Forbes list: Forbes announces its list of 400 richest Americans
Forbes released Wednesday's annual list of the 400 richest Americans, which has a total net worth of a staggering $ 2.96 trillion, according to the outlet. Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos held on to first place for the second consecutive year, with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates coming in second on the list.
Bezos gives a net worth of $ 114 billion, a significant decrease from last year's $ 160 billion due to the terms of his high profile divorce with his wife MacKenzie Bezos . She was awarded 25% of the couple's Amazon shares and made the list for the first time this year, at 15, with a fortune of $ 36.1 billion.
Gates makes a fortune of $ 106 billion on site two, after donating $ 35.8 billion to charity so far. Gates and his wife, Melinda Gates, are the leader of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – the world's largest private charity, according to Forbes.
Investor Warren Buffett, Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison round off the five richest Americans.
The youngest person to make the list is 29-year-old Snap, Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel, with the oldest being 96-year-old media magnate Sumner Redstone. Fifty-six women made the 2019 list – a smaller woman than listed in 2018.
MacKenzie Bezos is 19 new people who made the list, including Anthony Wood, founder of streaming technology Roku, and the first Puerto Rican-born billionaire Orlando Bravo.
Two hundred and fifty-four people on the list started their own business and almost half founded their first company before 30.
The list has a minimum requirement of $ 2.1 billion, so a record 221 US billionaires from Jay-Z to Kylie Jenner did not make the cut, according to the outlet.
