The number of billionaires in the world has dropped by 28 people compared with the number of billionaires last year, but of this year's 2,640 on the list, 73 are in the automotive industry and one of them is in Michigan.

Forbes released this year's World's Billionaire List last week. It said the planet’s billionaires are now worth $12.2 trillion down from $12.7 trillion in March 2022. Forbes said about half the list is poorer than a year ago, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, 51, who slid to the No. 2 spot after his $44 billion purchase of Twitter lowered his net worth to $180 billion.

In first place now is French luxury goods billionaire, Bernard Arnault, 74, with a net worth of $211 billion.

In the auto industry, some of the top-ranking titans include Michigan's Roger Penske, 86, with a net worth of $3.2 billion. A former race car driver, Penske ranked No. 905 on the list. He founded and runs the publicly traded car and truck dealership Penske Automotive Group, which is headquartered in Bloomfield Hills. In its full-year earnings release, the company reported it sold about 447,000 new and used vehicles at its car dealerships globally and 20,000 new and used commercial trucks through its commercial truck dealerships for 2022.

Tempe, Arizona-based Carvana's co-founder Ernie Garcia II, 65, was tied for the No. 982 spot with car dealer Norman Braman, 90, of Braman Motorcars in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Catheline Perier D'Ieteren, 78, whose great-great-grandfather founded auto parts distribution company D'Ieteren Group in Brussels — each with a net worth of $3 billion.

But there is one notable name absent from this year's list: Bill Ford, executive chairman of the board at Ford Motor Co. Ford, 65, has been listed as a billionaire in the past when he had ownership in the Detroit Lions football team. For example, a 2014 Forbes article, when Ford was an owner of the Lions, assigned him a net worth of $1.35 billion. In 2020, Sheila Ford Hamp, Bill Ford's sister, succeeded her mother, Martha Firestone Ford, as principal owner and chair of the the team, according to the Detroit Lions website. Ford Hamp is not on Forbes' 2023 billionaire list.

A Ford spokesman said the company does not track Ford's wealth. Repeated attempts to reach a Forbes' spokesperson for a list on which Ford was last included in the billionaires' club, went unanswered.

A Ford filing last month with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission listed Bill Ford's 2022 total compensation at $17,302,266, down from $18,662,706 in 2021.

To see the full Forbes' list click here.

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Contact Jamie L. LaReau: jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Forbes' billionaires list includes auto industry titans