Some of America’s richest people made their fortunes as innovators, most becoming self-made billionaires. They transformed the world with technology, have improved the lives of others with their philanthropy and are working on ways to change tomorrow.
You know the names, but just how much wealth do the richest Americans hold? Using data from Forbes’ 2023 World’s Billionaires List, GOBankingRates identified the 10 richest people in America and ranked them in ascending order from least rich to richest. The list also includes their ages, net worths and the source of their fortunes, as well as who got richer and who lost money over the past year.
Mark Zuckerberg
- U.S. wealth rank: 10
- Overall wealth rank: 16
- Net worth: $64.4 billion
- 2022 net worth: $67.3 billion
- Age: 38
- Source of income: Facebook, self-made
Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook in 2004 while he was still a student at Harvard. He took Facebook — now Meta — public in 2012, and maintains a 13% stake in the company.
A drop in Meta stocks is responsible for Zuckerberg’s declining net worth, which peaked at $97 billion in 2021.
Sergey Brin
- U.S. wealth rank: 9
- Overall wealth rank: 14
- Net worth: $76 billion
- 2022 net worth: $107 billion
- Age: 49
- Source of income: Google, self-made
Sergey Brin is no longer the president of Google’s parent company Alphabet, but he remains a member of the board and a controlling shareholder. Along with Larry Page, he co-founded Google in 1998 while studying at Stanford. Forbes reported Brin is the richest immigrant to America; he and his family moved to the U.S. from Russia when Brin was 6.
Brin’s net worth fell by over $30 billion over the past year as shares of Alphabet declined.
Larry Page
- U.S. wealth rank: 8
- Overall wealth rank: 12
- Net worth: $79.2 billion
- 2022 net worth: $111 billion
- Age: 50
- Source of income: Google, self-made
Like Sergey Brin, Larry Page was pursuing an advanced computer science degree at Stanford when he co-founded Google in 1998. He was instrumental in developing the PageRank algorithm that made it possible to search the early internet. Although he stepped down as CEO of Alphabet, he remains a controlling shareholder.
As with Brin, the decline in Alphabet’s share value led to his decline in net worth.
Steve Ballmer
- U.S. wealth rank: 7
- Overall wealth rank: 10
- Net worth: $80.7 billion
- 2022 net worth: $91.4 billion
- Age: 67
- Source of income: Microsoft, self-made
Stanford dropout Steve Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980 as employee No. 30. As CEO from 2000-14, he shepherded the company through the dot-com bust, the rise of Google and Apple’s most transformative era of innovation. After his retirement from Microsoft, he found a new passion when he bought the Los Angeles Clippers of the NBA, spending $2 billion on the team.
As shares of Microsoft took a nosedive over the last year, so did Ballmer’s net worth.
Michael Bloomberg
- U.S. wealth rank: 6
- Overall wealth rank: 7
- Net worth: $94.5 billion
- 2022 net worth: $82 billion
- Age: 81
- Source of income: Bloomberg LP, self-made
Michael Bloomberg built his enormous fortune from the ground up, starting his Wall Street career at the entry level before building a financial empire based on media and technology. His second act was a political career that included a long run as the mayor of New York. He remains the CEO of Bloomberg LP.
Bloomberg added $12.5 billion to his net worth since Forbes’ last ranking.
Bill Gates
- U.S. wealth rank: 5
- Overall wealth rank: 6
- Net worth: $104 billion
- 2022 net worth: $129 billion
- Age: 67
- Source of income: Microsoft, self-made
Bill Gates spent the first part of his life amassing one of the world’s greatest fortunes and now seems intent on giving it away. Although he rose to power, prominence and wealth as the founder of Microsoft, he is now best known for his philanthropic efforts through the world’s largest charity, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. While they still co-lead the organization, the Gateses announced they would divorce in May 2021. Melinda Gates received $6 billion in shares of public companies in the divorce.
Although a rough year for Microsoft is partially to blame for Gates’ drop in net worth since 2022, he also knocked some billions off by his own accord — in July 2022, Gates made a $20 billion donation to his namesake foundation, Forbes reported.
Warren Buffett
- U.S. wealth rank: 4
- Overall wealth rank: 5
- Net worth: $106 billion
- 2022 net worth: $118 billion
- Age: 92
- Source of income: Berkshire Hathaway, self-made
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway owns dozens of companies and brands, many of which, like Duracell and Geico, are household names. He also happens to be one of the most successful stock investors of all time. He bought his first stock at age 11. Buffett and Bill Gates teamed up in 2010 to form the Giving Pledge, which asks billionaires to donate at least half of their assets to charity.
In February, Berkshire Hathaway reported that it lost $22.8 billion in 2022, driven by $53.6 billion in unrealized losses on its investments, The New York Times reported.
Larry Ellison
- U.S. wealth rank: 3
- Overall wealth rank: 4
- Net worth: $107 billion
- 2022 net worth: $106 billion
- Age: 78
- Source of income: Oracle, self-made
Larry Ellison still owns more than one-third of Oracle, the software giant he co-founded. He sat on the board of Tesla from December 2018 to August 2022 but owns about 15 million shares of Elon Musk’s company. He bought almost all of the Hawaiian island of Lanai in 2012 for $300 million and now lives there full-time.
Ellison saw his net worth gain $1 billion since last year’s Billionaires List ranking.
Jeff Bezos
- U.S. wealth rank: 2
- Overall wealth rank: 3
- Net worth: $114 billion
- 2022 net worth: $171 billion
- Age: 59
- Source of income: Amazon, self-made
Jeff Bezos amassed a fortune from Amazon, the e-commerce powerhouse he started out of his garage in 1994. Bezos stepped down as CEO in 2021 but still serves as executive chairman and owns a bit less than 10% of the company. Other ventures include The Washington Post and Blue Origin.
Bezos was the biggest wealth loser on the Billionaires List this year — his net worth dropped $57 billion due to a 38% drop in Amazon’s stock price as of March 10, CNBC reported.
Elon Musk
- U.S. wealth rank: 1
- Overall wealth rank: 2
- Net worth: $180 billion
- 2022 net worth: $219 billion
- Age: 51
- Source of income: Tesla, SpaceX, self-made
Elon Musk, the co-founder and CEO of electric vehicle maker Tesla and CEO of SpaceX, saw his net worth plummet over the past year after his $44 billion purchase of Twitter scared investors. Yet he still remains the richest man in America and second richest overall, with luxury fashion mogul Bernard Arnault of France claiming the top spot.
More From GOBankingRates
- Make Yourself Money Smart: 20 ChatGPT Prompts To Increase Your Wealth
- 8 Home Items To Avoid Buying at Dollar Tree This Spring
- 16 Best Places To Retire in the US That Feel Like Europe
- 3 Things You Must Do When Your Savings Reach $50,000
Gabrielle Olya and Daria Uhlig contributed to the reporting for this article.
All data is sourced from Forbes’ 2023 World’s Billionaires List.