Written by: Chris Apuzzo

Carlos Slim Helu, a telecom mogul, holds the number one spot on Forbes’ list of the world’s top billionaires with a $53.5 billion bank account, respectfully surpassing Gates.

As each year passes and a new list of billionaires comes out to the public, we look to see either Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway or Bill Gates of Microsoft flip flopping the first and second positions around from year to year. Forbes’ latest release is a little different, with Slim on top, Gates at second with a cool $53 billion, and in a close third, Buffett with $47 billion.

Though Slim only passes Gates by half a billion dollars, which is still more than most people make in a lifetime, he increased his wealth by almost $19 billion dollars over the past year. This increase is more than the total net worth of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York City, and is almost eight times the amount of Oprah Winfrey.

Unlike Gates and Buffett who built up their fortunes in the software business and in the market, Slim made his billions through telecommunication.

Controlling most of the Mexican telecom industry, he bought two other telecom companies, Telmex and Telnor, from the Mexican government in 2005. This may seem like a small accusation, but 90 percent of Mexico’s phone lines owe their operation to Telmex.

Telmex is considered a monopoly in Mexico, running almost all of their phone lines, along with Internet and data access. Along with owning Mexico’s largest phone company, Slim also owns American Movil, which is the biggest cell phone company in Latin America.

Also, when the New York Times was feeling the impact of the troubled economy, Slim gave them a $250 million dollar loan and bought 6.4% of the Times months before.

But there is still more behind Slim’s wealth. Not only is he involved in telecommunication, but he also runs Impulsora del Desarrollo and el Empleo, or IDEAL, which is a Mexican development company that focuses on infrastructure. Being a multinational corporation, IDEAL constructs the highways and water treatment plant in Mexico, as well as a long list of other constructions.

On top of his several business ventures, Slim is on the Board of Directors for Philip Morris International and has been a member of several other boards.

Slim has brought up talk about buying the Honda Formula One team, which is the perfect addition to his already diverse set of industries, and for all you soccer fans, Slim has shown interest in bringing a Major League Soccer team to Queens, NY.

Carlos Slim Helu might be the richest man in the world, the first non-American to be the world’s number one billionaire in ten years, but he is a huge philanthropist as well.

He recently donated $65 million to a genomic medicine research facility and has donated millions elsewhere.

Slim’s wise investments and future-oriented mindset shows no reason why he shouldn’t be back on top next year.