America is home to some of the richest people in the world. In this article, we will discuss the top 15 richest American men in 2020. A very common thing to those that feature on this list is that most of them made their fortune in the tech industry by starting and maintaining ownership of their own companies as the company grew. So here is all you need to know about the richest American men in 2020.
TOP 15 RICHEST AMERICAN MEN IN THE WORLD 2020 – BIOGRAPHY AND CURRENT NET WORTH ACCORDING TO FORBES
- #1. Jeff Bezos
Topping this list of richest American men is none other than Jeff Bezos who is currently the richest man in America and also the richest man in the world. His current net worth according to Forbes is $149.6 billion. Jeff started out working at a hedge fund in New York after graduating from Princeton before he started selling books online. His online book sale business ultimately metamorphosed to e-commerce giant, Amazon.com. He started Amazon out of his garage in Seattle in 1994. His now ex-wife MacKenzie was the company’s first accountant. The couple announced their split in January 2020 after 25 years of marriage. Although the terms of the divorce have not been made public, MacKenzie could get up to 50% of his net worth based on Washington state law. Jeff Bezos remains CEO of Amazon and also owns a 16% stake in the e-commerce giant. Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post which he bought for $250 Million and also Blue Origin, an aerospace company working on developing a rocket for commercial use.
- #2. Bill Gates
Second on this list is none other than Bill Gates, a former richest man in the world himself. He is also the only other centibillionaire in the world apart from Jeff Bezos with a net worth of $100 billion. Gates, a 62-year-old iconic entrepreneur co-founded the software company, Microsoft in the year 1975. He became wealthy through his shares in the company after he dropped out of Harvard. He grew up in Seattle where he met his future business partner, Paul Allen, with whom he founded Microsoft. Gates first became a millionaire at the age of 31 after Microsoft went public in 1986. He is married to Melinda Gates with whom he founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000 through which they carry out philanthropic activities.
- #3. Warren Buffet
87-year-old Warren Buffet dubbed the “Oracle of Omaha” is one of the few people to feature on this list without making his money from the technology industry. He is famous as one of the most successful investors of all time. Buffet is currently the chairman and CEO of the publicly traded investment firm Berkshire Hathaway, which owns more than 60 companies. The bulk of his wealth comes from his 18% stake in the company. His current net worth is $84.3 billion.
- #4. Larry Ellison
With a net worth of $65.5 billion, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison is the 4th richest man in America. He co-founded the software firm Oracle in the year 1977 after dropping out of college. He holds about 25% of the tech company and also owns the entire Hawaiian island of Lanai. Larry also owns a sailing team as well as an entire tennis tournament. Ellison also joined Tesla’s board in the month of December 2018, after purchasing 3 million Tesla shares earlier that year. He has two adult children and has been divorced four times.
- #5. Mark Zuckerberg
Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of the social media giant, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is the 5th richest man in the USA. His net worth currently stands at $61.9 billion. 33-year-old Zuckerberg is another Harvard dropout who succeeded and became famous by starting his own tech company. Zuckerberg is also a real estate investor as he owns an estimated $175 million worth of real estate across the country, with 700 acres of property in Hawaii alone. He is married to Priscilla Chan whom he met at Harvard and together they have two daughters.
- #6. Michael Bloomberg
CEO, Bloomberg, Michael Bloomberg currently has a net worth of $57.1 billion. He co-founded Bloomberg LP, an information and media company in the year 1981. He put in the seed funding for the company and as of now owns 88% of the business which earns revenues in excess of $9 billion. Bloomberg started out in Wall Street in the year 1966 with an entry-level job at an investment bank, Salomon Brothers. He, however, got fired 15 years later. He is an active philanthropist and has donated more than $5 billion to gun control, climate change as well as other causes.
- #7. Larry Page
Up next is Larry Page, co-founder of Google Inc. and chief executive officer of Alphabet Inc. 44-year-old Page met his business partner Sergey Brin, who also features on this list while working on his doctorate at Stanford. The bulk of his wealth comes from his 6% share in Google. His current net worth is $56.3 billion.
