Carlos Slim and his family are ranked No. 16 on the Forbes 2026 World’s Billionaires list with a net worth of $125 billion. He was named the world’s richest person by Forbes from 2010 to 2013 and is the richest man in Latin America.
Carlos Slim Helú was born on January 28, 1940, in Mexico City, to Julián Slim Haddad and Linda Helú Atta, both Maronite Christians from Lebanon. His father taught him how to read financial statements and the importance of keeping accurate records.
Net Worth and Rank
- Forbes 2026 list: No. 16, with $125 billion, listed as “Carlos Slim Helu & family”
- Peak: Forbes ranked him the richest person in the world from 2010 to 2013
Early Years
At 11 he invested in a government savings bond, at 12 he bought his first shares in a Mexican bank and by 15 he was a shareholder in Mexico’s largest bank. He studied civil engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, where he also taught algebra and linear programming.
The Business Empire
Slim’s conglomerate, Grupo Carso, covers education, health care, manufacturing, transport, real estate, media, mining, energy, retail and finance. The core of his fortune is telecommunications.
- Companies: América Móvil, with operations across Latin America, the mobile carrier Telcel and the Telmex telephone company
- Stock market weight: his companies account for about 40% of the listings on the Mexican Stock Exchange
- The New York Times: by 2016 he was the largest shareholder of non-voting shares in its parent company, and he sold half of his shares in 2017
Philanthropy and Museum
The Carlos Slim Foundation, set up in 1986, sponsors the Museo Soumaya in Mexico City, named after his late wife Soumaya Domit and opened in 2011. It holds about 66,000 pieces and one of the world’s largest collections of Rodin sculptures. Slim has been publicly sceptical of the Giving Pledge. According to his spokesman, he had devoted about $4 billion to his foundation as of 2011.
Why It Matters
Slim built much of his fortune from Mexico’s phone market, and América Móvil is one of the largest mobile operators in the Americas.
Net worth figures change daily with share prices. Rankings here follow the Forbes 2026 World’s Billionaires list, with wealth measured on March 1, 2026.
Image: Carlos Slim speaking at an International Telecommunication Union event in December 2013. Photo: ITU Pictures / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
