Bill Gates regains world's richest man title: Forbes

• Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has regained the title of the world's richest man in the Forbes magazine's annual billionaire list that includes 56 India based billionaires led by RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani.
• Gates is back at the top spot after a four-year hiatus, reclaiming the title of world's richest person from Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helu, who had ranked number 1 for the previous four years.
• Gates, whose fortune rose by USD 9 billion in the past year to USD 76 billion, has held the top spot for 15 of the past 20 years.
• Spanish clothing retailer Amancio Ortega (best known for the Zara fashion chain) maintained his #3 spot from 2013, but increased his net worth $7 billion for a total of $64 billion, ahead of Warren Buffett (#4)with a net worth of $58.2 billion.  
• American gambling tycoon Sheldon Adelson (#8), increased his net worth by $11.5 billion, and made it back into the top ten for the first time since 2007.

• • A record 1,645 billionaires (up from 1,426 in 2013) made the list, with an average net worth of $4.7 billion (up from $4.2 billion in 2013).
  • Added together, the total net worth for this year’s billionaires was $6.4 trillion, up from $5.4 trillion last year.
  • 1,080 members, or roughly two-thirds of the list, were self-made billionaires; 207 inherited their wealth, another 352 inherited at least a portion but are still growing it.
  • This was the first year when a net worth of $31 billion was needed for billionaires to make it into the top 20, up from $23 billion last year.  Compared to last year’s list, German entrepreneur Karl Albrecht (#23) dropped out of the top 20, and Google co-founder Sergey Brin (#19) made it into the top 20.
  Gainers/Losers
  • The biggest net worth gainer was Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg (#21), who more than doubled his fortune from $13.3 billion in 2013 to $28.5 billion as shares of his social network soared.  The company’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg (#1,540), made the list for the first time and is featured on one of this year’s six covers.
  • Given a $19 billion deal with Facebook, WhatsApp founders Jan Koum (#202)with a net worth of $6.8 billion, and Brian Acton (#551) with a net worth of $3 billion, joined the Billionaires list for the first time.  Koum graced the Forbes cover.
  • The year’s biggest loser was Brazilian Eike Batista, whose net worth decreased from $10.6 billion in 2013 to less than $300 million, causing him to drop off of the list. Large debt payments cut into his cash reserves, while stock in his publicly traded natural resources companies plummeted.
  Women
  • A record number of women made the list this year: 172 versus 138 in 2013, representing an increase of 25%.
  • The U.S. boasted the most women billionaires on the 2014 list, with 58, followed by Germany with 16, and Brazil with 14.
  • The highest ranked woman on the list, Christy Walton (#9), with a net worth of $36.7 billion, beat out Liliane Bettencourt (#11) who was worth $34.5 billion.
  Newcomers/Drop-Offs
  • This year, 268 billionaires were new to the list, another record number, beating out a prior high of 226 newcomers in 2008.
  • 50 newcomers were from the U.S., and 37 were from China.
  • A notable newcomer included the youngest billionaire Perenna Kei (#1,284),age 24, of Hong Kong, with a net worth of $1.3 billion.
  • The industry with the most newcomers was retail, with a total of 35 new billionaires.  Technology was a hot sector, with 26 newcomers, 10 of whom were from the U.S., including Dropbox CEO Drew Houston (#1,372), and Workday cofounder Aneel Bhusri (#1,284).
  • The Asia-Pacific region had the most drop-offs with 47, followed by the Middle East and Africa with 20.
  • Notably missing from this year’s list were Olav Thon, the Norwegian who gave away his entire fortune (Forbes last calculated it at $5.75 billion); Viktor Nusenkis who was down $1.85 billion; Robert Friedland who lost $842 million; and Harold Simmons, the GOP heavyweight who died in December.
  • Altogether 100 people dropped out of the rankings, while 16 passed away.
  By Country
  • Thanks to the tech boom and strong equity markets, the U.S. led with the greatest number of billionaires, with 492, followed by China with 152 and Russia with 111.
  • Regionally, Europe boasted the most billionaires outside of the U.S., with 468 billionaires, followed by Asia-Pacific with 444.
  • Wealth is stretching to new corners of the world, with four new countries represented on the list – Algeria, Lithuania, Tanzania, and Uganda.
  • Aliko Dangote (#23) of Nigeria moved into the top 25, becoming the first African to rank that high, worth $25 billion.  He moved up 20 spots and was ahead of many investment gurus, including Carl Icahn (#24), George Soros (#25),and John Paulson (#78).
    
  The Top 20 billionaires have a combined net worth of $838.6 billion, up from $714.5 billion in 2013:

  RANK	NAME	NET WORTH	UP/DOWN FROM 2013	ORIGIN OF WEALTH	COUNTRY (By Citizenship)
  1	Bill Gates	$76 Billion	Up	Microsoft	United States
  2	Carlos Slim Helu	$72 Billion	Down	Telecom	Mexico
  3	Amancio Ortega	$64 Billion	Up	Retail	Spain
  4	Warren Buffett	$58.2 Billion	Up	Berkshire Hathaway	United States
  5	Larry Ellison	$48 Billion	Up	Oracle	United States
  6	Charles Koch	$40 Billion	Up	Diversified	United States
  6	David Koch	$40 Billion	Up	Diversified	United States
  8	Sheldon Adelson	$38 Billion	Up	Casinos	United States
  9	Christy Walton	$36.7 Billion	Up	Walmart	United States
  10	Jim Walton	$34.7 Billion	Up	Walmart	United States
  11	Liliane Bettencourt	$34.5 Billion	Up	L’Oreal	France
  12	Stefan Persson	$34.4 Billion	Up	H&M	Sweden
  13	Alice Walton	$34.3 Billion	Up	Walmart	United States
  14	S. Robson Walton	$34.2 Billion	Up	Walmart	United States
  15	Bernard Arnault	$33.5 Billion	Up	LVMH	France
  16	Michael Bloomberg	$33 Billion	Up	Bloomberg LP	United States
  17	Larry Page	$32.3 Billion	Up	Google	United States
  18	Jeff Bezos	$32 Billion	Up	Amazon.com	United States
  19	Sergey Brin	$31.8 Billion	Up	Google	United States
  20	Li Ka-shing	$31 Billion	Even	Diversified	Hong Kong

• Billionaires in India
  • In India the total number of billionaires stands at 56. The pack of 56 is led by Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) chief Mukesh Amabani with a net worth of 18.6 billion dollars. His brother Anil Ambani  is ranked 221 with net worth of 5 billion dollar. 
  • The other Indian billionaires in the list are Arcelor Mittal Chairman and CEO Laxshmi Mittal (52), Wipro Chairman Azim Premji (61), co-founder of Sun Pharma Dilip Shanghvi (82), HCL co founder Shiv Nadar(102), Hinduja brothers (122) and Kumar Birla (191).