Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, the current owner of the social media platform X, is the wealthiest person in America, according to The Forbes 400 list of the richest billionaires in the country. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, Pool, File),
ACROSS AMERICA — Billionaire Elon Musk held onto his position as the wealthiest person in the country, according to The Forbes 400, an annual ranking of America’s super rich released Tuesday.
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Overall, the 400 richest billionaires in America are worth $4.5 trillion, tying a record set in 2021. Overall, they are about $500 billion richer than they were a year ago, in large part because of rebounding stock markets and an AI-driven tech boom, Forbes said.
Billionaires had to have a net worth at least $2.9 billion to be included on the prestigious list, up from $2.7 billion a year ago. Forbes said its net worth calculations use stock prices from Sept. 8.
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Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX founder and owner of the social media platform X, tops the list for a second year with an estimated net worth of $251 billion — $90 billion richer than Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and No. 2 on the list, and $93 billion ahead of Oracle software development company founder Larry Ellison.
Forbes also tracked the charitable giving of every member of The Forbes 400, and scored each person on a scale of 1 (those who have given less than 1 percent of their wealth away so far) to 5 (those who have given at least 20 percent). The richest people in America are not overly generous. Two-thirds of them have given away less than 5 percent of their wealth, and only 11 have donated 20 percent or more, according to Forbes.
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Forbes 400 members who scored 5 on the giving scale were John Arnold, Edythe Broad, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates, Amos Hostetter Jr., Pierre Omidyar, MacKenzie Scott, Lynn Schusterman, Jeff Skoll and George Soros.
Musk and Ellison both scored 1 on the philanthropy ranking, and Bezos scored a 2.
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Read more about Forbes’ methodology.
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