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- #8. Sergey Brin
Sergey Brin is the business partner of Larry Page with whom he founded Google. He was born in the Soviet Union and moved to the U.S. with his family at the age of 6 after facing anti-Semitism in their home country. At Google, Brin headed Google X, a secretive division of the company, until he became president of Google’s new parent company, Alphabet, in 2015. He has made donations of about $50 million to Parkinson research after discovering he has a genetic mutation predisposing him to the disease. Also, he gave $1 million to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the organization that facilitated him leaving Russia as a child. His current net worth is $55 billion.
- #9. Charles Koch
Charles Koch is one of America’s richest men. He has a net worth of $51.2 billion. Since 1967, Charles Koch has been the chairman and CEO of Koch Industries, America’s second largest private company by revenue. The company which has been diversified has $110 billion in revenues from businesses including pipelines, chemicals, Dixie cups, and Stainmaster carpet. The family business was started by his father Fred Koch in 1940 after he improved a method of refining heavy oil into gasoline in 1927. Charles owns a 42% stake in the firm, as does his brother, David who follows his closely on this list. They bought their two other brothers’ shares in the company in 1983.
- #10. David Koch
David Koch also has 42% stake in Koch Industries, the same as his elder brother Charles. His net worth is also $51.2 billion. Koch relinquished his roles as executive vice president of the company in July 2018, citing health concerns and he was then named director emeritus. He is a well-known philanthropist who donated to New York’s Lincoln Center and Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. David Koch in the year 1980 ran as the Libertarian Party’s vice presidential candidate on a ticket with Ed Clark. They got 1% of the vote.
- #11. Jim Walton
Chairman and CEO, Arvest Bank Group, Inc. Jim Walton is the 11th richest man in America as of now. His current Net worth is $46 billion. Jim is the youngest son of the founder of Walmart, Sam Walton. Jim Walton runs the family’s Arvest Bank, which currently boasts assets worth over $16 billion. He was on Walmart’s board for over a decade before yielding the seat to his son, Steuart, in June 2016. Collectively, Jim and other heirs of Sam Walton hold about 50% of Walmart’s stock.
- #12. Rob Walton
Rob Walton is the first son of Sam Walton, founder of Walmart. He retired as chairman of Walmart Stores’ board in June 2015 after 23 years and was replaced by his son-in-law, Greg Penner. Rob however still sits on Walmart’s board. The majority of his wealth comes from his shares in the company, and according to Bloomberg, he owns about 13% of the family business. He played football at the University of Arkansas and graduated from Columbia Law School before going to work for his father at Walmart, the largest retailer in the world.
- #13. Steve Ballmer
Steve Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980 at the company’s 30th employee after dropping out of Stanford’s MBA program. He rose to the post of CEO and led the company for fourteen years, between 2000 and 2014. After retiring from Microsoft, he bought the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion. He has made a lot of philanthropic donations since 2014 putting well over $2 billion into a donor-advised fund, with a focus on helping Americans escape poverty. His net worth currently stands at $45.5 billion.
- #14. Michael Dell
Michael Dell is the chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies, which came into being following the merger of Dell with computer storage giant EMC in 2016. The merger was the largest technology acquisition ever and was estimated to be worth $60 billion. Most of Michael Dell’s fortune comes from his private investment firm MSD Capital which has stakes in hotels and restaurants. His net worth is currently $38.1 billion.
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- #15. Sheldon Adelson
Sheldon Adelson is currently the CEO and chairman of casino company, Las Vegas Sands. As of today, he owns over 50% of the $14 billion (sales) gambling empire. His parents were immigrants from Lithuania and Wales, and he grew up sleeping on the floor of a Boston tenement. It wasn’t until he was 55 years old that Adelson caught on to the casino business when he bought the Sands Hotel & Casino on the Las Vegas strip for $128 million. His net worth is put at $36.1 billion.
Conclusion On Top 15 Richest American Men In The World 2020 – Biography And Current Net Worth According To Forbes
That’s all you need to know about the richest American men in 2020.
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