America’s billionaires are richer than they’ve ever been, Forbes said with Tuesday’s release of The Forbes 400, its annual list of the 400 richest U.S. billionaires.
Seven people from Maryland made the cut.
In Maryland, The Forbes 400 billionaires are as follows:
- No. 117 — Mitchell Rales, 65, of Potomac; net worth $7.5 billion; owner of Danaher (manufacturing/investment company)
- No. 188 — Steven Bisciotti, 61, of Millersville; net worth $5.7 billion; owner of Baltimore Ravens and Allegis Group (staffing company)
- No. 229 — Ted Lerner, 95, of Chevy Chase, and family; net worth $4.7 billion; owner of Lerner Enterprises (real estate) and Washington Nationals
- No 240 — Jim Davis, 61, of Cockeysville; net worth $4.6 billion; owner of Allegis Group (staffing and recruiting), the largest staffing firm in the country
- No. 261 — David Rubenstein, 72, of Bethesda; net worth $4.3 billion; owner of the Carlyle Group (private equity)
- No. 281 — Dan Snyder, 56, of Potomac; net worth $4 billion; Washington Football Team co-owner and co-CEO
- No. 300 — Bernard Saul II, 89, of Chevy Chase; net worth $3.8 billion; owner of B.F. Saul Company (banking/real estate)
Jeff Bezos, the founder of the e-commerce giant Amazon, again topped The Forbes 400 list. His net worth was $189.8 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time wealth tracker. Bezos has topped the list for four consecutive years.
Rounding out the top five and the size of their fortunes at the end of trading Monday are Tesla founder Elon Musk ($190.5 billion), Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg ($134.5 billion), Microsoft founder Bill Gates ($134 billion) and Google executive Larry Page ($123 billion).
Forbes said that though the pandemic made 2020 a terrible year for many, the wealthiest Americans continued to enjoy good economic times. Collectively, the personal fortunes of the 400 richest billionaires increased 40 percent over the past year to $4.5 trillion, up from $3.2 trillion the year prior.
Nearly all are richer than they were a year ago, Forbes said, and the top 20 are worth $1.8 trillion.
Forbes calculated the net worth of those on the list using stock prices at Wall Street’s closing bell on Sept. 3, which was close to a record high close for U.S. stock indices such as the S&P 500.
Among the 44 people who fell off the list was former President Donald Trump, who had been among the 400 richest Americans for 25 years. He continues to be a billionaire. He is as wealthy as he was a year ago, when he ranked 339, but he’s lost $600 million since the start of the pandemic, Forbes noted. Big-city properties, which make up the bulk of the real estate mogul’s holdings, have languished during the pandemic.
Newcomers to The Forbes 400 include cryptocurrency entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried, who at 29 is the youngest person on the list. He’s worth $22.5 billion, ranks 32nd and is among seven cryptocurrency entrepreneurs on the list.
There are 56 women on the list, the same number as a year ago. Oprah Winfrey and Gap co-founder Doris Fisher fell off the list, but new to the list are Melinda French Gates, following her divorce from Bill Gates; and Miriam Adelson, heir to her late husband Sheldon Adelson’s stake in the Las Vegas Sands casino empire.
Alice Walton remains the richest woman in America for the seventh year. The Walmart heir is worth $67.9 billion.
To see the story by Elizabeth Janney as it originally appeared on the website of our news partner, Patch.com, click here.
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