Mexico's telecommunications mogul and owner of America Movil SAB (AMXL) is now officially the richest man on the planet. Slim edged out fellow zillionaire Bill Gates for the first time ever in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the 20 wealthiest individuals on Earth.
The 72-year-old Slim's net worth dropped to $68.5 billion as of the close of the U.S. markets last week. It was still a high enough closing to place Slim above Bill Gates and Warren Buffett who ranked second and third respectively. Brazilian Eike Batista, who currently rank a measly tenth on the list, has vowed to unseat Slim by 2015. He will have to make up a nearly $39 billion income gap to reach his goal.
"I'm competitive," said Batista. "It's Brazil's time to be number one. Brazilians have always admired the American dream. What's happening in Brazil is the Brazilian dream and I happen to the example."
Other notables gracing the top 20 are conservative trust fund babies Charles and David Koch and Newt Gingrich sugar daddy Sheldon Adelson who owns casinos in Las Vegas and Macau.
Bloomberg ranks the top 20 richest people in the world as follows:
1) Carlos Slim Helu
2) William Henry Gates III
3) Warren E. Buffett
4) Ingvar Kamprad
5) Bernard Arnault
6) Amancio Ortega Gaona
7) Lawrence Joseph Ellison
8) Charles De Ganahi Koch
9) David Hamilton Koch
10) Eike Fuhrken Batista
11) Mukesh D. Ambani
12) Li Ka-Shing
13) Sheldon Gary Adelson
14) Christy R. Walton
15) Stefan Persson
16) Jim C. Walton
17) Lakshmi N. Mittal
18) Samuel Robson Walton
19) Lilliane Bettencourt
20) David K.R. Thomson