Davos 2018: Donald Trump is only the sixth-richest person speaking at the WEF this year

When he becomes the first US president to attend Davos in 18 years next week, it seems Donald Trump will only be the sixth-richest speaker there: his wealth is outstripped by several World Economic Forum (WEF) regulars, new research suggests.

The research, by Verdict.co.uk and WealthInsight, found that with a cool $72.7bn to his name, Microsoft founder Bill Gates will be the flushest person at the WEF this year.

That’s followed by Jack Ma, the founder of Chinese wholesale giant Alibaba, worth $47.2bn, and Ray Dalio, the investor and hedge fund manager, who is worth $14.1bn.

With an estimated $4.9bn to his name (although that figure has been disputed), Trump comes in at number six, below JD.com founder Richard Liu and Sunil Bharti Mittal, the founder of Bharti Enterprises.

But despite Trump’s decision to attend, the average net worth of speakers at Davos this year has fallen, from $469.5m in 2017 to $414.3m this year.

“With as many as 12 billionaires set to lecture Davos this year, the average wealth of each of the 433 speakers is skewed into the hundreds of millions,” said Oliver Williams, head of research at WealthInsight.

“The net worth of businessmen such as Bill Gates and Jack Ma dwarfs that of the many journalists, academics and writers, pushing the speakers’ average to over $400m.”

Read more: Donald Trump has been banned from another London borough

The 10 richest speakers at Davos

Rank

Speaker

Net worth

1

Bill Gates – founder, Microsoft

$72.5bn

2

Jack Ma – founder, Alibaba

$47.2bn

3

Ray Dalio – investor and hedge fund manager

$14.1bn

4

Richard Liu – founder, JD.com

$7.38bn

5

Sunil Bharti Mittal – founder, Bharti Enterprises

$6.22bn

6

Donald Trump – US President

$4.9bn

7

Marc Benioff – founder, Salesforce

$3.35bn

8

David Rubenstein – co-founder, the Carlyle Group

$2.76bn

9

Petro Poroshenko – Ukrainian President

$1.6bn

10

Anand Mahindra – chairman, Mahindra Group

$1bn

Read more: Trump and McDonnell’s attendance at Davos is about power and politics