Forbes list of billionaires for 2017 expanded this year to 2,043 of them around the world, up from 1,810 in 2016, with an average net worth of $3.75 billion.
The list, a snapshot of wealth taken on Feb. 17 based on stock prices and exchange rates to calculate net worth, was released Monday and saw former Microsoft founder Bill Gates at the No. 1 spot for the fourth straight year at $86 billion.
Investor Warren Buffett was at the No. 2 spot with $75.6 billion while Amazon chief Jeff Bezos was No. 3 at $72.8 billion.
Buffett and Bezos this year passed Amancio Ortega, founder of the Spanish clothing chain line Zara, who dropped from No. 2 to No. 4 with $71.3 billion.
Forbes noted that Bezos had the best year of any of them, adding $27.6 billion to his worth, thanks to the boost in his cloud-computing unit Amazon Web Services.
"Bezos boasted at the 2016 shareholders meeting that Amazon is the fastest company ever to reach $100 billion in annual sales, which it cleared in 2015," wrote Forbes. "Raised by his mom and stepdad, a Cuban immigrant who adopted him, he quit a lucrative New York hedge fund job in 1994 with the simple idea to sell books online."
"Now Amazon sells nearly everything a consumer might want. His other passion is space travel: His aerospace company, Blue Origin, is developing a reusable rocket that Bezos says will carry passengers. Bezos purchased The Washington Post in 2013 for $250 million," Forbes added.
The rest of the Top 10 billionaires include Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at No. 5 ($56 billion), telecom giant Carlos Slim Helo ($54.5 billion), software leader Larry Ellison ($52.2 billion), businessman Charles Koch and brother David ($48.3 billion each), and communications giant Michael Bloomberg ($47.5 billion).
Forbes noted that the worth of President Donald Trump dropped from $4.5 billion last year to $3.5 billion this year, pushing him down 208 spots from No. 336 last year to No. 544.
"Every year Forbes goes through his assets line by line, speaking with dozens of experts about market values — and hearing out Trump and his team," Forbes editor Randall Lane told the Washington Post.
"We do not give any credit for 'brand value' to Trump or Oprah or any other person on our list — we feel a person's brand value is already reflected in the income and value of the deals they cut. And we are very comfortable with our estimates for Trump's tangible holdings, which also factor in things like debt and partnerships, as well as current market conditions."