Where is all the money? Just ask the multi-billionaires listed here.
Dark clouds are forming over the U.S. economy, and the word nobody really wants to hear continues to be mentioned, "recession." However, life isn't that bad for the richest of the rich. Financial guru Warren Buffett is now the wealthiest man in North America, with a net worth of U.S. $62 billion.
Telecommunications giant Carlos Slim Helu of Mexico is the world's second richest CEO; he's worth U.S. $60 billion. What about Bill Gates? He's not doing too badly either considering his fortune dropped when Microsoft made an unsolicited bid to take over the Internet search engine Yahoo! Mr. Gates comes in third place, with a net worth of U.S. $58 billion. These men, however, are not the only ones with massive piggy banks. This article lists a few of the richest CEOs on the planet you might not have heard about yet, and they come from all over the globe.
Lakshmi Mittal
He was born in India and now resides in the United Kingdom. He's the chief of ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel company. According to an article in Time magazine published last year, Mittal is viewed as the Indian equivalent of the 19th century tycoon Andrew Carnegie. His firm employs thousands of workers in 60 countries, and he's quite a philanthropist. He has no plans to slow down the expansion of his company either. China, Russia and India are still virgin territories. Mittal's net worth now stands at a cool U.S. $45 billion, which makes him the world's fourth richest CEO.
Mukesh and Anil Ambani
These two brothers are also from India, and are the sons of the late industrialist Dhirubhai Ambani. He started Reliance Industries, which in the beginning was a simple textile business. In 1977 the elder Ambani took the company public, and today this mammoth conglomerate has interests in petrochemicals, telecommunications, information technology and logistics. Mukesh and his brother Anil had a falling out after their father's death in 2002, and the company has since been divided. Still, they are both phenomenally wealthy, with fortunes of U.S. $43 billion and $42 billion respectively according to the March, 2008 edition of Forbes magazine.
Oleg Deripaska
The former Soviet Union has a total of 87 billionaires, second only to the United States. Mr. Deripaska owns the Basic Element investment company, which in turn owns En+ Group, an energy and aluminium firm. Forbes magazine has him listed as the ninth richest businessman, with a net worth of U.S. $28 billion. He's also the wealthiest man in Russia.
Aliko Dangote
Africa has got some big business moguls too. This man has been confirmed as Nigeria's first and sole billionaire, and with a fortune of $3.3 billion he has more money than U.S. television host Oprah Winfrey. His company, the Dangote Group, is involved in a variety of business ventures like sugar, cement and food processing.
