By Charles Passy
Elon Musk stands atop the list of America’s wealthiest individuals, according to Forbes. But “poor” Mark Zuckerberg no longer cracks the top 10.
And former President Donald Trump? He comes in at No. 343, but that’s actually an improvement in his ranking.
Musk, the 51-year-old Tesla /zigman2/quotes/203558040/composite TSLA -1.47% executive who also wants to conquer the field of space exploration, was ranked No. 1 on the Forbes annual list of the 400 richest Americans. The publication said Musk was worth $251 billion, putting him way ahead of Amazon /zigman2/quotes/210331248/composite AMZN -1.70% chief Jeff Bezos, who ranked second with $151 billion. Last year, Bezos claimed the top spot on the list with $201 billion and Musk came in second with $190.5 billion.
Rounding out this year’s top-10 list are plenty of familiar names, including Bill Gates (No. 3, $106 billion); Larry Ellison (No. 4, $101 billion); and Warren Buffett (No. 5, $97 billion).
But this year’s ranking was noteworthy for one individual who didn’t make it to the top 10 — namely, Zuckerberg of Meta /zigman2/quotes/205064656/composite META -1.77% , who fell to the 11thspot with a mere $57.7 billion.
Musk’s wealth also puts him at the top of Forbes’ real-time ranking of global billionaires. That list includes several individuals from outside the U.S., such as France’s Bernard Arnault and India’s Gautam Adani.
Apparently, the tough economy is leaving even the wealthiest Americans feeling slightly less wealthy. Forbes noted that the combined net worth of the top 400 totaled $4 trillion — or $500 billion less than in 2021. “The rich don’t always get richer,” Forbes said.
The highest newcomer on the 400 list? Oil tycoon Autry Stephens, whose $10 billion in wealth put him 64 in the ranking.
And what about Trump? He rejoined the list — in the 343rd spot — after failing to make the cut last year. Forbes put his net worth at $3.2 billion.








