The richest people in America. List of billionaires according to Forbes magazine

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

As you know, America is a country of great opportunities for doing or expanding various businesses. It goes without saying that in this case one should have certain skills and human qualities, which in total allow one to reach a fairly high material level. It is no secret that the vast majority of billionaires in the world are precisely the inhabitants of the New World. In this article, we will find out who the richest people in America are, what they own and how they came to their success.

The richest family

According to Forbes, the W alton dynasty is the richest in the United States. Her fortune is estimated at a simply unthinkable amount - $ 130 billion. The business was founded in 1962 by brothers James and Sam. Both have long gone to another world, and today their brainchild is being developed by their heirs, of whom there are six people. In fact, the team's activities are based on the total control of the world's largest retailer Wal-Mart.

Koch Industries

Charles Koch is another richest man in America. This entrepreneur and philanthropist was born on November 1, 1935 in Kansas, USA. He has a brother named David Koch, with whom theyTogether they inherited a very large business based on the production of gasoline from their dad. Today, the corporation, which is managed by Charles Koch, in addition to the chemical and oil industries, pays close attention to the production of various polymers, the implementation of many environmental programs, and even cattle breeding. The brothers' business capital is approximately $115 billion, of which David Koch owns $42.9 billion.

Former Mayor of New York

Michael Bloomberg, born February 14, 1942 in Brighton, today is not just a successful entrepreneur, but also one of the richest people on our big planet. From January 1, 2002 to December 31, 2013, he headed the New York City Hall. Like many of the richest people in America, the businessman is a native of a Jewish family and has a prestigious education (he graduated from Harvard Business School). Michael Bloomberg owns one of the world's leading news agencies - Bloomberg. The empire of this prominent American consists of many television channels, radio stations and a worldwide computer network of financial news. At the heart of Michael's success is his ability to think progressively and quickly. It was he who first came up with the idea of combining the current quotes of exchanges taking place in real time with detailed analytics. This service allowed Bloomberg to become, in a way, a monopoly of the information field in the financial sector.

As mayor of New York, Michael set himself a salary of one dollar a year and completely abandonedpublic housing, using only their business income. As of 2016, Bloomberg's net worth was approximately $40 billion.

Young billionaire

Relatively recently, the list of billionaires was replenished by a native of the suburbs of New York, Mark Zuckerberg. This outstanding polyglot and programmer was born in 1984 and already at the age of twelve he created his first ZuckNet program, which made it possible to communicate over a local network to all his relatives and friends. After high school, Mark was educated at the elite Phillips Exeter Academy. Mark Zuckerberg's financial fortune has increased many times after he developed a social network called Facebook. Initially, it was intended to expand communication opportunities for Harvard students, but the network began to grow rapidly, and at a certain stage, the young American realized that it was urgent to invest a lot of money in this promising project in all respects. Therefore, he dropped out of high school and invested all his savings in his offspring. After some time, Mark was able to attract we althy investors, who contributed to bringing the social network to the international level. As of February 2016, Mark Zuckerberg's fortune was in the range of $50 billion. At the same time, the young man does not lead a party lifestyle, does not flaunt his we alth and lives happily with his wife, whom he has known since his student years, and is raising a little daughter named Max.

Mars Dynasty

In 1911, Forrest Mars Sr. created the Mars confectionery company. In our time, it is managed by three heirs of the founder of the corporation. By the way, today the brand produces not only sweets, but also pet food such as Pedigree and Whiskas. The scale of production of the company's products inspire respect. Only one candy called M&M's in the United States produces about 400 million pieces daily. As for the family's fortune, in 2016 it was approximately $78 billion.

Owner of the world's largest online store

American Jeff Bezos is another example of the ability to quickly navigate trends and draw the right conclusions in the fight for success.

Jeff was born on January 12, 1964 in Albuquerque, USA. After receiving an excellent education at Princeton University, the future billionaire began work at Fitel, which specialized in developing high-quality stock trading software. But already in 1994, Jeff got acquainted with an analytical forecast for an increase in sales via the Internet and realized in which direction he should work. Since 2000, the American has allocated part of his finances to a project called Blue Origin, which is to launch spacecraft into low Earth orbit.

In 2013, the businessman bought one of the most famous publishing houses - The Washington Post. Jeff spent $250 million on this acquisition.

Today Jeff Bezosis the founder and owner of the world's largest online store known as Amazon. The billionaire adheres to the thesis “the client is always right”, and in relation to his subordinates he is demanding, one might even say, picky. As of early 2017, Bezos has a net worth of $71.2 billion.

