The Forbes 400 richest Americans list raised its entry threshold to $4.4 billion, excluding 590 billionaires including Oprah Winfrey, Taylor Swift, and Sam Altman. Meanwhile, Nigerian investor Femi Otedola's net worth has grown to nearly $2 billion through significant stakes in First Bank of Nigeria.
Arthur Blank, Home Depot co-founder and sports mogul, tops Georgia's Forbes 400 list this year at No. 99 with a net worth of $13.2 billion, displacing the Cathy family who slip to No. 116. Nine Georgians made the 2026 Forbes 400 ranking, with most experiencing net worth changes from the previous year.
Forbes' 2026 list of America's 400 richest people requires a net worth of at least $4.4 billion, up $600 million from last year, driven by AI and stock market gains. Massachusetts billionaires leading the list include Abigail Johnson of Fidelity Investments ($41.6 billion), her brother Edward Johnson IV ($16.3 billion), Robert Kraft ($15.2 billion), and Elizabeth Johnson ($14.4 billion).
Two San Antonio H-E-B family members, Charles Butt and Eleanor Butt Crook, rank among America's richest billionaires in Forbes' 2026 list, with Charles at 137th nationally ($11.3 billion) and Eleanor at 367th ($4.7 billion). The collective wealth of America's richest billionaires reached $8 trillion, up $1.4 trillion from last year, with a record $4.4 billion minimum needed to make the Forbes 400.
Gil Durán argues that Silicon Valley has adopted fascist ideology and that tech billionaires are consolidating corporate and political power to threaten US democracy. He discusses this radical movement and its strategies in an interview with Paris Marx.
A new study by economists Zidar and Zwick reveals that America's "everywhere millionaires"—business owners of car dealerships, restaurants, and other Main Street enterprises—collectively represent wealth comparable to or exceeding billionaires, yet remain largely invisible to public discourse. Nearly five million households worth at least $5 million constitute what the researchers call a new American wealth class, hidden in plain sight through ordinary businesses.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin donated $102 million to a political nonprofit backing ballot measures designed to block California's proposed wealth tax on billionaires. Proposition 40 would impose a one-time 5% tax on assets of those worth $1 billion or more to fund healthcare, education, and food aid, while competing Propositions 41 and 42 could nullify it. The November ballot fight reflects broader tensions over taxing ultra-wealthy residents and California's social safety net.
An interactive visualization tool scales Elon Musk's $922.7 billion net worth to help viewers comprehend extreme wealth inequality. Users scroll through pixel-by-pixel representations of his fortune alongside other reference amounts, illustrating the vast distance between billions and everyday costs.