Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Now Tops Forbes’ Billionaires List

New York--The richest person in the world is in retail and, not surprisingly, it is online retail.

Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos ranked No. 1 on Forbes’ annual list of billionaires, with a net worth of $112 billion.

It’s the first time Bezos has come in at No. 1. According to Forbes, his fortune increased more than $39 billion, helping him to leapfrog Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who has a net worth of $90 billion. It was the biggest one-year gain for the list ever, Forbes said, and it has created the largest wealth gap between No. 1 and No. 2 since 2001.

Warren Buffett, whose holding company Berkshire Hathaway owns Ben Bridge Jeweler, Helzberg Diamond, Richline and Borsheims, came in at No. 3.
Forbes released its 2018 billionaires list earlier this month. It has a record 2,208 individuals from 72 countries, including the first billionaires on the list from Hungary and Zimbabwe.

Prominent names in the jewelry and watch industry who made the list include the heads of the world’s largest luxury conglomerates.

Bernard Arnault and family, chairman and CEO of LVMH (Bulgari, TAG Heuer, Hublot, etc.), came in at No. 4 with a net worth of $72 billion. Francois Pinault and family, ranked No. 30 with a net worth of $28 billion. Pinault is the founder of PPR (now Kering, brands include Boucheron and Ulysse Nardin) and he and his family also own Christie’s.

Coming in at No. 202 was former De Beers Chairman Nicky Oppenheimer with a net worth of $7.7 billion.

Johann Rupert and family, chairman of Richemont (Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Piaget, Jaeger-LeCoultre, etc.), was No. 228 billion with a net worth of $7 billion.

Diamantaire Laurence Graff (no relation to the author) ranked No. 321 with a net worth of $5.6 billion. Graff is a self-made billionaire, dropping out of school at the age of 14 to start working (scrubbing toilets, according to Forbes) as a jeweler’s apprentice in Hatton Garden in London.

At No. 1103 was Chopard owner Karl Scheufele III with a net worth of $2.2 billion.

Tied along with a few other billionaires at No. 1394 are Nicola and Paolo Bulgari with a net worth of $1.7 billion each.

Three well-known figures in the jewelry industry came in, with a number of other billionaires, at No. 2124 with a net worth of $1 billion: Beny Steinmetz, Lev Leviev and Carolyn Rafaelian, founder of Alex + Ani.

Like Graff, Rafaelian is