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World's Richest: Tech Entrepreneurs Join List

World's Richest: Tech Entrepreneurs Join List

Some of technology's youngest entrepreneurs have cracked the Forbes rich list.

At the age of 24, Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel is the youngest name on the magazine's annual list of billionaires.

Spiegel's net worth is estimated at $1.5bn (just under £1bn), matching that of his colleague, 25-year-old Bobby Murphy.

Other tech newcomers on the 2015 list include Uber co-founders Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp at $5.3bn apiece.

Ryan Graves, who, at 31, oversees the taxi-ordering service's global operations, makes the list with an estimated net worth of $1.4bn.

The three founders of Airbnb, the vacation-home rental website, also appear.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is not only the third youngest name on the list, at the age of 30, but also 16th overall with a net worth of $33.4bn.

But even Zuckerberg has quite a way to go before catching Bill Gates, who was crowned the world's richest man by Forbes for a second consecutive year.

The Microsoft co-founder's net worth rose to $79.2bn (£51.5bn) in 2015, up from $76bn last year, according to the magazine.

The figure put Gates just ahead of Mexican telecommunications mogul Carlos Slim Helu, whose net worth is $77.1bn.

Gates has topped the Forbes billionaires list 16 times in the last 21 years.

The magazine began compiling the list of the world's richest in 1986. The latest list calculated each person's wealth based on stock prices and exchange rates on 13 February.

Investor Warren Buffett finishes third, moving up one spot from last year with a net worth of $72.7bn.

Amancio Ortega, the Spanish co-founder of clothing retail chain Zara, came in fourth with a net worth of $64.5bn, while Oracle Corp founder Larry Ellison rounded out the top five at $54.3bn.

The 2015 list also sees the emergence of 181 new names, raising the total of billionaires to 1,826, at a combined net worth of $7.05trn (£4.5trn).

The number of women on the list also rose to 197 from 172 a year ago.

Christy Walton, the widow of John Walton, a son of Walmart founder Sam Walton, was the top-ranked female with a net worth of $41.7bn.

Basketball legend Michael Jordan cracked the billionaire list for the first time, thanks to his ownership of NBA Charlotte Hornets and payouts from his Nike brand.