Inside The 2016 Forbes 400: Facts And Figures About America's Richest People forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2016/10/04/inside-the-2016-forbes-400-facts-and-figures-about-americas-richest-people/print/ Kerry A. Dolan 10/3/2016 By Kerry A. Dolan and Luisa Kroll Soaring stock prices at the hottest tech firms shook up the top of The FORBES 400 this year. Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos gained $20 billion, more than anyone else in America. That was enough to boost his net worth to $67 billion, making him the second-richest person in the country, even wealthier than Warren Buffett, who finished in third place for the first time in 15 years. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who is now worth $55.5 billion, moved into fourth place, his highest rank ever, while Oracle founder Larry Ellison fell to No. 5 for the first time since 2007. The country’s 400 richest are wealthier than ever, with a combined net worth of $2.4 trillion and an average net worth of $6 billion, both record highs. The minimum net worth for entry was $1.7 billion, the same as it was a year ago. A record 153 billionaires were too poor to make the exclusive club. Bill Gates is No. 1 for the 23rd year running, with a net worth of $81 billion. His stake in Microsoft, which he cofounded in 1975 and where he still serves as a board member, accounts for about 13% of his fortune. Gates also owns stakes in tractor maker Deere & Co., Canadian National Railway, car dealer AutoNation and many other companies. Read More: Billionaires’ Secrets to Building Wealth 1/4 This year FORBES highlighted the successes of immigrants on The FORBES 400, who have built some of the biggest American companies and are living testaments to the fact that the American dream is alive and well. Forty- two of the spots on The FORBES 400 are filled by those born outside the U.S. (including 3 married couples who share a fortune). The wealthiest is Sergey Brin, cofounder of Google, whose family fled Russia in the wake of anti- Semitism when he was 6. More than 10% of the 400 came to the U.S. from 21 countries, including 6 from Israel, 5 from India, and 4 from both Hungary and Taiwan. Forbes 400: Top 20 2016 Twenty-two newcomers joined the list this year, including Jen-Hsun Huang, founder of thriving graphics chipmaker Nvidia, and Rakesh Gangwal, an airline veteran and cofounder of India’s most profitable budget airline, IndiGo. The youngest member of The FORBES 400 is Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel, who is 26 years old and already worth $2.1 billion. (Messaging app Snapchat renamed itself Snap Inc. in late September.) The oldest is David Rockefeller, Sr., age 101, the only living grandchild of Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump comes in at No. 156, down 35 spots from last year. His net worth dropped $800 million to $3.7 billion, due mostly to softening Manhattan real estate values and new information about some of his assets. Just under half of The Forbes 400 – 187 of its members – are worth more now than they were a year ago, while 114 people on last year’s list are worth less. Twenty-six people fell off the list, including 25 whose fortunes dropped, like Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes (now worth essentially nothing) and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman . One person, Anne Cox Chambers, dispersed her fortune among her three children, who all joined the list for the first time. Another six people died, and three were moved off the list because FORBES determined that their fortunes were spread among their extended families; they will appear on our list of America’s Richest Families. Our estimates are a snapshot of the fortunes of America’s wealthiest people using stock prices from September 16. Some of The Forbes 400 become richer or poorer within weeks, even days, of publication. We track these changes at forbes.com/forbes-400 That’s where you’ll find more information on list members, as well as photos, videos, and coverage of these influential billionaires. Acknowledgments Special thanks to LW Hospitality Advisors, Orbis by Bureau Van Dijk, Real Capital Analytics, and Trepp. Thanks as well to all those who helped us with our reporting and valuations: Michael Allen, Ryan LLC; Susan Anderson, FBR & Co.; Eric Michael