MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Carlos Slim, the son of an immigrant shopkeeper who amassed a $53.5 billion fortune and bought a major stake in The New York Times, became the first person from a developing nation to be named the world’s richest person.
Slim, a telecom magnate, edged out U.S. billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to earn the top spot on Forbes’ list of the world’s richest people — the first time a non-American has topped the list since 1994. The jump in position comes after a year in which Slim’s cellphone holdings rebounded in value.
Arturo Elias Ayub — an executive at Slim’s Telmex telephone company and the billionaire’s son-in-law — expressed satisfaction that a Mexican businessman is at the top of the list.
“The reaction is one of satisfaction, that this confidence in Mexico exists and this confidence in our group’s companies,” said Elias Ayub, who frequently acts as Slim’s spokesman.
Slim is known for wearing inexpensive suits and rarely using the computers his companies sell, preferring old- style paper notebooks. He is a baseball fan, and his indulgences are largely limited to cigars and diet soft drinks. A civil engineer by training, he has bought up troubled or government-owned companies of all types, fixed them up and resold them for huge profits.
Gates’ and Buffett’s philanthropic donations also played a role in their decline to the Nos. 2 and 3 spots, according to Forbes employee Keren Blankfeld. The Associated Press
Forbes world’s richest
Some of the world’s wealthiest people, compiled by Forbes magazine:
Carlos Slim, $53.5 billion
Bill Gates, $53 billion
Warren Buffett, $47 billion
Larry Ellison, $28 billion
Bernard Arnault, $27.5 billion
Zara Ortega, $25 billion
Mukesh Ambani, $29 billion
Colorado
Philip Anschutz, $6 billion
Charles Ergen, $4.9 billion
John Malone, $2.4 billion
James Leprino, $2.3 billion
Pat Stryker, $1.35 billion
Gary Magness, $1.1 billion
