Gates Widens Lead Over Slim as World’s Richest Lose $27 Billion

The 200 richest people on the planet erased $26.6 billion from their collective net worth this week as Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, 57, extended his lead over Mexico’s Carlos Slim as the world’s richest person to $4.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Almost all of Gates’s investments, including a 4.8 percent stake in Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, have soared this year while Slim’s main holding, a 44 percent stake in America Movil SAB, the largest mobile-phone operator in the Americas, has fallen 14 percent.