Top 10 World's Billionaires 2017

The following are top ten world's billionaire 2017 - (Forbes List)

#1 Bill Gates - Cofounder, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Real Time Net Worth — as of 11/17/17 - $88.9 B

• With his wife Melinda, Bill Gates chairs the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest private charitable foundation.
• The foundation works to save lives and improve global health, and is working with Rotary International to eliminate polio.
• Gates has topped Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans for 24 years in a row.
• He remains a board member of Microsoft, the software firm he founded with Paul Allen in 1975.
• In late 2016, Gates announced the launch of a $1 billion Breakthrough Energy investment fund with about 20 other people.
 

#2  Warren Buffett - CEO, Berkshire Hathaway

Real Time Net Worth — as of 11/17/17 - $77.7 B

• Known as the "Oracle of Omaha," Buffett is one of the most successful investors of all time.
• He runs Berkshire Hathaway, which owns more than 60 companies, including insurer Geico, battery maker Duracell and restaurant chain Dairy Queen.
• The son of a U.S. congressman, he first bought stock at age 11 and first filed taxes at age 13.
• He has committed to giving more than 99% of his fortune to charity. So far he has given nearly $32 billion.
• With friend Bill Gates he launched The Giving Pledge in 2010, asking billionaires to donate half their wealth to charitable causes. 

#3 - Jeff Bezos - CEO and Founder, Amazon.com

Real Time Net Worth — as of 11/17/17 - $95.1 B

• Amazon's chief Jeff Bezos briefly topped Forbes' ranks of the world's richest in July 2017, as his online retailer's stock surged.
• He owns nearly 17% of Amazon, which he founded in a garage in Seattle in 1994.
• Bezos attended Princeton and worked at a hedge fund before quitting to sell books online.
• His other passion is space travel: His aerospace company, Blue Origin, is developing a reusable rocket that Bezos says will carry passengers.
• Bezos purchased The Washington Post in 2013 for $250 million.

#4 - Amancio Ortega

Real Time Net Worth — as of 11/17/17 - $74.8 B

• Ortega is the richest man in Europe and the wealthiest retailer in the world.
• A pioneer in fast fashion, he cofounded Zara parent Inditex with his ex-wife Rosalia Mera (d. 2013) in 1975.
• Ortega typically earns more than $400 million in dividends a year.
• He has invested in an ever-expanding real estate portfolio, which includes buildings in Madrid, Barcelona, London, Chicago, Miami and New York.

#5 - Mark Zuckerberg - Cofounder, Chairman and CEO, Facebook

Real Time Net Worth — as of 11/17/17 - $74.3 B

• The Facebook CEO has seen his net worth soar as the social network's stock price has skyrocketed.
• A Harvard dropout, he founded Facebook in 2004 at the age of 19.
• Zuckerberg started Facebook at Harvard for students to match names with faces in class.
• He took Facebook public in May 2012 and still owns about 17% of the stock.
• Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have pledged to give away 99% of their Facebook stake over their lifetimes.

#6 - Carlos Slim Helu & family - Honorary Chairman, América Móvil

Real Time Net Worth — as of 11/17/17 - $64.9 B

• Mexico's richest man, Carlos Slim and his family control America Movil, Latin America's biggest mobile telecom firm.
• With foreign telecom partners, Slim bought a stake in Telmex, Mexico's only phone company, in 1990.
• He also owns stakes in Mexican construction, consumer goods, mining and real estate companies and 17% of The New York Times.
• His son-in-law Fernando Romero designed the Soumaya Museum in Mexico City, home to Slim's extensive, eclectic art collection.

#7 - Larry Ellison - CTO and Founder, Oracle

Real Time Net Worth — as of 11/17/17 - $59.7 B 

• Ellison cofounded software firm Oracle in 1977 to tap into the growing need for customer relationship management databases.
• He gave up the Oracle CEO role in 2014 but still serves as chairman of the board and chief technology officer.
• As part of Oracle's push into cloud computing, it acquired cloud-software firm Netsuite for $9.3 billion in 2016.
• Oracle moved into hardware with its 2010 acquisition of Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion.
• In 2016, Ellison pledged to give $200 million to the University of Southern California for a cancer treatment center.

#8 - Charles Koch - CEO, Koch Industries

Real Time Net Worth — as of 11/17/17 - $48.2 B

• Charles Koch has been chairman and CEO of Koch Industries, America's second largest private company, since 1967.
• The conglomerate has $100 billion in revenues from businesses including pipelines, chemicals, Dixie cups, Brawny paper towels and Stainmaster carpets.
• His father, Fred Koch, started the business in 1940 and improved a method of refining heavy oil into gasoline.
• The Kansas native owns a 42% stake in the firm, as does his brother, David; they bought their two other brothers' shares in 1983.
• Koch has funded a number of think tanks, including the libertarian Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute.

#9 - David Koch - Executive Vice President, Koch Industries

Real Time Net Worth — as of 11/17/17 - $48.2 B

• David Koch shares majority control of Koch Industries, U.S's second largest private firm, with his brother Charles.
• The Kansas native lives in New York City, and oversees Koch's chemical technology group.
• Koch Industries, which has revenues of $100 billion, operates pipelines, produces fertilizer and makes Dixie cups and Quilted Northern toilet paper.
• A well-known philanthropist, David is a donor to New York's Lincoln Center and Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
• David Koch ran as the Libertarian Party's vice presidential candidate in 1980 on a ticket with Ed Clark; they won 1% of the vote.

#10 - Michael Bloomberg - CEO, Bloomberg

Real Time Net Worth — as of 11/17/17 - $47.7 B

• Bloomberg cofounded financial information and media company Bloomberg LP in 1981.
• He retains an 88% stake in the business, which has revenue north of $9 billion.
• He has donated more than $4 billion to gun control, climate change and other causes.
• He got his start on Wall Street in 1966 with an entry level job at investment bank Salomon Brothers. They fired him 15 years later.
• He owns at least six homes, including ones in Bermuda and London.