The third richest man in the world is worth more than Warren Buffet and Bill Gates | world | News

The 2024 Forbes Rich List features a list of billionaires who have retained a spot since 2000. However, a reshuffle within their ranks puts a man in third place thanks to his growing fortune.

The richest people on the planet today are largely the same as they were 20 years ago, although the top three spots have changed.

Elon Musk takes first place, Jeff Bezos second, although neither was in the top 20 less than 25 years ago.

Third place goes to billionaire Larry Ellison, who has held a consistent spot in the list’s top 20 for the past two decades, although he has been less in the spotlight than those in first and second place.

His total net worth is a staggering $217.2 billion (£173.6 billion).

Larry Ellison is chairman, chief technology officer and co-founder of software giant Oracle.

Although he left the CEO role in 2014 after 37 years at the helm, he still owns around 40% of the company.

Mr. Ellison, 80, founded Oracle in 1977. The company specializes in IT and provides business-oriented products and services.

According to its website, it is considered the world’s largest database management company.

Much of Oracle’s incredible growth can be attributed to its acquisitions of software companies – the largest of which was electronic health records company Cerner in a $28.3bn (£22.6bn) deal in 2021.

The billionaire was married four times before his current partner and had two children, David and Megan, with his third wife Barbara Boothe.

After stepping down as CEO, Mr Ellison made a permanent move from the United States to the Hawaiian island of Lanai, which he bought almost entirely in 2012 for $300 million (£238 million).

Mr. Ellison then sat on the board of fellow Forbes billionaire Tesla from December 2018 to August 2022.

The Oracle founder owned 45 million shared shares in Elon Musk’s company before stepping down as a director.

Mr Musk tops the Forbes rich list for the second year in a row with a net worth of $449.6 billion (£359.5 billion). Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is worth $240.5 billion (£192.2 billion).