Gates Tops Rich List With $57B

Bill Gates offered to pay for Arfa Karim's medical care

(NEWSER) - A computer prodigy known as "Pakistan's girl wonder" has died at the age of 16 from complications caused by an epileptic stroke. Arfa Karim was just nine years old when she became the youngest person ever awarded the "Microsoft Certified Professional" title for mastering the company's programs, the Daily Mail reports. She was invited to visit Microsoft's US headquarters, and met execs including Bill Gates. More»

His $59B tops Warren Buffett's $39B

(NEWSER) - Forbes is out with its annual ranking of the richest Americans, with some familiar names up top. Highlights from the magazine and MSNBC :

1. Bill Gates, $59 billion
2. Warren Buffett, $39 billion
3. Larry Ellison (Oracle), $33 billion
4. (tie) Charles Koch, $25 billion
5. (tie) David Koch, $25 billion

Australian mining tycoon Gina Rinehart could be worth $100B

(NEWSER) - The world may soon have a new richest person, and good money says you've never heard of her. Australian mining tycoon Gina Rinehart is projected to reach a net worth as high as $100 billion—more than Carlos Slim ($74 billion), Bill Gates ($56 billion), and Mark Zuckerberg ($13.5 billion). She's currently worth $9 billion, making her the wealthiest person in Australia, but her value is rising quickly because of high iron ore prices and increased exports to China, writes Clare O'Connor at Forbes . And her company is about to expand in a big way. More»

Says Gates plotted to take his shares while Allen battled cancer

(NEWSER) - There's no love lost between Paul Allen and Bill Gates—at least, it seems that way in Allen's new memoir. Idea Man: A Memoir by the Co-founder of Microsoft is scheduled to hit shelves April 17, and its pages contain a biting portrait of Gates, reports the Wall Street Journal , which viewed a draft of the book. Allen presents a revised story of his relationship with Gates—which began in high school—writing, for instance, that in Microsoft's early days, Gates plotted to take his shares in the company while he was being treated for cancer. "It was mercenary opportunism, plain and simple," Allen writes. More»

Mexican tycoon world's richest man with $74 billion

(NEWSER) - Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim is the richest person in the world for the second year running, according to Forbes' latest list of billionaires . The 71-year-old Slim, now worth an estimated $74 billion, widened the gap with No. 2 Bill Gates thanks to some canny business moves last year, including heavy investment in mining, Reuters notes. Warren Buffett, Louis Vuitton chief Bernard Arnault, and Oracle's Larry Ellison round out the top 5 of the world's estimated 1,210 billionaires, who have a combined net worth of some $4.5 trillion. More»