NEW YORK: Microsoft founder Bill Gates with a net wealth of 59 billion dollars continued to be the wealthiest American for the 14th straight year, closely followed by investor Warren Buffett in the new Forbes magazine rich list.
Giving the names of 400 richest people in the US, Forbes reported that Gates and Buffett added six billion dollars each to their net worth. Buffett, with 52 billion dollars, has pledged 85 per cent of his net worth to the Gates and Melinda foundation and family charities.
Turmoil on the Wall Street failed deter the richest from getting rich and total net worth of the America's mightiest plutocrats rose 290 billion dollars to touch 1.54 trillion in a year.
But an interesting statistic is that a billion dollars now does not guarantee a ticket to the rich list and minimum requirement to enter is 1.3 billion dollars. Nearly half of the 45 new members made their fortunes in hedge funds and private equity.
Money manager John Paulson joins the list after pocketing more than one billion short-selling sub prime credit this summer.
The youngest among the billionaires is hedge fund manager John Arnold, 33, who is ranked 317 with net worth of 1.5 billion dollars.
But the 214th spot finds the oldest among the richest in the US -- John Simplot, who is 98 years old and has a fortune of 3.6 billion dollars.
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