ARIZONA – Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is at the top of yet another list of billionaires, this time the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans. The list released Wednesday puts Bezos ahead of his Washington-area neighbor, Bill Gates, who had been at the top since 1994.
Bezos was also at the top of Forbes’ billionaires list, which was released in March. He dethroned Gates on that list as well.
The 400 richest Americans have a massive amount of wealth. According to Forbes, the minimum net worth needed to join the list in 2018 was $2.1 billion, the highest amount ever for admission. In all, Forbes says the net worth of the 400 was a record high of $2.9 trillion and half of that belongs to just the 45 richest people in the country.
In Arizona, six residents made it to the elite club. According to Forbes, the Arizona residents on the list are:
- Ernest Garcia, II, net worth $5.3B (used cars)
- Mark Shoen, net worth $3.2B (U-Haul)
- Arturo Moreno, net worth $3B (billboards, Anaheim Angels)
- E. Joe Shoen, net worth $2.7B (U-Haul)
- Bennett Dorrance, net worth $2.6B (Campbell Soup)
- Bob Parsons, net worth $2.5B (web hosting)
Some other notable points from Forbes’ reporting:
- 57 women were on the list
- Those with self-made fortunes vastly outnumber those with inherited wealth
- President Donald Trump dropped 11 spots on the list compared to 2017, coming in at No. 259.
Forbes’ takes a hard and thorough look at the wealth of those on the list to figure out just how much they’re worth. Reporters at Forbes conduct interviews, look over documents, assets and factor in debt in their calculations. (You can see a more detailed methodology here.)
The top 10 billionaires on the list are:
- Jeff Bezos (Amazon)
- Bill Gates (Microsoft)
- Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway)
- Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)
- Larry Ellison (software)
- Larry Page (Google)
- Charles Koch (Koch Industries)
- David Koch (Koch Industries)
- Sergey Brin (Google)
- Michael Bloomberg (Bloomberg LP)