The Rich Got Richer in 2024, With A Notable Exception: The Forbes 400

ACROSS AMERICA — With a notable exception, the wealthy got wealthier in 2024, according to The Forbes 400, an annual ranking of America’s super-rich released Tuesday.

That was Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX founder and the owner of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Musk, 53, tops the list for a third year, despite a $7 billion slide in his net worth to $244 billion in 2024’s list. Musk has topped The Forbes List for three years now.

Overall, the 400 richest billionaires in America are worth $5.4 trillion, up nearly $1 trillion from last year, a record, Forbes said. A dozen have fortunes of $100 billion or more, which is also a record. The minimum net worth of $3.3 billion was required to make the elite club, which is $400 million more than in 2023. Twenty-three newcomers managed to break into the ranks of the wealthiest Americans.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, 60, is again No. 2 on the list with a net worth of $197 billion, ahead of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, 40, the third-richest person in America with a net worth of $181 billion. Rounding out the top five richest Americans are Oracle software development company founder Larry Ellison, 80, with a net worth of $175 billion, and Berkshire Hathaway founder Warren Buffett, 90, who is worth $150 billion.

They, along with 20 others in the top 25 richest Americans, hold more than $2.5 trillion in wealth, nearly half the list’s total net worth, Forbes said, noting that the richer billionaires already were, the richer they got. The top 25 people, a dozen of them worth $100 billion or more, were responsible for $500 billion in net worth gains.

Alice Walton, the daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, is the richest woman in the country for a ninth straight year. Shares of the company her father founded in 1962 were up 41 percent in the past year, increasing her net worth to $89.2 billion. Walton ranked 15th overall and was one of only 67 women on The Forbes 400, up from 60 in 2023.

The women on the list are worth a combined $839 billion, up from $62.1 billion last year. The wealthiest self-made woman on the list is Diane Hendricks, co-founder of ABC Supply, one of the largest U.S. roofing, siding and windows distributors. The Wisconsin businesswoman is worth $21.9 billion.

Another Walmart heir, Lukas Walton, 38, the grandson of the company’s founder, is the youngest person on The Forbes 400 with a net worth estimated at $33.9 billion. The only other person under 40 on the list is venture capitalist and real estate mogul Josh Kushner, 39, who is worth about $3.8 billion.

On average, members of The Forbes 400 are 70 years old, Forbes said, with the eldest being Dole Food Company’s 101-year-old David Murdock, who is worth an estimated $3.7 billion.

Overall, about 67 percent of those on the list are self-made billionaires. Among them, only 25 people had true rags-to-riches stories, as measured by the self-made score.

Twenty-three new billionaires joined the list this year. The newcomers include Todd Graves ($9.5 billion), who created the Raising Cane’s fast food chain and Peter Cancro ($5.6 billion), who built and runs Jersey Mike’s Subs.

Notable among the 11 people who previously fell off the elite wealth list is former president Donald Trump, who Forbes said “has ridden the volatile stock price of Truth Social parent-company Trump Media & Technology Group back onto the list, part of a broader ploy to wring billions in wealth out of his political career.”

In all, 30 people fell off the list this year, including Vince McMahon ($2.5 billion), who stepped down as executive chairman of WWE-parent company TKO Holdings in January amid sexual assault allegations, which he has denied.

Forbes said that for the first time ever, there are more American billionaires — 415 — who are not on the list than who are on it. Some of the more recognizable names are Arnold Schwarzenegger ($1 billion), Jerry Seinfeld ($1.1 billion), Bruce Springsteen ($1.1 billion), Taylor Swift ($1.3 billion) and Oprah Winfrey ($3 billion).