The 400 richest people in America are having a rollicking time in the roaring 2020. In all, they're worth a record $5.4 trillion up nearly $1 trillion from last year. A dozen have $100 billion, plus fortunes, also a record and admission to this elite club is pricier than ever; a minimum net worth of $3.3 billion is required, up $400 million since 2023. Despite the high bar, 23 newcomers managed to break into the ranks, having grown their fortunes in everything from mundane plastic pipes to cutting edge artificial intelligence. Here are the 5 richest billionaires on the 2024 Forbes 400.
At #5: Warren Buffett, in August, Berkshire Hathaway became America's first non tech company to hit a $1 trillion market cap. In June, Buffett, the nation's greatest philanthropist with some $60 billion in lifetime giving, donated $5.3 billion of Berkshire stock. With a twist, he clarified that the vast majority of his remaining fortune will go to a charitable trust run by his three children instead of The Gates Foundation, as was previously assumed.
At #4: Larry Ellison, it was another banner year for the Oracle co-founder, Chief Technology Officer, and more than 40% shareholder with the software firm shares up 12% to record highs. He's spending, accordingly, Allison splashed out nearly $300 million in a Florida resort in August, adding to his $2 billion plus real estate portfolio, he also plans to invest or reported $6 billion into the on again off again merger between Paramount Global and SkyDance. His son David's media production company.
At #3: Mark Zuckerberg, no one got richer over the past year in sheer dollar terms than Zuck. He's $75 billion wealthier and ranks 5 spots higher, following a 70% run up in Meta platform stock; revenue has been growing more than 20% per quarter, and the social media giant repurchased $31 billion of its shares over the past year.
At #2: Jeff Bezos, since last summer, Bezos has snapped up three homes on Miami's billionaire Bunker Island for $234 million. Since moving to tax friendly Florida last November, the Amazon founder has offloaded more than $8 billion pretax of his shares. He still owns 9% of the E-commerce Leviathan, whose stock is up 29%. The Bezos Earth Fund through which he has given $2 billion of a $10 billion pledge, will hand out up to $100 million to winners of an AI for climate and nature challenge beginning later this year.
At #1: Elon Musk, Tesla's self-proclaimed techno king, tops the Forbes 400 for a third straight year despite losing $7 billion as shares of his electric vehicle maker fell 14% and a Delaware judge avoided $56 billion of his stock options in January. In May, Musk's new AI startup Xai, raised $6 billion at a $24 billion valuation. A month later, his rocket maker, SpaceX, launched a tender offer valuing the company at around $210 billion, up from nearly $180 billion. In the next post seen by 220 million people, Musk endorsed Donald Trump within an hour of the assassination attempt on the former president. Trump now vows to name Musk to a government efficiency Commission if elected.
Source:
Forbes. (2024, October 1). The five richest Americans on the 2024 Forbes 400 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5whkMZxUi5w