling the list this year, valuing individuals' public holdings, private companies, real estate, yachts, art and cash. Net worths were locked in using stock prices and exchange rates from Feb. 14.

Tech-Tech Billionaires: Bill Tops The List
Mar. 9 2011 - 6:30 pm | By ERIC SAVITZ

Bill Gates: That's Bill, as in billionaire.
Bill Gates isn’t the richest man in the world. The Microsoft co-founder isn’t exactly a slouch, mind you. According to the 2011 version of the Forbes list of the world’s billionaires, he’s the second-richest person on Earth, with a net worth of $56 billion. That’s up a couple of billion from last year, a little ahead of his card-playing buddy Warren Buffett at $50 billion, but well behind Mexico’s Carlos Slim Helu at $74 billion. Had he not given $30 billion away, Bill would still top the list.The tech sector is well represented on this year’s list, which overall includes 1,210 people (the most ever) who together control $4.5 trillion in wealth (again, the most ever.)Tech titans represent 11 of the top 100 of the world’s wealthiest people:

•Oracle’s Larry Ellison moves up one notch to 5th, with $39.5 billion – up 41% from last year.
•Tied for 24th were the Google twins, Sergey Brin and Larry Page. That’s unchanged from the 2010 list.
•Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos jumps to 30th, from 43. He’s worth $18.1 billion.
•Richest non-American tech titan? Azim Premji, of Indian IT consulting firm Wipro. He’s 36th, with $16.8 billion.
•Dell founder Michael Dell slipped to 44th, from 37th, although his worth moved up by $1.1 billion to $14.6 billion.
•Dell is now just ahead of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who fell to 46th, from 33rd. He’s got $14.5 billion, same as last year.
•Just missing the top 50: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Ranked 52nd, he’s worth an estimated $13.5 billion.
•The third Microsoftie on the list is co-founder Paul Allen. He’s ranked 57th, which is down from 37th last year, although his net worth ticked up a bit to $13 billion.
•Jumping into the top 100 was Robin Li, the CEO of China-based search engine Baidu, at 95th on the list, with $9.4 billion. That’s up from $258th, and $3.5 billion, in 2010.
You’ll notice who didn’t make the top 100: Apple CEO Steve Jobs. But he didn’t miss by much. He’s 110th on the list, with $8.3 billion; last year he was ranked 136, with $6.1 billion. Taking his old spot at 136, weirdly enough, is his new arch-enemy Google chairman Eric Schmidt, with $7 billion.

A few other tech tidbits:

•Highest ranked private tech company exec, excluding Facebook: James Goodnight, CEO of privately held SAS Institute. He’s tied at 141st, with $6.9 billion.
•Highest ranked European tech exec: SAP co-founder Hasso Plattner. He’s got $6.9 billion, too.
•Highest ranked Taiwanese tech execs: the husband-and-wife team of Cher Wang and Wenchi Chen. Chen is CEO of chip maker Via Technologies. Wang is chairman of both Via and handset maker HTC.
•Highest ranked billionaire other than Steve Jobs to benefit from huge demand for the iPad and iPhone: Hon Hai Precision’s Terry Gou, ranked 179th, with $5.7 billion.
There are a host of other familiar names:

•Former Intel exec Gordon Moore – he’s the namesake of Moore’s Law – at 268.
•Dolby Labs founder and namesake Ray Dolby, at 310.
•H. Ross Perot – both of them. Perot pere is 323, with $3.4 billion. Perot fils is 879th, with $1.4 billion.
•Research In Motion co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and James Balsillie both make the billionaire’s roster.
•The ranks of Google billionaires includes additional names, including Sun co-founder Andreas von Bechtolsheim and Stanford prof David Cheriton.
•There’s a sprinkling of VCs, including Kleiner Perkins partner John Doerr, ex-Kleiner partner Vinod Khosla and Sequoia’s Michael Moritz.
•Billionaires who sold their companies to Oracle include Tom Siebel – namesake of Siebel Systems – and David Duffield, he of Peoplesoft.
•Web 1.0 billionaires on the list include one-time AOL chief Steve Case, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, and Yahoo co-founders Jerry Yang and David Filo.
•The list also includes half the cast of The Social Network, including not just Zuck, but also Sean Parker, Eduardo Saverin and Dustin Moskovitz, part of a growing group of social networking billionaires.

LVMH’s Bernard Arnault Moves Up to No. 4 on Billionaires List
Mar. 9 2011 - 5:33 pm | By HANNAH ELLIOTT

Bernard Arnault owns the yacht builder Royal Van Lent and has stakes in French retailer Carrefour.Bernard Arnault has called 2010 a great vintage for LVMH, and for good reason. Besides making record revenues at LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Arnault’s burgeoning $41 billion net worth landed him the No. 4 spot on this year’s list of the world’s billionaires.The stellar year at LVMH came largely from success in its handbag and champagne divisions. All told, LVMH revenues reached €20.3 billion ($28.26 billion), up from €17.1 billion in 2009. Total profits exceeded €4 billion.Individually, Louis Vuitton saw record double-digit revenue growth, while Dom Pérignon and Krug recorded significant increases. The group’s watch and jewelery division had profits that doubled.

