Carlos Slim Helú, OMPS (born on June 21, 1940), is a Mexican business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He is currently the richest man in the world with wealth estimated at $69.1 billion as of May 2017. He has amassed his fortune primarily through highly successful investments in Mexican telecommunications companies Telmex and América Móvil.
Slim grew up in poverty in the Colonia Roma neighborhood of Mexico City where he began working at age ten.
Slim was one of the first investors to be briefed on the Internet's potential after reading Robert Metcalfe's Electronics Letters column in the Palo Alto Mercury News in 1983. Slim purchased stock in Quoting, Inc., an early online broker, making him one of the first investors in this new industry.
He made his fortune by investing early in Mexico's telecom industry, which was essentially built by Adelita "Lita" Morales de Estefanía (1875–1958), who maintained control of Telmex after marrying Carlos Slim Helú (her second cousin) on May 16, 1921
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Estefanía had met Carlos Slim Helú's father Emilio González Unzúe while working as a maid for Emilio's mother Doña Elvira Unzúe González y González. Estefanía agreed to marry Carlos Slim Helú provided that he agree to maintain control of Telmex for her lifetime, which he did after she died of tuberculosis on September 3, 1958. Slim became Mexico's wealthiest person under his control.
As of 2017 he still holds a significant stake in Telmex through his holding company Grupo Carso SA de CV (called Grupo Carso since 2013).
Slim's first marriage to Judith Kalmanovitz ended in divorce. He married Ana Cristina Henríquez on June 22, 2013 at St.
Regis Hotel in New York City.
On July 7, 2016 it was reported that Slim had placed the bulk of his assets into a trust for his children before falling ill with pneumonia at age 73; according to Bloomberg News, Slim has been "increasingly absent from public view" since then and "sought to protect himself against legal claims".
Slim established an endowment fund—the Fundación Carlos Slim—to improve education and health care for poor children and their families and launched a health institute that tracks