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World's richest billionaires named - as Elon Musk tops Forbes' list

There are more billionaires than ever before - and Elon Musk is the richest of them all, according to Forbes' latest billionaires list.

Mr Musk has taken the top spot in the annual list from French luxury goods titan Bernard Arnault, according to the magazine - although the Tesla boss was already top of Forbes' real-time billionaires list.

The Trump adviser's net worth grew by 75% to an estimated $342bn (£264.73bn) - with his jump in wealth following big new valuations of SpaceX and his artificial intelligence company xAI, and a 12-month rise in Tesla stock despite its share price plunging recently, Forbes said.

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It is Forbes' 39th annual world's billionaires list, which the publication describes as "the definitive ranking of the world's richest people".

On the list are a record-breaking 3,028 billionaires, up 247 from last year. Between them, they're worth $16.1trn

Tech bosses dominate the ranking, with all the top 10 spots taken by men.

Coming second to Mr Musk is Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg with $216bn (£167.4bn).

He's followed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, worth $215bn (£166.6bn).

Coming in fourth is Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle, the computer tech business, who has a net worth of $192bn (£148.7bn).

The only non-tech boss in the top five is Mr Arnault and his family with $178bn (£137.9bn). They're at the helm of the luxury goods business LVMH, which owns brands like Louis Vuitton and Moet Hennessy.

Another non-tech boss comes next in the form of investor Warren Buffett with his $154bn (£119.3bn) fortune.

Google founders Larry Page (worth $144bn or £111.6bn) and Sergey Brin (worth $138bn or £107bn) take the seventh and eighth spots.

The only non-American in the top 10, other than Mr Arnault, is Spaniard Amancio Ortega. As founder of the Inditex fashion brand, which owns Zara and Bershka. He's amassed $124bn (£96bn).

Tenth richest is former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer with $118bn (£91.4bn).

One of the 288 newcomers on this year's billionaires list is Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Google parent company Alphabet. His net worth rose to $1.1bn (£850m) as the value of his Google shares increased.

Another notable person on the longer billionaires list is President Donald Trump, whose wealth has doubled to an estimated $5.1bn (£3.95bn) as his social media company Truth Social became a publicly listed company and he sold his own cryptocurrency token.

Sky News

(c) Sky News 2025: World's richest billionaires named - as Elon Musk tops Forbes' list

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