Kerry A. Dolan 10/3/2016

Inside The 2016 Forbes 400: Facts And Figures About America'sRichest People

forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2016/10/04/inside-the-2016-forbes-400-facts-and-figures-about-americas-richest-people/print/

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 JeffBezos 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 thirdplace for the first time in 15 years. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who is now worth $55.5 billion, moved intofourth 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 networth of $6 billion, both record highs. The minimum net worth for entry was $1.7 billion, the same as it was a yearago. 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 hecofounded in 1975 and where he still serves as a board member, accounts for about 13% of his fortune. Gates alsoowns stakes in tractor maker Deere & Co., Canadian National Railway, car dealer AutoNation and many othercompanies.

Read More: Billionaires’ Secrets to Building Wealth

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This year FORBES highlighted the successes of immigrants on The FORBES 400, who have built some of thebiggest 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 whoshare 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, 5from 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 graphicschipmaker 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 alreadyworth $2.1 billion. (Messaging app Snapchat renamed itself Snap Inc. in late September.) The oldest is DavidRockefeller, 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 worthdropped $800 million to $3.7 billion, due mostly to softening Manhattan real estate values and new information aboutsome 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 114people on last year’s list are worth less. Twenty-six people fell off the list, including 25 whose fortunes dropped, likeTheranos founder Elizabeth Holmes (now worth essentially nothing) and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman . Oneperson, 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 werespread 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 changesat forbes.com/forbes-400 That’s where you’ll find more information on list members, as well as photos, videos, andcoverage 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; SusanAnderson, FBR & Co.; Eric Michael Anton, HFF; Sean Barrie, Trepp; Jim Barrett, C.L. King & Associates; BeverageDigest; 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,

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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; MatthewGalvin, Morningstar Golf and Hospitality; Ronald M. Gold, GoldAppraisal; Richard Jaffe, Stifel Nicolaus; KevinKamen, Kamen & Co. Group Services; Adam Lasoff, Cushman & Wakefield; Cliff Leimbach, IHS Markit; DanielLesser, LW Hospitality Advisors; LexisNexis; David Loeb, Baird; Jack McCabe, McCabe Research & Consulting;Tom McGovern, Cushman & Wakefield; Brian Merrick; Christopher Merwin, Barclays; Superdata Research; JoshuaMiller, Asia Pacific Properties; Michael Pachter, Wedbush Securities; Pitchbook; Privco; PropertyShark; EricSchmidt, Beverage Marketing; Simeon Siegel, Nomura; TLO; Matthew Tarpley, Cushman & Wakefield; NormaToering, 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 KerenBlankfeld

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, DanielaSirtori-Cortina, Derek Xiao, Christopher Helman

Research: Sue Radlauer

Additional reporting: Abram Brown, Deniz Cam, Kathleen Chaykowski, Daniel Fisher, Russell Flannery, AntoineGara, 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 SmithProduct Management: Ariana Santana, Louie Torres, Alec PomnichowskiDesign: Uyen Cao, Nina GouldDevelopment: Andrew HuangDatabase Management: Dmitri SlavinskyProducers: Daniel Kleinman, Jordan LebeauVideo: Kirsten Taggart, Greg Andersson, Meg Christensen, Matt Kang, Chad McClymonds, Brian Petchers, JohnPalmer, 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 alwaysa challenge. Our reporters dig deep. This year we started with a list of more than 550 individuals considered strongcandidates and then got to work. When possible we met with Forbes 400 members and candidates in person orspoke with them by phone. We also interviewed their employees, handlers, rivals, peers and attorneys. Uncoveringtheir fortunes required us to pore over thousands of SEC documents, court records, probate records and Web andprint 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 companieswere happy to share their financial figures, but others were less forthcoming. To value the private businesses, wecouple revenue or profit estimates with prevailing price-to-revenue or price-to-earnings ratios for similar publiccompanies.

We didn’t include dispersed family fortunes. Those appear on our list of America’s Richest Families. We did includewealth belonging to a member’s immediate relatives if the wealth could be traced to a single living person. In thatcase 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

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who themselves or their relatives hail from more than a dozen countries. At a time when immigrants are underverbal attack, FORBES chose to shine a spotlight this year on the leading role they play in the U.S. economy; readmore about some of these immigrants on The Forbes 400 here.

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