By Sheila Dang
April 6 (Reuters) – Forbes’ annual list of billionaires in the world holds a record 2,755 billionaires, with Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com Inc, topping it for the fourth consecutive year, the media company said on Tuesday said.
The ranks of the ultra-rich are expanding into a year in which the coronavirus pandemic is boosting the world economy and threatening the livelihoods of people around the world.
This year’s billionaires are worth a combined $ 13.1 billion, up from $ 8 billion last year, Forbes said.
“The very, very rich have become much, much richer,” Forbes chief content officer Randall Lane said in an interview with Reuters Video News.
Tesla CEO Eles Musk jumped to second place on the list, up from 31st last year.
Bernard Arnault, CEO of the luxury goods company LVMH, the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, and Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, exclude the top five of the richest billionaires in the world.
Investor and business magnate Warren Buffett has fallen out of the top five for the first time in more than two decades as tech executives dominate the Forbes rankings.
This year’s list includes 493 newcomers, including Whitney Wolfe Herd, CEO of the dating app Bumble, which became famous this year.
(Reported by Sheila Dang, edited by Ed Osmond)
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