CAN’T GIVE IT ALL UP

Superdonor Gates still #1 in worth

ARE WE there yet?

For the fourth year in a row, Bill Gates — the man who once said, “Money has no utility to me beyond a certain point” — tops Forbes magazine’s list of billionaires.

The Microsoft co-founder’s net worth jumped to $86 billion this year from $75 billion a year ago. Gates has been named the richest person in the world in 18 out of the past 23 years, even as he donates billions to fight poverty and disease around the world.

“Booming stock markets, higher commodities prices, and plain old-fashioned entrepreneurship helped make this a record year in terms of wealth creation around the globe,” Luisa Kroll and Kerry Dolan, assistant managing editors of wealth at Forbes Media, said in a statement, unveiling Forbes’ 31st annual list.

Joining Gates at the top is investor and philanthropist Warren Buffett, with a fortune worth $75.6 billion, up from $60.8 billion last year. Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos, whose net worth increased by $27.6 billion to $72.8 billion, rolls in at third place.

Amancio Ortega, the Spanish retailer best known for the Zara fashion line, falls to No. 4 with a $71.3 billion fortune and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg comes in fifth at $56 billion.

Other billionaires on the list include Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helu ($54.5 billion), Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison ($52.2 billion), brothers Charles and David Koch ($48.3 billion each) and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg ($47.5 billion).

President Trump is ranked No. 544 with a net worth of $3.5 billion — a drop from his $3.7 billion fortune last year.

The extensive Forbes list features 2,043 billionaires with an average net worth of $3.5 billion. The combined fortunes of this year’s billionaires totaled $7.67 trillion, up from $6.48 trillion in 2016.

The change in the total number of billionaires saw a spike of 233 since last year, the largest increase in 31 years, according to Forbes.

There are 277 women on the list, up from 202 last year, and 56 of them are self-made billionaires.

Newcomers to the Forbes list include Vietnam’s first billionaire, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, who went public with her budget airline, VietJet Air in February.

Others are Yoshiko Shinohara of Japan, who began a staffing firm to help women get into the workforce; Manny Stul of Australia, whose toy company created the Shopkins collectibles; American Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, and Juan Francisco Vidal of Mexico, who is the chairman of tequila giant Jose Cuervo.

The United States has the most billionaires, with 565, followed by China, with 319 and Germany with 114.