The 'Forbes' Top 10 Richest in the World

Amancio Ortega (L) and Marta Ortega Perez

The richest man on the planet has ambitions to explore life beyond the planet with his space travel company Blue Origin. But it is his 12pc stake in online retail colossus Amazon - where he is CEO - that provides the bulk of Jeff Bezos's (56) vast fortune. Indeed the 4pc of the company that his wife MacKenzie was granted as part of a divorce settlement last year makes her one of the world's richest women. In recent weeks, Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post, sold over $1.7bn of Amazon shares.

Bill Gates (64) was once the world's richest man but now, along with his wife Melinda, heads up the world's largest private charitable foundation. He founded software giant Microsoft in 1975 with Paul Allen and changed the face of home and business computing forever. He owns just 1pc of the company now, having given close to $36bn of the computer company's stock to the Gates Foundation, which is focused on improving global health.