Bill Gates knocked off top of Forbes rich list by Spanish retailer as Jeff Bezos slips to third place

Amancio Ortega was a co-founder of Inditex over three decades ago. It’s not the first time he has managed to climb to the top of Forbes’ list

Forbes estimates the Microsoft co-founder’s fortune at around $84.9bn (Reuters)

Bill Gates is no longer the richest person in the world – and it wasn’t Jeff Bezos who knocked him off the top spot.

According to Forbes, Spanish retailer Amancio Ortega leap-frogged Mr Gates this week, when shares in the billionaire’s clothing company Inditex rose.

Headquartered in Galicia, the company is best known for having Zara in its stable, alongside lesser known brands like Massimo Dutti, Pull and Bear and Stradivarius.

Mr Ortega was a co-founder of Inditex over three decades ago, and it’s not the first time he has managed to climb to the top of Forbes’ list. As of this week, the 81-year-old is worth around $85bn according to the publication, very narrowly beating Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates with his $84.9bn fortune.

Forbes puts Amazon founder Jezz Bezos’s net worth at $82.5bn, making him the third wealthiest ahead of finance veteran Warren Buffet and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Bloomberg, which also publishes a widely-referenced rich list, still awards Mr Gates the title of world’s wealthiest, estimating his fortune at $85.8bn, followed by Mr Ortega at $83.7bn and Mr Bezos at $83bn. Mr Buffett and Mr Zuckerberg also round out that top five.

Mr Ortega, according to Forbes, no longer had a day-to-day role at Inditex but still holds a vast amount of stock, and has recently focused on pouring some of his cash into other investments, like international real estate.

Forbes said that he usually collects over $400m in dividends from Inditex every year, and that much of that cash is spent on property in places like New York, Madrid and London.