Just how difficult is it to make the Forbes 400 list of America’s richest people these days? Consider this: There are now a record 590 American billionaires who are simply not rich enough.
With the AI and data center boom in full swing and the U.S. stock market near an all-time high, it now takes a record $4.4 billion to rank among the nation’s 400 wealthiest people. That’s $600 million more than last year and $2.7 billion more than a decade ago. In all, this year’s Forbes 400 is richer than ever, worth a combined $8 trillion, up from $6.6 trillion in 2025.
The massive gains start at the top of the list. Elon Musk was already the richest American of all-time last year, with a fortune of $428 billion. Since then, he has more than doubled his wealth over the past 12 months, getting $480 billion richer after taking his rocket maker SpaceX public in the biggest IPO in history in June (and briefly becoming the planet’s first-ever trillionaire). Musk is now worth an estimated $908 billion—a staggering $530 billion more than the list’s No. 2, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who himself is $137 billion wealthier than a year ago (and ranks two spots higher), thanks to a rise in the ecommerce giant’s stock and a much higher valuation of his own rocket firm, Blue Origin. The net worth difference between Musk and Bezos now spans more than three and a half Warren Buffetts, or the bottom 105 billionaires on this year’s Forbes 400 combined.
Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2026/09/15/the-2026-forbes-400-list-of-wealthiest-americans-facts-and-figures/
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