Some of America’s richest people made their fortunes as innovators, most becoming self-made billionaires. They transformed the world with technology, have improved the lives of others with their philanthropy and are working on ways to change tomorrow.
You know the names, but just how much wealth do the richest Americans hold? Using data from the 2024 Forbes 400 list, GOBankingRates identified the 10 richest people in America and ranked them in ascending order from least rich to richest. The list also includes their ages, net worths and the source of their fortunes, as well as who got richer and who lost money over the past year.
Note that rankings are based on the Forbes 400 list and are accurate as of Oct. 1, 2024; overall wealth rank is based on real-time net worths as of Oct. 2, 2024.
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Michael Bloomberg
- U.S. wealth rank: 10
- Overall wealth rank: 13
- Net worth: $105 billion
- 2023 net worth: $94.5 billion
- Age: 82
- Source of income: Bloomberg LP, self-made
Michael Bloomberg built his enormous fortune from the ground up, starting his Wall Street career at the entry level before building a financial empire based on media and technology. His second act was a political career that included a long run as the mayor of New York. He remains the CEO of Bloomberg LP.
Bloomberg added $10.5 billion to his net worth since Forbes’ last ranking.
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Bill Gates
- U.S. wealth rank: 9
- Overall wealth rank: 12
- Net worth: $107 billion
- 2023 net worth: $104 billion
- Age: 68
- Source of income: Microsoft, self-made
Bill Gates spent the first part of his life amassing one of the world’s greatest fortunes and now seems intent on giving it away. Although he rose to power, prominence and wealth as the founder of Microsoft, he is now best known for his philanthropic efforts through the world’s largest charity, the Gates Foundation.
Gates has donated more than $59 billion to the Gates Foundation, Forbes reported.
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Steve Ballmer
- U.S. wealth rank: 8
- Overall wealth rank: 10
- Net worth: $123 billion
- 2023 net worth: $80.7 billion
- Age: 68
- Source of income: Microsoft, self-made
Stanford dropout Steve Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980 as employee No. 30. As CEO from 2000 to 2014, he shepherded the company through the dot-com bust, the rise of Google and Apple’s most transformative era of innovation. After his retirement from Microsoft, he found a new passion when he bought the Los Angeles Clippers of the NBA, spending $2 billion on the team.
Sergey Brin
- U.S. wealth rank: 7
- Overall wealth rank: 8
- Net worth: $130 billion
- 2023 net worth: $76 billion
- Age: 51
- Source of income: Google, self-made
Sergey Brin is no longer the president of Google’s parent company Alphabet, but he remains a member of the board and a controlling shareholder. Along with Larry Page, he co-founded Google in 1998 while studying at Stanford. Forbes reported that Brin is the richest immigrant to America; he and his family moved to the U.S. from Russia when Brin was 6.
Larry Page
- U.S. wealth rank: 6
- Overall wealth rank: 7
- Net worth: $136 billion
- 2023 net worth: $79.2 billion
- Age: 51
- Source of income: Google, self-made
Like Sergey Brin, Larry Page was pursuing an advanced computer science degree at Stanford when he co-founded Google in 1998. He was instrumental in developing the PageRank algorithm that made it possible to search the early internet. Although he stepped down as CEO of Alphabet, he remains a controlling shareholder.
Warren Buffett
- U.S. wealth rank: 5
- Overall wealth rank: 6
- Net worth: $150 billion
- 2023 net worth: $106 billion
- Age: 94
- Source of income: Berkshire Hathaway, self-made
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway owns dozens of companies and brands, many of which, like Duracell and Geico, are household names. He also happens to be one of the most successful stock investors of all time. He bought his first stock at age 11. Buffett and Bill Gates teamed up in 2010 to form the Giving Pledge, which asks billionaires to donate at least half of their assets to charity.
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Larry Ellison
- U.S. wealth rank: 4
- Overall wealth rank: 2
- Net worth: $175 billion
- 2023 net worth: $107 billion
- Age: 80
- Source of income: Oracle, self-made
Larry Ellison still owns roughly 40% of Oracle, the software giant he co-founded. He sat on the board of Tesla from December 2018 to August 2022. Ellison bought almost all of the Hawaiian island of Lanai in 2012 for $300 million and now lives there full-time.
Ellison saw his net worth gain $68 billion since last year’s ranking.
Mark Zuckerberg
- U.S. wealth rank: 3
- Overall wealth rank: 4
- Net worth: $181 billion
- 2023 net worth: $64.4 billion
- Age: 40
- Source of income: Facebook, self-made
Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook in 2004 while he was still a student at Harvard. He took Facebook — now Meta — public in 2012, and maintains a 13% stake in the company.
Zuckerberg had one of the biggest gains in wealth over the past year thanks to the rebound of Meta stock.
Jeff Bezos
- U.S. wealth rank: 2
- Overall wealth rank: 3
- Net worth: $197 billion
- 2023 net worth: $114 billion
- Age: 60
- Source of income: Amazon, self-made
Jeff Bezos amassed a fortune from Amazon, the e-commerce powerhouse he started out of his garage in 1994. Bezos stepped down as CEO in 2021 but still serves as executive chairman and owns a bit less than 10% of the company. Other ventures include The Washington Post and Blue Origin.
Elon Musk
- U.S. wealth rank: 1
- Overall wealth rank: 1
- Net worth: $244 billion
- 2023 net worth: $180 billion
- Age: 53
- Source of income: Tesla, SpaceX, self-made
Elon Musk, the co-founder and CEO of electric vehicle maker Tesla and CEO of SpaceX, remains the richest man in America. He owns about 12% of Tesla excluding options and an estimated 42% stake in SpaceX.
Gabrielle Olya and Daria Uhlig contributed to the reporting for this article.
Data is sourced from the 2024 Forbes 400 list and the Forbes Real Time Billionaires list.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 10 Richest People in the US
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