That’s not all. LVMH just bought a controlling stake in the Italian jewel house Bulgari. It also now owns 70 percent of Nude Skincare, the line developed by Bono’s wife Ali Hewson. Not to mention that 20-percent share in Hermès it bought in December.The sudden firing of designer John Galliano at Dior Couture for his anti-Semitic assault on a couple at a Paris cafe apparently had little effect on LVMH stock values. And Kate Moss’ cigarette-dangling return to the runway at the Louis Vuitton show earlier today in Paris cinched the LVMH allure–she was heralded as a smash hit.Arnault, 62, owns a controlling stake of all those brands–plus Givenchy, Fendi, Berluti, Tag Heuer, Sephora, Kenzo, Hublot, Loewe, Guerlain, De Beers and a host of other luxury names.An accomplished pianist and father of five (son Antoine runs Berluti; daughter Delphine is highly placed at Dior), Arnault has earned a reputation as an unemotional and unrelenting businessman with an absurdly keen sense of timing. But he also has a deep appreciation for art and those who create it–after all, he’s the one who hired John Galliano, Marc Jacobs and Alexander McQueen.

When I spoke with him at his offices last fall, he showed me some of his Agnes Martin paintings and a pencil sketch drawn by Christian Dior himself, which Arnault had bought that morning. He also talked about how much he enjoys playing tennis with his kids.Last year Arnault placed 7th on our list with an estimated net worth of $27.5 billion. (Ralph Lauren came in 173rd both last year and this year, with a total net worth of $5.8 billion for 2011, up from $4.6 billion in 2010.) As expected, Arnault’s wealth has nearly doubled; at this point, I predict France’s richest man has nowhere to go but up.Carlos Slim watch out.
Follow me on Twitter: @HannahElliott

2010 RICHEST.
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World's Richest People-Bill Gates No Longer World's Richest Man
Matthew Miller and Luisa Kroll 03.10.10, 6:00 PM ET

For the third time in three years, the world has a new richest man. Riding surging prices of his various telecom holdings, including giant mobile outfit America Movil, Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helu has beaten out Americans Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to become the wealthiest person on earth and nab the top spot on the 2010 Forbes list of the World's Billionaires.Slim's fortune has swelled to an estimated $53.5 billion, up $18.5 billion in 12 months. Shares of America Movil, of which Slim owns a $23 billion stake, were up 35% in a year. That massive hoard of scratch puts him ahead of Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, who had held the title of world's richest 14 of the past 15 years.Gates, now worth $53 billion, is ranked second in the world. He is up $13 billion from a year ago as shares of Microsoft rose 50% in 12months. Gates' holdings in his personal investment vehicle Cascade also soared with the rest of the markets.Buffett's fortune jumped $10 billion to $47 billion on rising shares of Berkshire Hathaway. He ranks third.

The Oracle of Omaha shrewdly invested $5 billion in Goldman Sachs and $3 billion in General Electric amid the 2008 market collapse. He also recently acquired railroad giant Burlington Northern Santa Fe for $26 billion.In his annual shareholder letter Buffett wrote, We've put a lot of money to work during the chaos of the last two years. When it's raining gold, reach for a bucket, not a thimble.Many plutocrats did just that. Indeed, last year's wealth wasteland has become a billionaire bonanza. Most of the richest people on the planet have seen their fortunes soar in the past year.

This year the World's Billionaires have an average net worth of $3.5 billion, up $500million in 12 months. The world has 1,011 10-figure titans, up from 793 a year ago but still shy of the record 1,125 in 2008. Of those billionaires on last year's list, only 12% saw their fortunes decline. U.S. billionaires still dominate the ranks--but their grip is slipping. Americans account for 40% of the world's billionaires, down from 45% a year ago.The U.S. commands 38% of the collective $3.6 trillion net worth of the world's richest, down from 44% a year ago.Of the 97 new members of the list, only 16% are from the U.S. By contrast, Asia made big gains. The region added 104 moguls and now has just 14 fewer than Europe, thanks to several large public offerings and swelling stock markets.The new billionaires include American Isaac Perlmutter, who flipped Marvel Entertainment to Disney for $4 billion last December. The Spider-Man mogul netted nearly $900 million in cash and 20 million shares of Disney in the transaction.Also new to the ranking: 27 billionaires from China, including Li Shufu, whose automaker, Geely, announced plans to buy Swedish brand Volvo from Ford in December. The deal is expected to close in March 2010.Finland and Pakistan both welcomed their first billionaires.For the first time China (including Hong Kong) has the most billionaires outside the U.S. with 89. Russia has 62 billionaires, 28 of them returnees who had fallen off last year's list amid a meltdown in commodities. Total returnees to the list this year: 164.

Eleven countries have at least double the number of billionaires they had a year ago, including China, India, Turkey and South Korea.Thirty members of last year's list fell out of the billionaire's club. Moguls who couldn't make the cut: Iceland's Thor Bjorgolfsson, Russia's Boris Berezovsky and Saudi Arabia's Maan Al-Sanea.
Another 13 members of last year's list died. Among the deceased: real estate developer Melvin Simon and glass tycoon William Davidson.