For the third consecutive year the rich got richer. In this, the 24th annual edition of The Forbes 400, the collective net worth of America's wealthiest climbed $125 billion, to $1.13 trillion.
All but 26 people on our roster are billionaires. Surging real estate and oil prices drove up several fortunes and helped pave the way for 33 new members (and 9 retreads).
Google Inc's mammoth initial public offering has netted its two co-founders an interesting side benefit: an entry into the upper echelons of Forbes magazine's list of the 400 richest Americans.
Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp's Co-founder and Chairman, was the wealthiest person in the United States for the 11th straight year with a net worth of $51 billion, followed again by Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Warren Buffett's $40 billion, according to Forbes, which released its annual rankings on Thursday.
|
Source | |||||
|
1 |
51,000 |
49 |
Medina, WA |
Microsoft | |
|
2 |
|
40,000 |
75 |
Omaha, NE |
Berkshire Hathaway |
|
3 |
22,500 |
52 |
Seattle, WA |
Microsoft, investments | |
|
4 |
18,000 |
40 |
Austin, TX |
Dell | |
|
5 |
17,000 |
61 |
Silicon Valley, CA |
Oracle | |
|
6 |
|
15,700 |
50 |
Jackson, WY |
Wal-Mart inheritance |
|
6 |
15,700 |
57 |
Bentonville, AR |
Wal-Mart | |
|
8 |
15,600 |
61 |
Bentonville, AR |
Wal-Mart | |
|
9 |
15,500 |
56 |
Fort Worth, TX |
Wal-Mart | |
|
10 |
15,400 |
86 |
Bentonville, AR |
Wal-Mart |
Perhaps more noteworthy is the ascent of Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who were ranked 16th by Forbes with $11 billion each, up from No. 43 last year when they each had a net worth of $4 billion.
Google went public last year, but the Internet search engine returned to the capital markets this month with a follow-up offering of shares that raised $4.18 billion. The company has earned $1 billion since going public.
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Slideshows: The Very Richest
Gulf Coast oilman Tracy Krohn landed on the list after taking his W&T Offshore drilling operation public in January.
According to Forbes, whose reporters assembled the list through a series of interviews and company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Brin's and Page's post-IPO wealth is accruing at speeds faster than Gates' wealth after Microsoft went public.
Collectively, the top 10 richest Americans saw their collective net worth climb $125 billion, the magazine said.
The poorest members of the list each had a net worth of $900 million.
Developers Jorge Perez and Steven Roth are two of the six real estate tycoons added to the list. Another newcomer: James Leprino, who built a $1.3 billion fortune supplying cheese to pizza joints Little Caesars and Papa John's.
The year's biggest gainer was casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, whose net worth jumped $8.5 billion on a big bet he's making on the peninsula of Macau, China. Gambling is also the source of wealth for Ruth Parasol and Russell DeLeon, a husband-and-wife team who run their online casino, PartyGaming, from Gibraltar.
For every arrival, there is an exit. Eight members of last year's list died, including Wal-Mart heir John Walton, in a plane crash in June. He is replaced by his wife, Christy.
Thirty-three fortunes simply couldn't keep pace with the rising minimum needed to get on the list, which this year was $900 million, a $150 million jump from 2004. Among the notables on whom the curtain descended: DreamWorks cofounder Jeffrey Katzenberg.
With inputs from AP
