(Cover image source: Forbes, ILLUSTRATION BY JOE MORSE)
Forbes released the list of the top 400 richest people in the United States , and Tesla founder Musk once again joined the throne. America's 400 richest people lost a combined $500 billion last year, but have now made it all back. The total assets of this elite group are currently worth $4.5 trillion, tying the record set in 2021. It takes $2.9 billion to enter the Forbes 400, up from $2.7 billion the previous year and tying the all-time high. Half of that gain came from a rebound in technology stocks, with eight tech giants adding more than $10 billion to their wealth.
Musk ranks first again
Elon Musk tops the list for the second year in a row, with an estimated worth of $251 billion, despite paying a premium last year to acquire Twitter (now renamed Zuckerberg launched a cage fight challenge, fully demonstrating his crazy and controversial personality.
But as Tesla shares rebounded strongly, his wealth increased by tens of billions of dollars. Musk's wealth is $90 billion more than second-ranked Jeff Bezos, and $93 billion more than third-ranked Larry Ellison. Zuckerberg, his fighting challenger, ranks eighth with a net worth of US$106 billion.
AI craze puts Jen-Hsun Huang in the top 20 for the first time
Because of this year's AI craze, Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang rose 31 places and entered the top 20 for the first time (ranked 17th, with a net worth of US$40.7 billion). The company, which makes more chips used in artificial intelligence systems than any company, has seen its shares rise more than 200% since last year, giving it a market value of more than $1 trillion.
Jordan is the first professional athlete to enter the top 400
Michael Jordan is the first professional athlete to reach the top 400 thanks to nine-figure annual royalties from Nike and the August sale of his majority stake in the NBA's Charlotte Hornets. protocol. Jordan is worth an estimated $3 billion and is the first professional athlete to enter the top 400.
Trump fell off the list again, and FTX founders SBF and Gary Wang also fell off the list.
Former US President Donald Trump's wealth is estimated at US$2.6 billion, which is US$300 million short of the threshold for the top 400 list.
His net worth is more than $600 million lower than a year ago. The biggest reason is his social media business─Truth Social. Trump had envisioned a large portion of the country logging onto the platform. But that never happened. Truth Social has about 6.5 million people registered so far, accounting for about 1% of the people registered on X. The value of Trump's 90% stake in Truth Social's parent company plummeted from an estimated $730 million to less than $100 million.
( Trump’s own social platform “TRUTH Social” previews its return to the community )
Also falling out of the rankings are FTX founders SBF and Gary Wang, who were worth US$17.2 billion and US$4.6 billion respectively on last year's list.
