The 2026 Forbes 400 List Of Wealthiest Americans: Facts And Figures

Today on Forbes, the 2026 Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans, facts and figures. Just how difficult is it to make the Forbes 400 list of America's richest people these days? Consider this, there are now a record 590 American billionaires who are simply not rich enough. With the AI and data center boom in full swing and the U.S. stock market near an all-time high, it now takes a record $4.4 billion to rank among the nation's 400 wealthiest people. That's $600 million more than last year, and $2.7 billion more than a decade ago. In all, this year's Forbes 400 is richer than ever, worth a combined $8 trillion, up from $6.6 trillion in 2025. That means the richest 400 Americans, as a group, are $1.4 trillion richer than they were last year. The massive gains start at the top of the list. Elon Musk was already the richest American of all time last year, with a fortune of $428 billion. Since then, he has more than doubled his wealth over the past 12 months, getting $480 billion richer after taking his rocket maker SpaceX public in the biggest IPO in history in June, and briefly becoming the planet's first-ever trillionaire. Musk is now worth an estimated $908 billion, a staggering $530 billion more than the list's number two, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, who himself is $137 billion wealthier than a year ago, and ranks two spots higher, thanks to a rise in the e-commerce giant's stock and a much higher valuation of his own rocket firm, Blue Origin. The net worth difference between Musk and Bezos now spans more than three and a half Warren Buffetts, or the bottom 105 billionaires on this year's Forbes 400, combined. Alphabet co-founder Larry Page ranks third on this year's list, worth $278 billion, thanks to a nearly 60% rise in shares of the Google parent company, amid a strong year for Google Cloud and Google's Gemini AI tools. His co-founder, the more charitable and twice-divorced Sergey Brin, ranks fifth, worth $256 billion. In between them, at number four, is Michael Dell, whose Dell Technologies is seeing a spike in AI server orders. Overall, the 20 very richest people in America have gotten nearly $1 trillion richer over the past year. As a group, they are now worth a record $4 trillion. Fifteen of them are sent to billionaires, meaning someone with a net worth of at least $100 billion. Forbes calculated net worths using share prices from September 4, 2026. Despite the record high bar for entry, 34 newcomers managed to rest a spot on the list. Among the new faces are more than a dozen artificial intelligence moguls, including the youngest newcomer, 30-year-old Cognition AI co-founder Stephen Howe, who is worth $5.8 billion, and six co-founders of cloud developer Anthropic, with estimated net worths of $15.5 billion each. That includes Daniela Amodei, who is now the second-richest self-made woman in the nation. Another newcomer is someone we told you about yesterday, Greg Brockman, the co-founder of chat-GPT giant OpenAI, who is the richest newcomer of all this year, worth an estimated $25.5 billion. But AI is far from the only path to super-riches these days. Other newcomers include David McNeil, worth $5 billion, whose weather tech sells floor mats, sunshades, and other car accessories. Robert Lowe, worth $5.6 billion, who amassed a fortune in trucking and logistics. And U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who steered his Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald, an investment in fast-growing crypto firm Tether, before taking office, and who is now worth an estimated $7.3 billion. There are 62 women on the 2026 Forbes 400, or around 16% of the list, the same number as last year. The richest woman in America remains Alice Walton, the only daughter of Walmart co-founder Sam Walton, who died in 1992. She's worth $118 billion and ranks number 13 on our list. Shares of the retailing giant are up more than 10% since last year, helping Walton widen her lead over the nation's second-wealthiest woman, Julia Koch, an heir to the Koch Inc. conglomerate fortune. Her estimated net worth is $84.6 billion. The richest self-made woman is still Diane Hendricks, who co-founded Wisconsin-based roofing supply company ABC Supply. Hendricks, who is worth $23.6 billion, is one of just 13 self-made women on this year's list, flat from last year. There are 10 members of the Forbes 400 this year who are under 40, up from just four last year, as the AI boom has propelled seven young new billionaires into the ranks. Among the ten youngest, Cognition AI's Hau, OpenAI's Brockman, four Anthropic co-founders, and Palmer Luckey, who created the Oculus Virtual Reality headset in his teens, sold his company to Facebook, and has since gone on to multiply his fortune with AI-powered defense tech startup Anduril. The oldest listee is timber baron Archie Aldis Emerson, who is 97 years old. The average age on the list is 70. Overall, 71% of listees are self-made, meaning they built their fortune rather than inheriting it, the same as in 2025. For full coverage and to see the entire Forbes 400 list just released this week, check out Chase Peterson Withhorn's piece on Forbes.com. This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.