Amancio Ortega becomes world’s richest man according to Forbes

Amancio Ortega, founder of Spain’s Inditex, is for the first time ever the world’s wealthiest man. According to Forbes’ ranking, the fashion magnate has a fortune of $79.8 million, a figure that rose by 5.3% over the last 24 hours thanks to a surge in Inditex shares.

Ortega has overtaken Microsoft founder Bill Gates ($78.1 billion), who has held the title for 16 of the past 21 years and media magnate Warren Buffet, who is worth $64.4 billion.

The Mexican businessman Carlos Slim ranks 4th with $64.4 billion, followed by Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos with $49.4 billion and Oracle’s creator, Larry Ellison with $47.6 billion.

Liliane Bettencourt of L’Oreal comes in at nr. 8 with a fortune of $43.6 billion, while Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH rankes 11th with a net worth of $39.5 billion. The founder of Nike Phil Knight continues to be in the 20th place with $27.8 billion, while H&M’s chairman, Stefan Persson rankes 30th with $23.9 billion.