For the first year since the Great Recession, the super-rich have not gotten richer.
After a roaring 2021, the 400 richest people in the US, along with many Americans, have been hit by rising inflation and falling markets. As a group, this year’s Forbes 400 is $500 billion less wealthy than it was a year ago . His total net worth stands at $4 trillion, down 11% from last year.
The minimum net worth required to make the list also fell, by $200 million, to $2.7 billion. It is the first time since the Great Recession that America’s richest are not richer than they were the year before . Forbes calculated net worth using stock prices as of September 2, 2022.
No one has been hit harder than American tech moguls, who have lost a combined $315 billion , as their share prices have plummeted and the flow of venture capital money has slowed to a trickle. A total of 41 people fell from the ranks this year, including Yahoo’s Jerry Yang, Rivian’s RJ Scaringe and, thanks to the crypto winter, the Winklevoss twins. Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg, last year’s No. 3, dropped out of the top 10 for the first time since 2014. He is $76.8 billion less rich than a year ago, the biggest loss of anyone on the 2022 list.
Elon Musk tops the Forbes 400 for the first time . Despite all the turmoil in his professional and personal life, Musk is estimated to be $60.5 billion richer this year, thanks to an 11% rise in Tesla shares and new funding rounds for SpaceX. He unseats Jeff Bezos, now No. 2, who was hit by a 27% drop in Amazon shares. Bill Gates moved up one spot, to No. 3, despite donating $20 billion to his foundation earlier this year, largely thanks to Zuck’s bad year.
The top 20 people on the list , the top 5%, are worth a staggering $1.6 trillion, which is 40% of the Forbes 400’s total wealth.
Amid all the turmoil, 42 people joined or rejoined the ranks this year . The richest of the 20 newcomers is oil billionaire Autry Stephens, a West Texas wildcat worth an estimated $10 billion. He is one of 19 on the list who made their money in energy, 15 of whom are richer than they were in 2021, a bright spot during the market downturn, given the rise in oil prices over the past year. Other notable newcomers include Elon Musk fanboyLeo Koguan, grocery wholesaler and AI robotics billionaire Rick Cohen and Todd Boehly, who led a group that bought Chelsea football club in May for $3.1 billion and who is one of 50 sports owners on this list of the year. Another 22 people who made a previous Forbes 400 list , then dropped, are back in the elite club again, including racing legend Roger Penske, Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick and Donald Trump.
America’s richest people range in age from real estate mogul Ted Lerner and early Berkshire Hathaway investor David Gottesman, both 96, to Gary Wang, 29, co-founder of crypto exchange FTX. Wang, who is new to the ranks, is one of only 10 members on the list under the age of 40.
Forbes 400 members remain largely self-made, with 275, or 69%, having created their fortune rather than inheriting it. It is also still dominated by men, with only 58 women, 2 more than a year ago . Richest Woman: Julia Koch, the widow of David Koch of Koch Industries (d. 2019). Richest self-made woman: Diane Hendricks, co-founder of building materials distributor ABC Supply.
America’s richest people may have huge fortunes, but not all of them write big checks. Forbes once again investigated the charitable giving of each member of the list and ranked each person’s generosity on a scale of 1 (those who have donated less than 1% of their wealth so far) to 5 (those who have donated to minus 20%). More than half have given away less than 5% of their fortune; only nine members of the list scored a 5.
