Record number of tech tycoons among world's richest

Bill Gates claws back his title as the planet's richest person

A record number of tech billionaires have popped up on the Forbes Global Rich List, which placed Microsoft founder Bill Gates back in the top spot after a four-year hiatus.

According to the annual ranking of the richest folk on the planet, 123 of the 1,645 billionaires in the world (seven per cent) made their money from tech companies, with the usual suspects Bill Gates and Larry Ellison topping the tech billionaire list in first and second place respectively.

The Microsoft founder is worth $76bn (£45.57bn), up from $73bn in 2013, seeing him regain his title of the world's richest person and knock Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim off the top spot after four years.

Oracle boss Ellison is worth $48bn after adding an extra $5bn to his worth in the past 12 months and appears fifth on the overall ranking. According to Forbes, Ellison recently revealed his plans to launch a film festival on Hawaiian island Lanai, of which he owns 98 per cent.

Elsewhere on the list, Google bosses Larry Page and Sergey Brin ranked in 17th and 19th place respectively, thanks to their fortunes of $32.3bn and $31.8bn. The duo was divided by Amazon leader Jeff Bezos and his $32bn cash pile in 18th place.

It was a good year for former Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer, who rocked up in 36th place with his $19.3bn fortune - a figure which is up $4.1bn compared with last year. Michael Dell - who is worth $17.5bn - is the 48th richest person in the world. In the past year he gave away $1bn through his charity, which aims to help urban education causes in the US and India.

HP boss Meg Whitman (pictured) showed her face on the overall list in 869th place thanks to her $2bn fortune. Whitman was the fourth-richest woman in the tech industry, but only the 71st-richest person on the tech billionaire list.