Mexican billionaire: Israel challenges US leadership in high tech

Carlos Slim on Bloomberg: ‘You are the leaders in technology but everyone wants to improve’

By JTA 5 December 2016, 11:08 pm

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Carlos Slim Hélu speaking at the opening of the Aldea Digital, Mexico City, Mexico, March 16, 2013. (CC BY ITU Pictures, Flickr)

Israel poses a challenge to the United States in the leadership of the global high technology industry, according to Carlos Slim, a Mexican telecommunications magnate.

“You are the leaders in technology, but there are other countries moving there – China, Israel – and everyone wants to improve,” Slim, 76, said in a TV interview with Bloomberg on Thursday.

Slim is considered one of the world’s 10 richest people, according to Forbes magazine.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates his worth at $48.1 billion — down from more than $55 billion in the days before Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton in the US presidential race sent the peso into a nosedive.

In 2013, Slim topped the list as the world’s richest person for the fourth year in a row. On that same year, he welcomed the late Israeli President Shimon Peres at the largest book fair of the Spanish-speaking world in Mexico, where Israel was the country of honor.

Also in 2013, Slim invested $60 million in the Israeli startup Mobli as part of a partnership with the biggest cellular company in Latin America, American Mobile, which he owned.