Bill Gates retains top spot on Forbes rich list, as Trump drops to 544th

by Dolapo Adelana

For the fourth consecutive year, Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates topped this year’s rich with an estimated fortune of around $86bn. He was followed by Berkshire Hathaway chief executive Warren Buffett, whose wealth was cited to be around $75.6bn.

US president, Donald Trump dropped down the list 200 spots to 544th as his fortune nosedived to $3.5bn from $3.7bn the previous year.

Forbes’ attributed his fall to the state of the Manhattan real estate market in which Mr Trump has invested a disproportionate amount of his fortune.

“Forty per cent of Donald Trump’s fortune is tied up in Trump Tower and eight buildings within one mile of it,” Forbes said. “Lately, the neighbourhood has been struggling (relatively speaking),” it added.

Others in the top ten, which is heavily dominated by Americans in the technology sector, were Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, at number five, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison at number seven and Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos.

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