America's Richest Men and Women in 2024

Elon Musk has topped the Forbes 400 2024 list of the richest people in America, published Tuesday. The 53-year-old Tesla and SpaceX cofounder was reported to have a net worth amounting to $244 billion, as of September 1. Musk has some $47 billion more than the second richest person in the United States, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (60), who owns $197 billion. Rounding off the top five are Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (40) with $181 billion, software giant Oracle founder Larry Ellison (80) with $175 billion and Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett (94) with $150 billion.

While a gender divide still exists among the U.S.’ wealthiest, with the first of the country’s richest women coming in 15th place on the list, several women are still making extremely high figures. Walmart’s Alice Walton (74) tops the women’s roundup, with a net worth of $89.2 billion in 2024. She is followed by Julia Koch (62) of Koch Industries with $74.2 billion, who alongside her three children inherited a 42 percent stake from her late husband, David. Jacqueline Mars (84), 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 $47.6 billion.

According to Forbes, the top 400 wealthiest people in the U.S. are worth a combined $5.4 trillion. Of these, the top 25 are worth roughly $2.5 trillion altogether. Analysts highlight that each of the top 25 are an average of 31 percent richer than last year.