Carlos Slim

The Vanity Fair 100
The 2007 New Establishment
Our annual power ranking.

October 2007

11  Carlos Slim Helú, Teléfonos de México, América Móvil (new entry)
One academic refers to Mexico as "Slimlandia," because Slim's empire of more than 200 companies represents a stunning 7 percent of the nation's G.D.P. and around one-third of the value of its stock exchange. In the past two years his wealth has surged from about $40 billion to $59 billion. Slim (who's portly, actually) dominates Mexico's telephone industry—his companies control 92 percent of the landlines and 73 percent of the cell phones. His many other businesses include cigarettes, department stores, restaurants, and a bank. Critics say that he's too powerful and that his near monopoly increases telephone fees in an impoverished country; others hope that he'll redeem his enormous profits through philanthropy as the Rockefeller of Latin America. He recently pledged to increase the size of his foundations from $4 billion to $10 billion over the next four years.