Elon Musk overtakes Jeff Bezos to claim title of world’s richest man

Elon Musk has topped Forbes’ list of world billionaires, relegating Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to second place for the first time in four years.

Musk was worth an estimated $219bn (£166bn) as of 11 March – when the list’s authors locked in net worths – after adding $68bn (£51bn) to his fortune over the past year, helped by a 33% jump in the share price of his car-maker Tesla.

Mr Bezos lost out due to a 3% drop in Amazon stock and increased charitable giving, which wiped $6bn (£4.5bn) from his net worth, Forbes said.

They were among 2,668 billionaires Forbes found for the list – a number that was down from last year’s record 2,755. Between them, this year’s billionaires are worth $12.7trn (£9.7trn), down from last year’s $13.1trn (£10trn).

Some 236 people became billionaires for the first time, including pop star Rihanna, and film director New Zealander Peter Jackson; while Barbados, Bulgaria, Estonia, and Uruguay each gained their first billionaires.

The US has the highest number of billionaires – 735, up from last year’s 724 – while China (including Hong Kong and Macau) came in second with 607. India has 166, Germany has 134, and Russia has 83.

But there were 34 fewer Russian billionaires on the list this year, hit by sanctions and the falling value of stocks and the rouble following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Forbes said that Russian billionaire wealth fell by more than $260bn (£198bn) in the past year.

China’s billionaires were hit by a government crackdown on tech companies, weaker stocks, and a troubled property sector, leaving its billionaires some $500bn (£380bn) poorer than a year ago, although Forbes calculated that their combined worth is still $1.96trn (£1.5trn).

Forbes found 327 female billionaires, most of whom inherited their wealth, including the world’s richest woman Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, whose grandfather founded beauty giant L’Oréal.

Some 101 women on the list are self-made billionaires – the richest of those is Fan Hongwei, who chairs the Chinese chemical fibre supplier Hengli Petrochemical and is worth an estimated $18.2bn (£13.8bn).

The richest billionaires in the world, according to Forbes:

1 – Elon Musk, who resides in the US state of Texas, with a net worth of $219bn from Tesla and Space X

2 – Jeff Bezos, who resides in the US state of Washington, with a net worth of $171bn from Amazon

3 – Bernard Arnault and family, who live in Paris, with a net worth of $158bn from luxury goods company LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton)

4 – Bill Gates, who lives in the US state of Washington, with a net worth of $129bn from Microsoft

5 – Warren Buffet, who lives in the US state of Nebraska, with a net worth of $118bn from multi-national conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway

6 – Larry Page, who lives in the US state of California, with a net worth of $111bn from Google

7 – Sergey Brin, who lives in the US state of California, with a net worth of $107bn from Google

8 – Larry Ellison, who lives in Hawaii, with a net worth of $106bn from software

9 – Steve Ballmer, who lives in the US state of Washington, with a net worth of $91.4bn from Microsoft

10 – Mukesh Ambani, who lives in India, with a net worth of $90.7bn from Reliance Industries, which has interests in petrochemicals, oil and gas, telecom and retail