The richest man in the world in 2018 is Jeff Bezos, owner of the Amazon online store. At the same time, he is the first billionaire in the history of the rankings whose assets exceeded $ 100 billion. His company's shares increased by 59% in the past 12 months, making him a record $ 39.2 billion.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates dropped to second place in 2018. However, he has only not been the richest man in the world six times since 1995. His assets rose from $ 86 billion last year to $ 90 billion this year.
Last year's second richest man in the world, investor Warren Buffett, dropped to third place in 2018. He earned $ 7.5 billion in the past 12 months and now has $ 84 billion.
Right after Jeff Bezos, the last 12 months were the best for the income of Bernard Arnault. The French entrepreneur, head of the LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton luxury empire, earned $ 30.5 billion, adding up to a total of $ 72 billion. He's the fourth richest man in the world and the richest man in Europe.
The top ten richest people in the world then include Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook ), Amancio Ortega (Zara), Carlos Slim Helu (America Movil ), Charles Koch (Koch Industries), David Koch (Koch Industries) and Larry Ellison (Oracle).
This year, 259 new billionaires have entered the Forbes ranking. Most of them come from China (89) and the US (18). Overall, 72 countries are represented, including Hungary and Zimbabwe for the first time. Most billionaires come from the US (585). China is represented by 476 billionaires.
Although most billionaires have increased their fortunes in the last 12 months, 16% have lost. One of them, for example, was the US President Donald Trump, whose assets dropped by $ 400 million to $ 3.1 billion. He dropped from 544th place last year to 766th place in 2018.
The Czech Republic is represented in the ranking by six billionaires:
- 88. Petr Kellner (PFF Group) - $ 15.5 billion
- 456. Andrej Babiš (Czech Prime Minister, formerly Agrofert) - $4.6 billion
- 729. Karel Komárek (Sazka) - $ 3.2 billion
- 822. Radovan Vítek (Czech Property Investments) - $ 2.9 billion
- 924. Daniel Křetínský (Energetický a průmyslový Holding) - $2.6 billion
- 1756. Pavel Tykač (Czech Coal) - $ 1.3 billion
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