Oracle CEO

Lawrence Ellison is a prominent American entrepreneur who is well known for his charisma, impulsiveness and extravagance. At the same time, one cannot fail to note his significant contribution to the development of modern software.

The future billionaire was born in August 1944 in the Bronx. Experiencing adolescence, Lawrence was extremely obstinate and independent, which is why he often argued with his adoptive father, who considered him an absolute loser and a complete fool, incapable of anything in life. After school, Larry became a student at the University of Illinois, which he never graduated from. After some time, he again becomes a student, but already at the University of Chicago, where he was expelled already in his first year of study.

But still the guy was destined to become successful. He had the ability to fully absorb new information and quickly became a programmer. And in the 1970s, he became the founder of Oracle, which exists to this day and brings billions in profits to its owner. Even then, the richest people in America understood that computer technology was the future, and therefore Ellison had many competitors, such asSAP and Microsoft. This led to the fact that in the 1990s the American company was on the verge of complete bankruptcy. However, he did not lose heart and took rather radical steps: he fired many of his managers, and he himself took the place of a programmer, improving applications for managing databases.

At the same time, Larry was very demanding of his subordinates. In his corporation, all departments competed with each other, rivalry between staff was encouraged, and the pace of work was such that the vice president of the company married the girl he met, because he clearly understood that he would have no time to look for another lady of the heart if he broke up with this one.

Confrontation with competitors

The main competitor in the business world for Oracle is Microsoft Corporation. Moreover, their confrontation even reached a personal level. So, for example, Larry flew his plane over the Gates house on a strafing flight and often criticized his opponent, accusing him of incompetence. However, Ellison was never able to surpass Gates in the ranking of rich people, even taking into account the fact that he won a lawsuit against him and received $5 billion for it.

The world's largest investor

Buffett Warren, who is worth $65.5 billion as of February 2017, is nicknamed the Seer for his ability to perfectly calculate various situations and material investments in advance.

The billionaire was born in Nebraska in 1930 and already at the age of thirteen he issued his firsttax return. The American's first major financial achievement was $10,000, made possible by installing slot machines in hairdressing salons. The backbone of Warren's business is Berkshire Hathaway, which he acquired in 1965.

Education Buffett received within the walls of Columbia University under the guidance of Benjamin Graham. In his strategy, Warren adheres to the principle of long-term investment, that is, holding a share in a company, in his opinion, should last at least 10 years. The businessman is known for his generosity towards charitable foundations. In the summer of 2010, he donated 50% of his finances to five such institutions. This act is still considered the most generous act of charity on the planet in the history of our human race.

Buffett had some pretty serious he alth issues. In the spring of 2012, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, but the disease was detected at an early stage, and the timely course of radiotherapy saved the billionaire from imminent death.

World's Richest Man 2015

Bill Gates (USA) from 1996 to 2007, as well as in 2009 and 2015, was officially recognized as the richest man on earth. This man was born in 1955 and became famous not only for his we alth, but also for calling on other billionaires to give half of their fortunes to charity.

Surprisingly, the future computer genius was expelled from the university literally two years after the start of his studies at it. main businessGates's partner is his friend Paul Allen, who in their tandem initially de alt exclusively with technical issues. Bill himself took over the negotiation processes, communication with clients and signing contracts. In 1976, the now well-known company Microsoft was created by young Americans, in which 64% of the shares belonged to Gates.

By the way, despite the reputation of a very adequate and calm person, Bill was arrested three times in his life for driving without documents and while intoxicated.

Some facts about the billionaire

To date, Gates has completely removed his authority as the head of the corporation, but at the same time is the largest holder of its shares. Also, the billionaire is quite modest in everyday life and dresses very discreetly. However, his residence is a high-tech building that impresses visitors with its technical highlights.

Gates loves books and reads 50 of them a year. A fly, Eristalis gatesi, was also named after him. In addition, the American owns the largest island of the Republic of Belize.

Forbes rating

According to the respected print publication Forbes, at the beginning of 2017, the list of billionaires. In it, the main American billionaires are ranked relative to each other in terms of their we alth. The list looks like this:

1. Bill Gates.
2. Warren Buffett.
3. Jeff Bezos.
4. Mark Zuckerberg.
5. Larry Ellison.
6. David Koch.
7. KochCharles.
8. Michael Bloomberg.
9. Larry Page.
10. Jim W alton.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to note that the richest people in America are not only well-educated, but also purposeful, mature, independent individuals in all respects, who were not afraid at the right time to challenge both the society around them and themselves, thereby overcoming various fears and self-doubt. Many of them are hereditary billionaires thanks to their ancestors, but the ability not only to preserve capital, but also to increase it makes them respect these businessmen and appreciate their business qualities.