The World's Billionaires

The Top 20

Rank	Name	Citizenship	Age	Net Worth ($Bil)	Residence
1	William Gates III	United States	51	56.0	United States
2	Warren Buffett	United States	76	52.0	United States
3	Carlos Slim Helu	Mexico	67	49.0	Mexico
4	Ingvar Kamprad & family	Sweden	80	33.0	Switzerland
5	Lakshmi Mittal	India	56	32.0	United Kingdom
6	Sheldon Adelson	United States	73	26.5	United States
7	Bernard Arnault	France	58	26.0	France
8	Amancio Ortega	Spain	71	24.0	Spain
9	Li Ka-shing	Hong Kong	78	23.0	Hong Kong
10	David Thomson & family	Canada	49	22.0	Canada
11	Lawrence Ellison	United States	62	21.5	United States
12	Liliane Bettencourt	France	84	20.7	France
13	Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud	Saudi Arabia	50	20.3	Saudi Arabia
14	Mukesh Ambani	India	49	20.1	India
15	Karl Albrecht	Germany	87	20.0	Germany
16	Roman Abramovich	Russia	40	18.7	United Kingdom
17	Stefan Persson	Sweden	59	18.4	Sweden
18	Anil Ambani	India	47	18.2	India
19	Paul Allen	United States	54	18.0	United States
20	Theo Albrecht	Germany	84	17.5	Germany
	The World's Billionaires #1 William Gates III

Age: 51
Source: Microsoft
Net Worth: $56.0 bil
Country Of Citizenship: United States
Residence: Medina, Washington , United States, North America
Industry: Software
Marital Status: married, 3 children
Education: Harvard University, Drop Out

After numerous delays, Microsoft visionary released latest operating system, Vista, in January. Last June announced his retirement from company he cofounded 31 years ago. The Harvard dropout who promised "a computer on every desk and in every home" now focusing time and talents on tackling diseases (hepatitis B, AIDS, malaria) in Africa, boosting America's lackluster high school graduation rate and helping women abroad start small businesses. This summer bridge buddy Warren Buffett pledged majority of his Berkshire Hathaway stock to Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation over the next 20 years, potentially doubling foundation's endowment. Sells 20 million Microsoft shares a quarter, plows proceeds into personal investment vehicle Cascade. Today more than half of net worth invested outside Microsoft.

(Sources Forbes.com)