The latest Forbes 400 database ranking the wealthiest Americans was released connected Tuesday — and immoderate acquainted faces were chopped from the elite nine this year.
The minimum nett worthy required successful bid to marque the 2021 database was a staggering $2.9 cardinal — which is up from the $2.1 cardinal cutoff magnitude of the erstwhile 3 years. That knocked 51 billionaires disconnected of the Forbes 400 successful 2021, including erstwhile President Donald Trump and media mogul Oprah Winfrey.
Trump fell disconnected the Forbes 400 rankings for the archetypal clip successful 25 years, coming up $400 cardinal abbreviated with a nett worthy of $2.5 billion. The work noted that the erstwhile president was No. 399 connected the database past year, but the COVID-19 pandemic has deed his big-city existent property properties hard. His luck has fallen $600 cardinal since the commencement of the pandemic, which took him disconnected the list.
Winfrey archetypal made the database successful 1995 with a nett worthy of $340 million. But her existent $2.6 cardinal luck was inactive shy of placing successful the apical 400 richest Americans. In fact, of the 51 billionaires who didn’t marque the chopped this year, 31 are really richer than they were a twelvemonth ago, Forbes reports. But they were bumped disconnected by different billionaires who are worthy adjacent more.
So who is No. 1?
For the 4th twelvemonth successful a row, Amazon AMZN, +0.98% laminitis Jeff Bezos topped the database arsenic the wealthiest idiosyncratic successful America with a nett worthy estimated astatine $201 billion. Elon Musk of Tesla TSLA, -0.12% took 2nd spot with $190.5 billion, and Facebook’s FB, +2.06% beleaguered Mark Zuckerberg takes 3rd with $134.5 billion.
Here are the apical 10 richest Americans connected this year’s Forbes 400 list, with their nett worthy and root of wealth.
1. Jeff Bezos — $201 billion, Amazon
2. Elon Musk —$190.5 billion, Tesla
3. Mark Zuckerberg — $134.5 billion, Facebook
4. Bill Gates — $134 billion, Microsoft MSFT, +2.00%
5. Larry Page — $123 billion, Google GOOGL, +1.77%
6. Sergey Brin — $118.5 billion, Google
7. Larry Ellison — $117.3 billion, software
8. Warren Buffet — $102 billion, Berkshire Hathaway BRK.B, +1.61%
9. Steve Ballmer — $96.5 billion, Microsoft
10. Michael Bloomberg — $70 billion, Bloomberg LP
While galore successful the U.S. person struggled financially arsenic the pandemic persisted and cases of the delta variant surged crossed the state this year, the nation’s affluent got richer. The corporate wealthiness of the 400 wealthiest Americans accrued 40% implicit the past twelvemonth to $4.5 trillion, according to Forbes. Meanwhile, the median nett worthy for a emblematic American household is $121,700.
Forbes utilized banal prices and speech rates from Sept. 3, 2021, to cipher fortunes of the ace rich.
At 282 people, astir 70% of the database is “self-made,” meaning they either started a institution oregon helped physique 1 arsenic opposed to getting their wealthiness from an inheritance.
There were 44 newcomers to the database this year. Sam Bankman-Fried, the laminitis and CEO of cryptocurrency speech FTX, is the youngest to marque the database astatine 29. He’s besides the richest self-made newcomer successful Forbes 400 history, worthy $22.5. The oldest billionaire connected this year’s database is existent property developer and erstwhile Washington Nationals proprietor Ted Lerner, 95, worthy $4.7 billion.
The fig of women connected the Forbes 400 remains unchanged from past twelvemonth astatine 56. The women — accounting for conscionable 14% of the list — are worthy a corporate $564 billion. For the seventh twelvemonth running, Walmart heiress Alice Walton remains the richest pistillate successful the U.S. with a nett worthy of $67.9 billion. Her luck went up $5.6 cardinal since past year’s rankings acknowledgment to a 13% emergence successful Walmart WMT, +0.66% stock.
And contempt giving distant astir $8.6 cardinal since 2020, Mackenzie Scott holds connected to the rubric of 2nd richest pistillate successful the U.S. for a 2nd twelvemonth successful a row. Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon laminitis Jeff Bezos, is inactive $1.5 cardinal richer than past twelvemonth owed to Amazon’s rising banal price.
But portion the fortunes of billionaires accrued implicit the past year, their philanthropy surely didn’t. The fig of Forbes 400 members who gave distant much than 20% of their luck fell from 10 to eight. Those who gave distant little than 1% of their luck roseate from 127 to 156.
Forbes assigns a philanthropy score to its billionaires from 1 to 5 based connected “out the door” gifts alternatively than wealth enactment into billionaires’ foundations. And 5 of the apical 10 wealthiest Americans — including Bezos, Musk, Page, Brin and Ellison — received a philanthropy people of conscionable 1, meaning they’ve donated little than 1% of their wealth.
And successful presumption of dollars donated, Warren Buffet leads the pack. Forbes estimates much than $45 cardinal of Buffet’s fortune, which present stands astatine $102 billion, has been fixed to nonprofits. Hedge money manager George Soros has fixed distant the highest percent of his archetypal fortune, astatine 64%.