Forbes recently released its world’s billionaires list, and Jeff Bezos took the top spot. The Amazon CEO is the first person to accumulate a fortune of more than US$100 billion.
Bezos’ net worth was calculated at US$112 billion as of March 6, 2018—an increase of US$73 million from 2017. The increase is attributed to Amazon’s rising stock price. Bezos founded Amazon in 1994, and the online hub sells almost anything a person needs, including the digital assistant Alexa.
“Centi-billionaire Jeff Bezos secures the list’s top spot for the first time, becoming the only person to appear in the Forbes ranks with a 12-figure fortune,” the magazine noted. “Bezos’s fortune leapt more than US$39 billion, the list’s biggest one-year gain ever. He moves ahead of Bill Gates, who is now number 2. It is the biggest gap between no. 1 and 2 since 2001.”
Gate’s net worth is US$90 billion. Rounding out the “three-comma club” is Warren Buffet, whose fortune is valued at US$84 billion.
Canadians take up 46 places on Forbes’ list and include seven new billionaires. The publication found a record 2,208 billionaires this year worth a total of US$9.1 trillion.
The worlds richest Canadian is David Thomson, chairman of the Thomson Reuters Corp. With a net worth of US$25 billion, he is the 32nd wealthiest person in the world. His wealth dropped slightly from 2017 where he earned US$27.2 billion. However, it’s nearly twice as much as he amassed in 2009 (US$13 billion), reports Financial Post.
Canada’s second richest billionaire is Taiwan-born Joseph Tsai, who is worth US$9.7 billion. The co-founder of Alibaba Group first entered the list in 2014 with a fortune of US$3.7 billion.
The third richest person in Canada is Galen Weston, chairman emeritus of George Weston Ltd. and Loblaws Companies Ltd. His net worth has remained unchanged since 2017 at US$9.5 billion.
The fourth richest Canadian is James Irving of the J.D. Irving conglomerate (US$8.3 billion) followed by Jim Pattison of The Jim Pattison Group (US$6.9 billion).
“Professor billionaire” David Cheriton, who invested $10,000 in Google in its infancy and created the start-ups Arista Networks and Granite Systems, is worth US$6 billion.
The youngest Canadian on the list is Uber chairman Garrett Camp, 39, who co-founded the company in 2009 with Travis Kalanick. He’s worth US$4.8 billion.
