Forbes’ annual ranking of the nation’s 400 richest people saw Elon Musk come out on top for the third year in a row, with nearly all of the 25 wealthiest Americans increasing their wealth.
The Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder has an estimated fortune of $244 billion. Though his fortune shrank by $7 billion since last year, he’s still ahead of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, now worth $197 billion.
Bezos has been the runner-up since 2022, when Musk became the world’s richest man thanks to an 11 percent increase in the price of his Tesla shares and new investments in his rocket company, SpaceX.
The biggest winner was Meta Platform’s Mark Zuckerberg, who increased his wealth by a whopping $75 billion, shooting up from 8th position to make a decided comeback into the top three.
Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang, ranked 11th, was once again one of the biggest climbers on the list, more than doubling his fortune in a single year, from $40.7 to $104 billion, as his graphics-card powerhouse took a leading role in manufacturing dedicated microprocessors for artificial intelligence systems.
The richest woman on the list came in at number 15. Alice Walton—daughter of the late Walmart founder Sam Walton—had her net worth estimated at $89.2 billion, up from $66.5 billion. She’s followed by Julia Koch & Family, whose fortune is valued at 74.2 billion.
Despite topping the list, Musk was one of only three in the top-25 that lost wealth in the past year, owing to two reasons: Falling demand for EVs and stiff competition caused Tesla’s shares to drop 14 percent; and a Delaware judge voided Musk’s $56 billion Tesla compensation package—reportedly the largest performance-based bonus plan in public corporate history—in January, arguing that Musk had “dominated” the decision process.
In June, Tesla shareholders voted in favor of Musk getting the pay package, and the court ruling was appealed. With the outcome undecided, Forbes decided to count Musk’s bonus at 50 percent.
Bill Gates owes his loss in part due to a reassessment of his 2021 divorce settlement with Melinda French Gates, Forbes said.
Nike co-founder Phil Knight saw his company’s stocks go down 15 percent since last year.
Bezos has been forging ahead steadily, building up his fortune by $36 billion since last year’s ranking, when Musk was $90 billion ahead, compared to $47 this year. Bezos owns 9 percent of e-commerce Leviathan, whose stock went up 29 percent.
The 400 richest people in America have a combined net worth of a record $5.4 trillion, up nearly $1 trillion from last year, according to Forbes’ calculations. The list also features for the first time ever 12 people each with a fortune over 100 billion.