10 Georgia Billionaires Make Forbes' 2018 List

ATLANTA, GA — Jeff Bezos is at the top of Forbes' billionaires list for 2018, dethroning fellow Seattle-area billionaire Bill Gates, who has lost the top spot for only the sixth time since 1995. Among the elite club of billionaires on the 32nd annual list, 10 of them have Georgia ties.

The 2018 list has 2,208 members from 72 countries. With 585 Americans on the list, the United States leads the way with the most number of billionaires in the world, followed by China with 373 billionaires. The U.S. also had 18 newcomers featured on the 2018 list.

According to Forbes, Bezos is the first centi-billionaire at the top of the list, meaning he has a fortune of over a $100 billion. Forbes explains just how much wealth these billionaires have, being worth a combined $9.1 trillion. The top 20 people on the list alone are worth $1.2 trillion, 13 percent of the total fortune of all billionaires worldwide.

The state has one more billionaire from last year: David Zalik, the co-founder and CEO of fintech unicorn GreenSky.

Here are the Georgia billionaires who made the Forbes list for 2018:

Jim Kennedy, 70, is worth $13 billion and is ranked No. 108 on the list. Kennedy, of Atlanta, is the chairman of Cox Enterprises and the grandson of company founder James M. Cox. Cox Enterprises is a media company and its holdings include the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Kelley Blue Book.

Bernard Marcus, 88, is worth $5.1 billion and is ranked No. 382. Marcus, of Atlanta, is co-founder of Home Depot along with co-founder Arthur Blank (whom we'll hear about shortly). They started a hardware store after being fired from rival Handy Dan in 1978. Marcus is the chief benefactor behind the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta.

Bubba Cathy, 63, is worth $4.8 billion and is ranked No. 422 on the list. Cathy, of Atlanta, is senior vice president of Chick-Fil-A. His father, Truett Cathy, who founded the fast-food chain near Atlanta in 1967, died in 2014.

Dan Cathy, 65, is worth $4.8 billion and is tied for No. 422 on the list. Cathy, also of Atlanta, is chairman and CEO of Chick-Fil-A. He has held to the company's deeply religious roots, closing all stores on Sundays. As Forbes notes, he made anti-same-sex marriage comments during debate on that issue that sparked national protests, but later apologized for dragging the company into politics and has since tried to steer clear of hot-button topics.

Gary Rollins, 73, is worth $4.3 billion and ranks at No. 499. Rollins, of Atlanta, is CEO of Rollins Inc., the parent company of Orkin, the biggest pest control company by revenues in North America. The company was founded by his father and uncle, who bought several local radio stations and named it Rollins Broadcasting. It went public in 1961.

Randall Rollins, 86, is worth $4.3 billion and ties for No. 499 on the list. Rollins, of Atlanta, is chairman of Rollins Inc. His brother Gary is CEO.

Arthur Blank, 75, is worth $4.1 billion and ranks at No. 527 on the list. Blank, of Atlanta, cofounded Home Depot in 1978 after being fired from a regional hardware store. Blank stepped down as co-chairman of Home Depot in 2001 and the next year bought the NFL's Atlanta Falcons for $545 million (now worth $2.1 billion). He also owns the Major League Soccer team Atlanta United FC. In 2012, he signed the Giving Pledge and committed to give more than half of his wealth away.

David Zalik, 44, is worth $2.5 billion and ranks at No. 965 on the list. Zalik, of Atlanta, is the co-founder and CEO of fintech unicorn GreenSky. The company has facilitated more than $10 billion in loans for home improvement projects via a network of 16,000 contractors.

Ted Turner, 79, is worth $2.2 billion and is ranked No. 1103 on the list. The Atlanta cable-television pioneer's Turner Broadcasting created CNN, TBS, TNT and other channels before he sold to Time-Warner. Now, Turner owns more than 2 million acres of land in seven states and the world's largest bison herd and, he continues to advocate for environmental causes.

Sara Blakely, 47, is worth $1 billion and ranks No. 2124 on the Forbes list. Blakely, of Atlanta, is the founder of Spanx, the slimming undergarments, and has a fortune built when, at age 29, she spent her life savings of $5,000 to try to make something that looked good under white slacks. She's also the only woman among Georgia's billionaires, since Anne Cox Chambers, the matriarch of the Cox empire, has divided her wealth among her New York-residing children.

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The top 10 billionaires on the list are:

• Jeff Bezos, 54, worth $112 billion
• Bill Gates, 62, worth $90 billion
• Warren Buffett, 87, worth $84 billion
• Bernard Arnault, 69, worth $72 billion
• Mark Zuckerberg, 33, worth $71 billion
• Amancio Ortega, 81, worth $70 billion
• Carlos Slim Helu, 78, worth $67.1 billion
• Charles Koch, 82, worth $60 billion
• David Koch, 77, worth $60 billion
• Larry Ellison, 73, worth $58.5 billion

The Forbes billionaires list provides a look at wealth using stock prices and exchange rates from Feb. 9, 2018. Forbes values assets like private companies, art, real estate and more. Read more about Forbes methodology here.

See the full list of billionaires here.

PHOTO: Ted Turner attends UNICEF's Evening for Children First to Honor Ted Turner on March 30, 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Ben Rose/Getty Images for UNICEF)