Bill Gates loses richest man crown

Buffett supplants him as billionaire King

By Kelly Fiveash • Get more from this author

Posted in Financial News, 6th March 2008 12:24 GMT

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Bill Gates is no longer the richest man on the planet. Investment guru Warren Buffett has knocked him off the number one spot for the first time in over a decade.

Gates has been at the top of the annual Forbes rich list for the past 13 years.

Buffett now has a personal fortune of about $62bn - ahead of Gates' cash pile of $58bn.

Gates was pushed into third place on the preposterously prosperous list because Mexican telecoms mogul Carlos Slim Helú has also jumped ahead of the Microsoft co-founder, with total wealth estimated at $60bn.

Despite his relegation to third place, Gates, who steps down as Redmond head honcho in June, still pulled in an eye-popping $2bn in the past 12 months alone.

Meanwhile, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire on the list.

He's already put an estimated $1.5bn into his piggy bank, even though the 23-year-old is yet to poke a profit out of his social networking website.®

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