Bill Gates briefly overtaken by Amancio Ortega as world’s richest person. 

The Spanish business man overtook the American Microsoft founder on the Forbes rich list.

Bill Gates briefly lost the title of richest man in the world on Friday.

The philanthropist and Microsoft founder was knocked off the top of the Forbes Billionaires real time list by

Amancio Ortega, a Spanish businessman and founding chairman of the Inditex fashion group. His company

is responsible for popular fashion brands such as Zara.

The son of a railway worker, Ortega was born during the Spanish civil war and grew up in relative poverty.

The 79-year-old left school at the age of 13 to work full time in a clothing shop. According to Forbes, he

established Zara in 1975 with his ex-wife Rosalia Mera, selling lingerie and bathrobes the couple made in

their living room.

He overtook Gates as the world’s richest man on Friday with an estimated real time net worth of $78.7

billion. Gates over took him less than half a day later, and was back at the top spot with an estimated net

worth of $79.5 by Friday afternoon.