America's Richest Men and Women in 2023

Elon Musk has topped the Forbes 400 2023 list of the richest people in America, which was published on Tuesday. The 52-year-old Tesla and SpaceX cofounder was reported to have a net worth amounting to $251 billion, as of September 8. Musk has some $90 billion more than the second richest person in the United States, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (59), who owns $161 billion. Rounding off the top five are software giant Oracle founder Larry Ellison (79) with $158 billion, Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett (93) with $121 billion and Google’s Larry Page (50) with $114 billion.

While a gender divide still exists among the U.S.’ wealthiest, with the first of the country’s richest women coming in 14th place on the list, females are still making extremely high figures. Walmart’s Alice Walton (73) tops the women’s roundup, with a net worth of $66.5 billion in 2023. She is followed by Julia Koch (61) of Koch Industries with $59.8 billion, who alongside her three children inherited a 42 percent stake from her late husband, David. Jacqueline Mars (83), who owns an estimated one-third of the candy, food and pet care firm Mars, then ranks third place for richest women and 19th place for richest Americans with $38.9 billion.

According to Forbes, the top 400 wealthiest people in the U.S. are worth a combined $4.5 trillion. Of these, the top 20 are worth roughly $1.9 trillion altogether. Analysts highlight that these 20 are 30 percent richer than they were one year ago.