World’s eight richest men worth £350billion are as wealthy as half the world
THEY ARE worth £350billion – so how do they live and what do they ever manage to spend it on?
No 1: Bill Gates, founder of the Microsoft computer software empire worth £62bn
The news that eight billionaires own more wealth than half the population of the planet combined – £353billion compared to £340billion – caused a predictable fuss.
But Oxfam’s attack on this “group of men who could easily fit into a single golf buggy” failed to take account of their impressive philanthropy.
Among them, they have given at least £50billion to charity. So who are they and how do they live?
Bill Gates reveals he will not leave his fortune to his children
Bill Gates
Founder of Microsoft
Worth £62 billion
Family: Married Melinda French, 52, a project manager at Microsoft, in Hawaii in 1994. They have three children.
Lifestyle: Gates, 61, lives in a 66,000 sq ft mansion overlooking Lake Washington in Washington state on the US West Coast.
It took seven years to build, at a cost of £55million and incorporates a hightech sensor system that allows guests to set their own temperature and lighting preferences.
Boy’s toys: When asked to choose a luxury item on Desert Island Discs, Gates selected a DVD collection of educational lectures.
No 2: Amancia Ortega, founder of Zara fashion, is worth £55bn
Amancio Ortegs
Founder of Zara
Worth £55 billion
Family: Ortega, 80, married his second wife Flora in 2001 and they live in a discreet apartment block in the Spanish town of La Coruna.
Lifestyle: Another man not known for extravagance, every day Ortega wears the same uniform of blue blazer, white shirt and grey trousers, goes to the same coffee shop and eats lunch with his employees in the company café.
Boy’s toys: He drives a relatively unshowy Audi A8 but, more extravagantly, globetrots in a £37million Global Express BD-700 from Bombardier, one of the leading manufacturers of luxury private jets.
No 3: Warren Buffett the top US investor, £50bn
Warren Buffett
Investment guru
Worth £50 billion
Family: An unconventional home life. Married his first wife Susan in 1952.
When she left home 25 years later to become a cabaret singer in San Francisco, Susan introduced him to a friend called Astrid who promptly moved in with him.
Mr and Mrs Buffett stayed married until Susan died in 2004 and Buffett married Astrid two years later.
Lifestyle: Famously frugal, this multibillionaire, 86, lives in the same house in Omaha, Nebraksa, that he bought for £26,000 in 1958 and enjoys dining at Dairy Queen, a fast-food chain his company bought in 1998. His wheels are modest: Buffett bought a £35,000 Cadillac DTS sedan in 2006.
Boy’s toys: When he bought a £5.5million private jet in 1989, Buffett was so stricken with remorse that he called it The Indefensible.
No 4: Carlos Slim, worth £41bn, telecoms giant
Carlos Slim
Mexican entrepreneur
Worth £41 billion
His companies account for 40 per cent of the listings on the Mexican stock exchange. The country has been nicknamed Slimlandia.
Family: He married in 1967 and has six children. Soumaya died in 1999, he’s never remarried.
Lifestyle: Slim still lives close to where he was brought up in Mexico City in a six-bedroom home he bought 40 years ago and has an international property portfolio.
Boy’s toys: Slim, 76, has no fleet of flash cars and jets, but he does enjoy Cuban cigars and art.
No 5: Jeff Bezos, worth £37bn, founded Amazon
Amazon's warehouse in action
Jeff Bezos
Founder of Amazon
Worth £37 billion
Apart from Amazon, Bezos, 53, builds spacecraft and bought the Washington Post for £207million.
Family: He married Mackenzie Tuttle, 46, in 1993 after they met at a New York hedge fund office. They were married within six months and now have four children.
Lifestyle: Bezos owns a house on Lake Washington and has a £20million Beverly Hills estate.
Boy’s toys: A qualified pilot, Bezos flies his own private jet.
No 6: Mark Zuckerberg Facebook head, £36bn
Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook co-founder
Worth £36 billion
Family: Zuckerberg, 32, met his wife Priscilla Chan at Harvard in 2003, the year before he started Facebook. The couple married in 2012 and have one daughter.
Lifestyle: Home is the Californian town of Palo Alto, where Zuckerberg spent more than £37million buying a 5,000 sq ft home and then all the other land and buildings around it.
In October 2014, he paid £83million for 750 acres in Hawaii.
Boy’s toys: Zuckerberg drives a black Volkswagen GTI with a manual transmission, which costs about £25,000. One business rival said of him: “He’s the poorest rich person I’ve ever seen in my life.”
No 7: Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, £35bn
Larry Ellison
Oracle software
Worth £35billion
Family: Ellison, 72, who has been married and divorced four times, is currently single.
Lifestyle: He owns a number of properties in Malibu and his main residence is a sprawling, Japaneseinspired retreat in Woodside, California.
It reportedly took 10 years and more than £83million to complete. He also owns 98 per cent of the Hawaiian island of Lanai, which he bought for £248million.
Boy’s toys: His fleet of supercars includes a McLaren F1 an Audi R8. Ellison also owns several private planes, including a Gulfstream V and two military jets.
No 8: Michael Bloomberg worth £33bn, finance info
Michael Bloomberg
Founder OF Bloomberg data
Worth £33billion
Family: Bloomberg, 74, divorced his first wife, Susan Brown in 1993, and his current partner is Diana Taylor, a divorcée he met in 2000.
Lifestyle: Bloomberg owns between 12 and 15 houses around the world, including two in London, a five-storey townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, a £19million country house in The Hamptons and home in a Colorado ski resort.
Boy’s toys: Bloomberg has a pilot’s licence and his fleet includes a Dassault Falcon 900B jet and a six-seat Agusta worth £3.7million.