Gates Loses 'World's Richest' Title to Investment Guru Warren Buffet

Microsoft chief Bill Gates is no longer the richest man of the world. According to Forbes magazine's 2008 ranking of the world's billionaires, legendary investor Warren Buffett has ousted his longtime friend Gates as the world's richest man.

Omaha investor Buffett’s wealth grew $10 billion to about $62 billion in the 12 months through Feb. 11, thanks to shrap increase in the price of his Berkshire Hathaway company's stock.

The fortune of Gates, who had spent the last 13 years as the world's wealthiest man, rose $2 billion to $58 billion, falling to third on the list behind Mexican telecommunications mogul Carlos Slim Helu.

Helu, 68, checked in at second on the Forbes business magazine's rich-list with a fortune of $60 billion.

According to Forbes magazine's 2008 ranking of the world's billionaires, released late Wednesday, four of the top ten richest persons are Indians. Indian steel magnet Lakshmi Mittal was on fourth place with $45 billion, followed by the estranged brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani, whose father founded the Reliance Group of companies, at fifth and sixth with $43 billion and $42 billion, respectively. And, the property developer DLF Ltd. Chief Kushal Pal Singh moved up 54 spots to eighth with $30 billion.

Ikea store chain owner Ingvar Kamprad was seventh at $31 billion, followed by aluminum giant Oleg Deripaska at ninth place with $28 billion and Aldi store chain owner Karl Albrecht at 10th spot with $27 billion.

The overall list swelled by 179 from last year to a record number of 1,125 billionaires from 54 countries, with a combined net worth of $4.4 trillion. The average worth of each member on the list is $3.9 billion, about $250 million more than last year. The top 20 members are worth at least 20.8 billion dollars each, an increase of 3.3 billion dollars.

"The reason for this explosion in wealth is that we're in the midst of a phenomenal global boom," said Steve Forbes, chief executive of Forbes magazine.

"Never before in human history have so many people in so many parts of the world advanced so quickly economically as has happened in recent years."

Nearly two-thirds of the billionaires on the list are considered self-made, and it also includes a record 50 people under the age of 40.

Founder of the social networking site Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, 23, joins the list as the world's youngest billionaire. He is the world's 785th richest person with $1.5 billion, and the youngest self-made billionaire ever to make a Forbes list.

Liliane Bettencourt of France, the daughter of the founder of the L'Oreal SA cosmetics company, and the heir to the L'Oreal makeup fortune, was the world's richest woman with $22.9 billion. She is at the 17th place on the list.

Buffett, 77, is the chairman and the biggest holder of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the textile company he acquired in 1965 and turned into a holding company for investments in many other businesses. He is known as "the Sage of Omaha" for his remarkable savvy in stock market investments and for the success of Berkshire Hathaway.

As per Bloomberg data, as of July, he is the biggest holder of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway's stock with about 32 percent of the Class A shares and as of Dec. 31, 18 percent of the Class B shares.