- The aggregate wealth of the Forbes 400 list rose to a record $3.2 trillion, as the richest Americans continued to do well;
- Eric Yuan, chief executive officer of Zoom Video Communications, which has become ubiquitous in the work-from-home era, was one of 18 newcomers on the list.
Forbes released on Tuesday its 39th annual Forbes 400 list, the ranking of the wealthiest Americans — and 8 of the top 10 spots are occupied by magnates hailing from the tech industry.
Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos topped the list for the third year in a row. Bezos’ fortune of $179 billion, as of July 24, 2020, is up 57% from last year.
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The aggregate wealth of the Forbes 400 list rose to a record $3.2 trillion, as the richest Americans continued to do well even though the pandemic has devastated the economy and caused more than 11 million Americans to lose their jobs.
Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom Video Communications, which has become ubiquitous in the work-from-home era, was one of 18 newcomers on the list with a net worth of $11 billion.
“The remarkable growth in fortunes of The Forbes 400 stands out at a time of pandemic-induced economic upheaval,” said Kerry A. Dolan, assistant managing editor of wealth at Forbes. “Much of the wealth is highly concentrated. The top 21 richest on the list (there is a tie at No. 20) account for 42% of the total wealth.”
The list below includes the Top 10 wealthiest Americans, with 8 tech entrepreneurs (highlighted in bold):
- Jeff Bezos (Amazon): $179 billion
- Bill Gates (Microsoft): $111 billion
- Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook): $85 billion
- Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway): $73.5
- Larry Ellison (Oracle): $72 billion
- Steve Ballmer (Microsoft): $69 billion
- Elon Musk (Tesla/SpaceX): $68 billion
- Larry Page (Google): $67.5 billion
- Sergey Brin (Google): $65.7 billion
- Alice Walton (Walmart): $62.3 billion
