Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, remains the richest American, according to Forbes magazine’s annual 400 Richest People in America.
Gates’ estimated assets are of $54bn, thus holding his position of wealthiest man in America.
Oracle’s CEO Larry Ellison came in at No 3, with wealth of $27bn.
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin shared 11th place, with a net worth of $15bn each.
Steve Ballmer of Microsoft was 15th with $14bn and Michael Dell of Dell was 16th at $13.1bn, both slipping two places each.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg tied for No 35. His wealth rose by 245pc to $6.9bn.
Other Facebook co-founders made the list. Dustin Moskovitz, who left the site in 2008, has a net worth of $1.4bn, tying him at No 290. He’s the youngest person on the list at age 26, just eight days younger than Zuckerberg.
Another co-founder of the social networking giant, Eduardo Saverin, made the list, with a net worth of $1.15bn.
Declined wealth
The wealth of 85 people on the Forbes list declined this year, an improvement on 2009’s figure of 314, while 217 people saw their wealth increase.
The total wealth of the 400 people rose by 8pc, giving the accumulated wealth a total of $1.37trn. This is lower than 2008’s figure of $1.57trn.
Forty-two women made the top 400 list. Christy Walton and Alice Walton of the family that controls Wal-Mart stores in the US were the top women, ranking Nos 4 and 8, respectively.
Talk-show icon Oprah Winfrey came in at No 130.
The cut-off point for the Forbes 400 list is back up at $1bn, after falling to $950m last year.
