Carlos Slim Helú

Carlos Slim Helú is the founder and controlling force behind América Móvil, Latin America's largest telecommunications company. Born in Mexico City in 1940 to Lebanese immigrant parents, Slim studied engineering and began investing in undervalued Mexican companies during the 1982 debt crisis. His pivotal deal came in 1990 when he acquired Telmex, the Mexican government's telephone monopoly, in a privatization auction — a bet that would make him the richest person on Earth. From Telmex, Slim built América Móvil into a continental telecom empire serving over 290 million wireless subscribers across 25 countries in Latin America and Eastern Europe (through A1 Telekom Austria). At its peak, the Slim family's combined fortune exceeded $80 billion, ranking Carlos Slim as the world's richest person from 2010 to 2013, ahead of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Slim's business approach has been both celebrated and criticized. His dominance of Mexican telecommunications — Telmex and Telcel once controlled 80%+ of fixed and mobile markets respectively — led to regulatory intervention forcing the company to open infrastructure to competitors. Critics argue this near-monopoly extracted rents from Mexican consumers and businesses, retarding the country's digital development. Supporters point to the massive infrastructure investment in fiber and mobile networks across underserved Latin American markets. Now in his mid-80s, Slim remains the guiding force while his sons Carlos Slim Domit and Patrick Slim Domit hold executive positions. América Móvil faces the standard telecom challenges of low growth and high capital expenditure, but its scale across Latin America — a region of 650+ million people with rising smartphone and broadband penetration — provides a long runway. The company also owns significant stakes in financial services, construction, real estate, and retail across Mexico.