Forbes 400 2018: A New Number One And A Record-Breaking Year For America's Richest People

Source: Forbes

Oct 3, 2018, 06:40am

Forbes 400 2018: A New Number One And A Record-Breaking Year For America's Richest People

Kerry A. Dolan Forbes Staff

Edited by Luisa Kroll and Kerry A. Dolan

Buoyed in part by a strong stock market, the 400 wealthiest Americans delivered yet another record-breaking year. The minimum net worth needed to join this elite club climbed to $2.1 billion, $100 million more than last year and the highest to date. The group's total net worth rose to $2.9 trillion, a record high and 7% more than in 2017. The average net worth of a list member: $7.2 billion, up from $6.7 billion last year. That average is boosted by those at the very top of the list: half of the total wealth is held by the 45 richest people in the country.

For the first time since 1994, there is a new No. 1: Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, who broke Bill Gates' 24 year run at the top. Bezos is also the first person to appear in the ranks with a fortune of more than $100 billion --he clocked in at $160 billion. Bezos was also the biggest gainer on this year's list: his fortune rose $78.5 billion since last year, thanks to the more than 100% runup in the price of Amazon stock, the biggest one year gain since we've been tracking fortunes. Gates, now ranked No. 2, trails Bezos by a notable $63 billion. The top 10 richest on the list are together worth nearly $730 billion, up from $610 billion in 2017. At these lofty heights, more than a third of the nation's billionaires, a record 204, weren't wealthy enough to crack the club.

The biggest gainer in percentage terms is Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter and payments firm Square. His fortune jumped a staggering 186% from last year to $6.3 billion, propelled primarily by a runup in Square's stock price. ... The biggest loser versus last year's list was George Soros, whose net worth fell to $8.3 billion this year from $23 billion. The reason: in late 2017, Forbes learned that Soros had shifted $18 billion of his fortune to his charitable Open Society Foundations. (Forbes does not count assets in charitable foundations as part of someone's net worth.)

Donald Trump's ranking dropped 11 spots to No. 259 on the list, down from No. 248 last year, even as his net worth remained the same from last year at $3.1 billion.
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Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2018/10/03/forbes-400-2018-a-new-number-one-and-a-record-breaking-year-for-americas-richest-people/#5742f2a160b7

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That Trump had fallen was made known yesterday. The list itself was released this morning. Trump went down only 11 places.

How it must peeve Trump to see lyin' little Jeffy Bezos at the top of the list.

Here's the list:

The 2018 Forbes 400

https://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/