In the 2010 Forbes list of the World’s Billionaires, Mexican tycoon Carlo Slim Helu has beaten out Americans Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to become the wealthiest person in the world.
Bill Gates, who held the title of the world’s richest man in 14 of the past 15 years, is now ranked second .Telecom tycoon who pounced on privatization of Mexico’s national telephone company in the 1990s becomes world’s richest person for first time after coming in third place last year. Net worth up $18.5 billion in a year. Recently received regulatory approval to merge his fixed-line assets into American Movil, Latin America’s biggest mobile phone company.
| Rank | Name | Citizenship | Age | Net Worth ($bil) | Residence |
| 1 | Carlos Slim Helu & family | Mexico | 70 | 53.5 | Mexico |
| 2 | William Gates III | United States | 54 | 53 | United States |
| 3 | Warren Buffett | United States | 79 | 47 | United States |
| 4 | Mukesh Ambani | India | 52 | 29 | India |
| 5 | Lakshmi Mittal | India | 59 | 28.7 | United Kingdom |
| 6 | Lawrence Ellison | United States | 65 | 28 | United States |
| 7 | Bernard Arnault | France | 61 | 27.5 | France |
| 8 | Eike Batista | Brazil | 53 | 27 | Brazil |
| 9 | Amancio Ortega | Spain | 74 | 25 | Spain |
| 10 | Karl Albrecht | Germany | 90 | 23.5 | Germany |
