Carlos Slim Helú, a Mexican telecommunications magnate, has been named the world's richest man, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Slim is worth an estimated $68.5 billion, beating out former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates by $6.1 billion.
Slim is the chairman and CEO of Mexico's two largest telecommunications companies, Telmex and América Móvil, and he has extensive holdings in other Mexican companies through his conglomerate, Grupo Carso SAB. Telmex controls 90 percent of Mexico's landline market, and América Móvil is the largest mobile phone carrier in Latin America, with over 200 million wireless customers.
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Forbes first named Slim the world's richest man in 2007, but he fell behind Gates, Berkshire Hathway CEO Warren Buffett and Oracle CEO Lawrence Ellison for two years before regaining the title in 2010. The new Bloomberg index will track the net worth of the world's billionaires on a daily basis.
Slim's wealth is a source of controversy in Mexico, as the average Mexican makes only $15,000 per year and almost half of the country lives below the poverty line. Some consider him a monopolist, and his estimated $68.5 billion is the equivalent of around 4 percent of Mexico's yearly economic output.
"When you live for others' opinions, you are dead," Slim told Forbes in 2007 when he was first named the world's richest man. "I don't want to live thinking about how I'll be remembered."
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