For the 18th time, Microsoft founder, Bill Gates has been named the richest in the tech industry with £65.9 billion wealth.

According to Forbes, he is followed closely by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg with £63.7 billion and £54.2 billion respectively.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is the third richest tech billionaire despite being the fifth youngest on the list.

The Facebook CEO is said to be rumoured to be eyeing a role in politics, as his foundation reportedly hired several heavy-weight political advisers on his charity’s board, the Sun UK reported.

He is £12.1 billion richer than he was last year as Facebook stock has soared by 34 per cent over the last 12 months.

With at least one-quarter of the world’s population using Facebook, Zuckerberg’s fortune is estimated to be £54.2 billion.

Only 16 billionaires are under the age of 40, the youngest is Evan Spiegel co-founder of Snap, at the ripe age of 27 with a wealth of $3.2 billion.

Alongside his co-founder Bobby Murphy, 29 the second youngest they are both tied at 76th place.

There are six women on the list including Zhou Qunfei worth £7.8 billion in the rankings.

She is followed by Lam Wai Ying at £4 billion, Denise Coates at £2.8 billion, Judy Faulkner at £2.65 billion, Meg Whitman at £2.1 billion.

Last year, Stoke-on-Trent born Coates was branded Britian’s highest paid businesswoman.

The third and fourth biggest gainers are Asia’s Ma Huateng, CEO of Terncent and Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba.

Huteng is Asia’s second richest tycoon with a net worth of £26.2 billion and Ma’s fortune is a respectable £29.4 billion.