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A billion dollars is no longer enough. The price of admission to this, the 25th-anniversary edition of the Forbes 400, is $1.3 billion, up $300 million from last year. The collective net worth of America's leading plutocrats rose $290 billion to $1.54 trillion.
Wall Street led the charge despite this summer's market jitters. Nearly half of the 45 new members made their fortunes in hedge funds and private equity. Money manager John Paulson joins the list after pocketing more than $1 billion short-selling subprime credit this summer.
Buying spots on the list
Leveraged buyout titans David Bonderman and James Coulter of Texas Pacific make their first appearance on the list, along with William Conway, Daniel D'Aniello and David Rubenstein of Carlyle. Blackstone (BX, news, msgs) billionaires Peter Peterson and Hamilton "Tony" James also join the Forbes 400 for the first time.Other new members of the list include oilman Harold Hamm, who landed on the ranking after taking his Continental Resources (CLR, news, msgs) oil-and-gas operation public in May. Brothers Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta scratched and clawed their way onto the list with their Ultimate Fighting Championship pay-per-view fight fest. The Fertitta brothers also recently took their Station Casinos gambling company private with Forbes 400 member Tom Barrack for $9 billion in cash and assumed debt.
Twelve people return to the list after absences, including computer-memory mavens David Sun and John Tu, and John Catsimatidis, who made his fortune buying and holding an oil refinery and New York City real estate through his holding company, Red Apple.
The youngest member of the Forbes 400 this year is 33-year-old John Arnold, a former Enron trader who now runs hedge fund Centaurus Energy and has amassed a $1.5 billion fortune. The oldest member of the list is potato king John Simplot, who is worth $3.6 billion at age 98.
More from MSN Money and Forbes.com
The biggest gainer this year was Kirk Kerkorian, who padded his fortune by $9 billion, to $18 billion, as shares of his MGM Mirage (MGM, news, msgs) casino outfit rose 135% over the past year. Kerkorian enters the top 10 along with Google's (GOOG, news, msgs) Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who are up $4.4 billion and $4.5 billion, respectively, and brothers Charles and David Koch, who added $5 billion apiece to their fortunes on surging energy and commodities prices. They replace four members of Wal-Mart Stores' (WMT, news, msgs) Walton family and Microsoft (MSFT, news, msgs) co-founder Paul Allen. (Microsoft is the publisher of MSN Money.)
Abigail Johnson, the richest American businesswoman
Micky Arison, the richest American in sports
Sam Zell, the richest American in real estate
- In pictures: The richest Americans in media
Seven members of last year's list have died, including media mogul Barbara Cox Anthony; she is replaced by her two children, James Kennedy and Blair Parry-Okeden. Other notable deaths include Wal-Mart scion Helen Walton, real-estate mogul Leona Helmsley and Cargill grain heir W. Duncan MacMillan.
- MSN Real Estate: Billionaires' homes have square footage to spare
- In pictures: Recently deceased Forbes 400 members
Fifty people couldn't keep up. They include online-gambling titans Ruth Parasol and J. Russell DeLeon, whose PartyGaming (PYGMF, news, msgs) Internet poker company's stock has fallen 75% in the past 12 months. Also dropping off the list is caffeine king Howard Schultz, whose Starbucks (SBUX, news, msgs) stock has languished over the past year, and Campbell Soup (CPB, news, msgs) heir Dorrance Hill Hamilton, who had appeared on every Forbes 400 list since 1982.
The very richest: | |||
Top 5 | Net worth | Source of wealth | How became rich |
$59 billion | Self-made | ||
$52 billion | Self-made | ||
$28 billion | Self-made | ||
$26 billion | Self-made | ||
Sergey Brin / Larry Page (tie) | $18.5 billion | Self-made | |
The richest businesswomen: | |||
Top 5 | Net worth | Source of wealth | How became rich |
$15 billion | Finance | Self-made; some inherited | |
$2.5 billion | Media/entertainment | Self-made | |
$2.2 billion | Service industry | Self-made; some inherited | |
$2 billion | Retailing | Self-made; some inherited | |
$1.4 billion | Self-made | ||
The richest in sports: | |||
Top 5 | Net worth | Owns | How became rich |
$5.8 billion | Miami Heat | Inherited and growing | |
$4.5 billion | Detroit Pistons | Inherited and growing | |
$3.2 billion | Madison Square Garden, New York Knicks, New York Rangers | Self-made | |
$3.1 billion | Minnesota Twins | Self-made | |
$2.7 billion | Minnesota Timberwolves | Self-made | |
The richest in real estate: | |||
Top 5 | Net worth | Source of wealth | How became rich |
$6 billion | Self-made | ||
$4.5 billion | Various real estate | Self-made | |
$4.5 billion | Self-made | ||
$3.3 billion | Self-made | ||
$3 billion | Various real estate | Self-made | |
This article was edited by Matthew Miller for Forbes.com.
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