Buffett, Ortega
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. chairman Warren Buffett is the world’s third-richest person with $59.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg ranking. He is $3.7 billion ahead of Spaniard Amancio Ortega, Europe’s wealthiest person.
Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA, ranks fifth with a $55.6 billion fortune. The world’s largest furniture retailer generated more than $36 billion in revenue and $4 billion in net income in 2012.
Google Inc. co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have seen their fortunes rise more than 22 percent year-to-date as shares of the world’s most popular search provider have surged. They rank No. 18 and No. 19 respectively.
Tesla Accelerates
The fortune of Elon Musk, the founder and largest shareholder of electric-car maker Tesla Motors Inc., has accelerated 128 percent year-to-date. The Palo Alto, California- based company increased the size of its equity and debt offerings by 30 percent to as much as $1.08 billion to build up its cash reserves and repay its loan to the U.S.
Musk has a net worth of $5.4 billion.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index takes measure of the world’s wealthiest people based on market and economic changes and Bloomberg News reporting. Each net worth figure is updated every business day at 5:30 p.m. in New York and listed in U.S. dollars.