Anton, HFF; Sean Barrie, Trepp; Jim Barrett, C.L. King & Associates; Beverage Digest; David Burgher, Briggs Freeman, Sotheby’s International Realty; Ronald Buss, Buss-Shelger Associates; Center for Responsive Politics; S. Craig Cognetti, Grail Partners; Jeffrey Davis, Fairway Advisors; Abhinav Davuluri, 2/4 Morningstar; Carold Dopkin, Aspen Snowmass Sotheby’s International Realty; Douglas Elliman; Euromonitor; Truman Fleming, Keller Williams Realty; Factset; Mark Fratrik, BIA/Kelsey; Financial Networking Corp; Matthew Galvin, Morningstar Golf and Hospitality; Ronald M. Gold, GoldAppraisal; Richard Jaffe, Stifel Nicolaus; Kevin Kamen, Kamen & Co. Group Services; Adam Lasoff, Cushman & Wakefield; Cliff Leimbach, IHS Markit; Daniel Lesser, LW Hospitality Advisors; LexisNexis; David Loeb, Baird; Jack McCabe, McCabe Research & Consulting; Tom McGovern, Cushman & Wakefield; Brian Merrick; Christopher Merwin, Barclays; Superdata Research; Joshua Miller, Asia Pacific Properties; Michael Pachter, Wedbush Securities; Pitchbook; Privco; PropertyShark; Eric Schmidt, Beverage Marketing; Simeon Siegel, Nomura; TLO; Matthew Tarpley, Cushman & Wakefield; Norma Toering, Charlemagne International Properties; VC Experts; Jeff Woolson, CBRE; Peter Zaleswski, Condo Vultures. The FORBES 400 team editors: Luisa Kroll and Kerry A. Dolan with Dan Alexander, Nathan Vardi, and Keren Blankfeld Reporters: Chase Peterson-Withorn, Katia Savchuk, Chloe Sorvino, Michela Tindera, Kate Vinton, Jennifer Wang, Grace Chung, Emma Goldberg, Max Jedeur-Palmgren, Noah Kirsch, Mrinalini Krishna, Andrea Murphy, Daniela Sirtori-Cortina, Derek Xiao, Christopher Helman Research: Sue Radlauer Additional reporting: Abram Brown, Deniz Cam, Kathleen Chaykowski, Daniel Fisher, Russell Flannery, Antoine Gara, Naazneen Karmali, Alex Konrad, Ryan Mac, Zina Moukheiber, Joann Muller, Clare O’Connor, Brian Solomon, Natalie Robehmed, Samantha Sharf, Glenda Toma Photo research: Merrilee Barton, Gail Toivanen, Kristine Smith Product Management: Ariana Santana, Louie Torres, Alec Pomnichowski Design: Uyen Cao, Nina Gould Development: Andrew Huang Database Management: Dmitri Slavinsky Producers: Daniel Kleinman, Jordan Lebeau Video: Kirsten Taggart, Greg Andersson, Meg Christensen, Matt Kang, Chad McClymonds, Brian Petchers, John Palmer, Morgan Sun, Margaret Leigh Sinrod Methodology This is the 35th year of the flagship Forbes 400. Even though we’ve been at it a long time, it’s always a challenge. Our reporters dig deep. This year we started with a list of more than 550 individuals considered strong candidates and then got to work. When possible we met with Forbes 400 members and candidates in person or spoke with them by phone. We also interviewed their employees, handlers, rivals, peers and attorneys. Uncovering their fortunes required us to pore over thousands of SEC documents, court records, probate records and Web and print stories. We took into account all types of assets: stakes in public and private companies, real estate, art, yachts, planes, ranches, vineyards, jewelry, car collections and more. We factored in debt. Of course, we don’t pretend to know what is listed on each billionaire’s private balance sheet, although some candidates did provide paperwork to that effect. Some billionaires presiding over private companies were happy to share their financial figures, but others were less forthcoming. To value the private businesses, we couple revenue or profit estimates with prevailing price-to-revenue or price-to-earnings ratios for similar public companies. We didn’t include dispersed family fortunes. Those appear on our list of America’s Richest Families. We did include wealth belonging to a member’s immediate relatives if the wealth could be traced to a single living person. In that case you’ll see “& family” on the list. We also do include married couples who built fortunes and businesses together. In those instance, we list both names. The Forbes 400 is a list of American citizens. But look up and down the ranks, and you’ll see a patchwork of people 3/4 who themselves or their relatives hail from more than a dozen countries. At a time when immigrants are under verbal attack, FORBES chose to shine a spotlight this year on the leading role they play in the U.S. economy; read more about some of these immigrants on The Forbes 400 here. 4/4.