Nebraska: Overtaking Mexican telecom tycoon, Carlos Slim Helu ($60 billion) and the software giant, Bill Gates ($58 billion), Warren Buffett ($62 billion) has captured the crown of world’s richest person in the Forbes’ annual list of billionaires.

Legendary American investor, Warren Edward Buffett now tops the Forbes’ list of billionaires, while Carlos Slim Helu ($60 billion) and Mr. Gates ($58 billion) are at 2nd and 3rd positions respectively.

Often dubbed as the "Oracle of Omaha, Mr. Buffett is the largest shareholder and CEO of Omaha, Nebraska based conglomerate holding company, Berkshire Hathaway. He is often regarded as one of the greatest stock market investors in the world.

It’s the surging price of Berkshire Hathaway stock that boosted Buffett’s fortune to $62 billion, up from $10 billion a year ago. Gates, who is up $2 billion from a year ago, could have been the richest or richer than Buffett, if Microsoft had not made an unsolicited bid for Yahoo! at the beginning of February. And, Mexican telecom tycoon Slim Helu fortune has raised $11 billion since last March.

Released on Wednesday evening, the Forbes’ list has shown NRI steel baron Lakshmi Mittal ($45 billion), India’s Mukesh Ambani ($43 billion), Anil Ambani ($42 billion), and realty baron K P Singh ($30 billion) at 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th positions, respectively.