American investor and philanthropist Warren Buffett has taken the title of the world's richest man away from friend Bill Gates after 13 years, business magazine Forbessaid.
Mr Buffett's wealth hit $62 billion (£31.2 billion sterling) as the price of Berkshire Hathaway stock surged and he topped the list of dollar billionaires.
Microsoft founder Mr Gates, whose fortune rose to $58 billion dollars, also missed out on second place to Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim Helu ($60 billion).
For the first time, the Forbes2008 list revealed that more than 1,000 people made it in to the ultra-rich club which has a combined net worth of $4.4 trillion, with two-thirds classified as self-made.
Five Irish businessmen feature on the list led by Sean Quinn at number 164 with an estimated $6 billion fortune. Next is John Dorrance, ranked 428, with an estimated wealth of $2.7 billion.
Dermot Desmond who is estimated to be worth €2.5 billion is ranked at 462 while Denis O'Brien, with a fortune of €2.2 billion is 553 in the list, ahead of Anthony O'Reilly at 677 whose assets are valued an an estimated €1.8 billion.
Among the 1,125 people on this year's list, a record 50 people are under the age of 40. These include the world's youngest billionaire, 23-year-old Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who ranked 785 with $1.5 billion.
The world's richest woman, Liliane Bettencourt, takes 17th place on the list with $22.9 billion.