Eight men now hold as much wealth as the 3.6 billion people who make up the world’s poorest half, a report by the charity Oxfam has found, highlighting the stark inequality between the planet’s rich and poor. The release of the report coincides with this week’s gathering of world leaders and business elites at Davos, Switzerland. A similar study conducted a year ago had found that the world’s richest 62 people had as much wealth as the bottom half of the population. The new study listed the eight wealthiest individuals along with their net worth as estimated by Forbes.
$75 billion
Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft
$67 billion
Amancio Ortega Gaona, the Spanish founder of the fashion company Inditex (which owns the brand Zara)
$60.8 billion
Warren E. Buffett, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway
$50 billion
Carlos Slim Helú, the Mexican telecommunications magnate
$45.2 billion
Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder
$44.6 billion
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s creator
$43.6 billion
Lawrence J. Ellison, the founder of Oracle
$40 billion
Michael R. Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York and founder of the media giant Bloomberg