Biography
Mexico's richest person, Carlos Slim Helú and his family control América Móvil, Latin America's biggest mobile telecom firm.
With foreign telecom partners, Slim bought a stake in Telmex, Mexico's only phone company, in 1990. Telmex is now part of América Móvil.
He also owns stakes in Mexican construction, consumer goods, mining and real estate companies. He previously held a 17% stake in The New York Times.
His son-in-law Fernando Romero designed the Soumaya Museum in Mexico City, home to Slim's extensive, eclectic art collection.
Slim and his family own 76% of Grupo Carso, one of Latin America's largest conglomerates.
Perspective on their fortune
Gold
Everyday luxury
A Carlos Slim Helu & family's fortune is equivalent to 856 of gold, but this may be difficult to value, as we don't usually have a handful of gold bars in our piggy bank.
A standard gold ring typically weighs between 4 and 7 grams. Let's say this one weighs 5 grams. It's usually 18k gold.
Based on today's gold price (not taking into account the jeweler's fee, shipping, or anything else), that gold ring would be worth $556.3
Carlos Slim Helu & family could buy 228,219,475 gold rings. That's a lot of fingers and a lot of gifts!!
And if the number of rings is difficult to visualize, all these rings would need 41 trucks to transport them, But we can be almost certain that Carlos Slim Helu & family will have enough left over to pay for the gas for those trucks.
Health
The price of life
Let's compare Carlos Slim Helu & family's fortune with the healthcare spending of a huge country
Carlos Slim Helu & family could fund the entire healthcare system of DR Congo with a population of over 105,800,000 of inhabitants for approximately 57.1 years.
But even if we compare their fortune to that of a rich country
At the other extreme, Carlos Slim Helu & family could cover the health expenditure of Luxembourg, considered the world's most heavily invested health system, for 25.3 years
Education
Buying the future
Lowest education spending
Carlos Slim Helu & family could assume the entire cost of the education system of Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, with more than 243,000,000 inhabitants for 37.3 years.
Highest education spending
But not only could he assume the cost of a poor country, Luxembourg is considered the country with the highest per capita investment in education in the world, Carlos Slim Helu & family could pay for it in full for 50.8 years.
Research
The monopoly of progress
Lowest research spending
Carlos Slim Helu & family could fully fund the state research budget of Pakistan, the fifth most populous country in the world with more than 260,000,000 of inhabitants, for 213.7 years.
Highest research spending
But even if we compare the total wealth of Carlos Slim Helu & family with Israel, the country that currently invests the most per capita in research in the world, it could assume the total cost of the system for 4.8 years.
Financial Assets
Monthly wealth history
Fortune comparison
Historical data not available for comparison