Almanac of American Wealth

The richest Americans

Wealth is relative, and the value of the dollar is far from fixed. So this ranking of American plutocrats measures their total wealth as a fraction of U.S. GDP at their time of death (or for Gates, 2006).

5 of 10

1955-present

Bill Gates

Chairman of leading software maker Microsoft.

Industry: Software

Wealth in 2006: $82,000,000,000

Wealth/GDP: 1/152

The Wealthy 100, by M. Klepper and R. Gunther (updated by the authors)

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Almanac of American Wealth

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How they give back

The largest donations in U.S. history. (more)

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The richest Americans

Wealth is relative, and the value of the dollar is far from fixed. So this ranking of American plutocrats measures their total wealth as a fraction of U.S. GDP at their time of death (or for Gates, 2006).