On March 3rd, Forbes, the well-known American business and financial information magazine, released its yearly tally of the 500 richest people that the magazine has been closely following. The list was first published in 2000 and includes various well-known names, such as: Prince Al-Waleed, Warren Buffet, various members of the Walton family, Michael Dell, and Paul Allen; however, this year, former Microsoft CEO and philanthropist Bill Gates wins the #1 slot on Forbes’ “500 Richest People” list.

2014’s Forbes Billionaires: Full List Of The World’s 500 Richest People was published online at 7:00 AM EST by Abram Brown. In Brown’s commentary of the “500 Richest People,” he mentions his methodology for compiling this comprehensive list and states that the billionaires included within the list are “worth $6.4 trillion, a greater sum than any other Forbes has previously calculated.”

As for the list’s #1 spot, Bill Gates (listed under Microsoft) was listed at $76 billion, beating out Carlos Slim Helu & family of Mexico’s Telmex corporation, who was listed at $72 billion. Brown praised Gates in the following statement in Forbes’ article:

“Bill Gates saw the potential in PCs before anyone else truly grasped the commercial value of the concept. His foresight allowed him to build Microsoft into a $400 billion behemoth, and made him a passionate believer in the system that allowed him to do so.”

The “Top 5” richest people included in Brown’s list are:

1. Bill Gates ($76 billion) – Microsoft
2. Carlos Slim Helu & family ($72 billion) – telecom
3. Amancio Ortega ($64 billion) – retail
4. Warren Buffett ($58.2 billion) – Berkshire Hathaway
5. Larry Ellison ($48 billion) – Oracle

It has been a while since Gates has been listed #1 on Forbes’ list. For the past few years, Gates has appeared in the #2 spot since his last #1 appearance in 2009. Other well-known names who are included within the list are: Michael Bloomberg ($33 billion) of Bloomberg LP, Mark Zuckerberg ($28.5 billion) of Facebook, Rupert Murdoch ($13.5 billion) of FOX, and Eric Schmidt ($9.3 billion) of Google.

Forbes also tweeted the announcement of the “500 Richest People” list on Twitter:

2014 #ForbesBillionaires: 1. Bill Gates $76B 2. Carlos Slim $72B 3. Amancio Ortega $64B Full list & coverage: http://t.co/DY7JFLb1pG

— Forbes (@Forbes) March 3, 2014

Image via Wikimedia Commons