Bill Gates tops Forbes' rich list for 19th year running
Microsoft businessman Bill Gates has topped the Forbes rich list poll once again as social network rival Mark Zuckerberg falters...
16:16 20 September 2012
It was old money that dominated this year's rich list from Forbes, with the top three American billionaires having a combined age of 206 as Bill Gates, 56, tops the poll again for the 19th year running.
Gates, the Microsoft pioneer, leads the race with a fortune of $66bn, up $7bn from last year. Warren Buffet, 82, is second with $46bn while Oracle's Larry Ellison rounds out the podium positions with $41bn at the ripe old age of 68.
Social media and youth didn't favour so well this year with much of the attention falling away from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg whose net worth dropped by $8bn in one year alone after his disastrous stock calamity with Facebook shares.
However, he's hardly penniless. The 28-year-old has just as much cash as News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch, 81, with $9.4bn to his name.
It was a good financial for women as Steve Jobs' widow Laurene Powell Jobs became the richest woman in Silicon Valley and 28th richest person in the world overall. Her estimate is at $11bn but she didn't just rest on the Apple pioneer's fortune, instead carving out her own name. Forbes has her down as "an angel investor in SocialCam, a mobile video-sharing startup bought by Autodesk for $60 million in July."
The Walton family name dominated the list, taking up four of the top 10 slots thanks to their Walmart supermarket fortune.
The youngest man on the list, Facebook's Dustin Moskovitz, 28, and the eldest, David Rockefeller Sr, 97, shared 151st position with fortunes of $2.7bn alongside Oprah Winfrey.
The Forbes' 400 Top 10:
- Bill Gates, $66 billion
- Warren Buffett, $46 billion
- Larry Ellison, $41 billion
- Charles Koch, $31 billion
- David Koch, $31 billion
- Christy Walton & family, $27.9 billion
- Jim Walton, $26.8 billion
- Alice Walton, $26.3 billion
- S. Robson Walton, $26.1 billion
- Michael Bloomberg, $25 billion