Elon Musk ousts Jeff Bezos on top Forbes billionaires' list

Elon Musk is now the world's richest man, according to Forbes, relegating Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to second place for the first time in four years. Musk was worth an estimated $219bn (£166bn) on 11 March - when the Forbes' list of world billionaires locked in net worths - after adding $68bn to his fortune over the past year. This was helped by a 33% jump in the share price of Tesla, his car-maker.

Jeff Bezos lost out due to a 3% drop in Amazon stock and increased charitable giving, which wiped $6bn from his net worth, Forbes said.

They were among 2,668 billionaires Forbes found for the list - a number that was down from last year's record 2,755. Between them, this year's billionaires are worth $12.7tn (£9.7tn), down from last year's $13.1tn (£10tn).

Some 236 people became billionaires for the first time, including pop star Rihanna and film director New Zealander Peter Jackson.

Barbados, Bulgaria, Estonia and Uruguay each gained their first billionaires. The US has the highest number of billionaires - 735, up from last year's 724 - while China (including Hong Kong and Macau) came in second with 607. India has 166, Germany 134 and Russia 83.

There were 34 fewer Russian billionaires on the list this year, hit by sanctions and the falling value of stocks and the rouble after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Forbes said that Russian billionaire wealth fell by more than $260bn (£198bn) in the past year.

China's billionaires were hit by a government crackdown on tech companies, weaker stocks, and a troubled property sector, leaving its billionaires some $500bn (£380bn) poorer than a year ago, although Forbes calculated that their combined worth is still $1.96trn (£1.5trn).

Forbes found 327 female billionaires, most of whom inherited their wealth, including the world's richest woman Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, whose grandfather founded beauty giant L'Oréal.

Some 101 women on the list are self-made billionaires - the richest of those is Fan Hongwei, who chairs the Chinese chemical fibre supplier Hengli Petrochemical and is worth an estimated $18.2bn (£13.8bn). (Agencies)

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