Bill Gates ( $84.2 Billion USD )
From his perch atop the world's largest private charitable foundation, Gates keeps pushing to save lives in the developing world through efforts to eliminate polio, attack malaria and expand childhood vaccinations. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is also focused on K-12 education in the U.S., although it admitted this year that it's a "real struggle" to make changes to the system. In June 2016 his team created a chicken coop in a Manhattan skyscraper to showcase the importance a few chickens can have for some of the world's poorest people. "There is no investment that has a return percentage anything like being able to breed chickens," Gates said at the time. America's richest person for 23 years running, he stepped down as Microsoft's chairman in 2014 but remains a technology advisor and board member of the company he cofounded in 1975. Gates sells his Microsoft shares on a regular basis and as of late September 2016 owned just 2.5% of the company, which accounted for 13% of his fortune. He also has investments in Canadian National Railway, tractor maker Deere & Co. and car dealer AutoNation. In December 2016 he unveiled a partnership with about 20 other billionaire investors to establish a $1 billion clean energy venture fund called Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
Steve Jobs ( LATE )
Apple cofounder Steve Jobs finally succumbed to cancer at the age of 56 on October 5th, leaving behind a legacy that changed the computer, music, film and wireless industries. His once written-off tech company in August briefly topped ExxonMobil as the most valuable U.S. corporation. In that month he resigned as CEO. The Reed College dropout founded Apple in his garage. Jobs created the Macintosh in 1976 and was fired 9 years later after a power struggle with Chief Exec John Sculley. He returned to Apple in 1996. At the time of his death most of his wealth still came from Disney, due to Disney's purchase of Pixar in 2006; as the largest individual shareholder, he owned about $4.47 billion of Disney stock.
Mark Zuckerberg ( $53.8 Billion USD )
Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan made an audacious bet in late September, promising to spend $3 billion of their fortune over the next decade to manage, cure or prevent all disease by the end of the century. The move follows the couple's decision in December 2015 to give away 99% of their Facebook stock over their lifetime "to advance human potential." The potential payout to the world has risen as the price of Facebook stock increased by 15% between the announcement and December 2016. The higher share price has added billions to Zuckerberg's fortune, lifting him into the top 5 on The Forbes 400 for the first time. Under his leadership, Facebook is reaping billions from mobile ad sales. In April it is introducing the ability to stream live videos with Facebook Live. In March of 2016, two years after it bought Oculus Rift for $2 billion, Facebook began shipping its virtual reality headsets. Zuckerberg, a Harvard dropout, founded the social network in 2004 when he was 19.
Larry Ellison ( $48.6 Billion USD )
Larry Ellison fell out of the top 3 on The Forbes 400 for the first time since 2007. His fortune rose $1.8 billion over the 12 months through late September 2016, but he was surpassed by younger folks with faster-growing tech companies. Still, he's trying to catch up, steering Oracle, the software giant he founded, to expand its small but growing cloud business, putting it in direct competition with Amazon's successful Web Services division. To bolster that business, in July 2016 Oracle said it would buy cloud software firm NetSuite for $9.3 billion. Ellison gave up the CEO role in 2014 but is still Oracle's chairman and chief technology officer. He started out building databases for the CIA, launched Oracle in 1977, and took it public in 1986, one day before Microsoft did the same. In May 2016, Ellison said he will give $200 million to the University of Southern California for a cancer research and treatment center.
Sheldon Adelson ( $30.8 Billion )
Political heavyweight Sheldon Adelson pledged allegiance to Donald Trump in May 2016, but ultimately promised the Republican nominee only $5 million in financial support-- peanuts by Adelson's standards. (He spent more than $100 million trying to elect a Republican during the last election.) This year he focused on congressional candidates instead, doling out $40 million to Republicans across the country. Adelson is making bigger investments in his business, Las Vegas Sands, the largest casino company in America. In September 2016 Sands opened its new Paris-themed Macau resort -- a $2.9 billion bet on the world's largest gambling market, which has suffered in recent years as Chinese officials cracked down on corruption. Las Vegas Sands itself has been under scrutiny for its relationships with government officials in Macau. In April 2016, it agreed to pay a $9 million penalty to the SEC to settle charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. One month earlier, Adelson named his son-in-law CFO of Las Vegas Sands. The son of immigrants from Lithuania and Wales, Adelson grew up sleeping on the floor of a Boston tenement and bought his first newspaper corner with a $200 loan from his uncle when he was 12.
Michael Dell ( 20.4 billion USD )
In July, shareholders approved the approximately $60 billion merger between Dell Technologies and the computer storage giant EMC, announced in October 2015; it was completed in September 2016. The deal was the result of Michael Dell's long-awaited plan to accelerate his company's presence in the cloud computing business, which is dominated by Amazon, Google and Microsoft. Dell started his personal computer company with $1,000 in his University of Texas dorm room in 1984 when he was 19. Today he owns a 70% stake in the company, but most of his fortune lies in his private investment firm, MSD Capital, which has investments in Grand Central Terminal in New York City and, as of August 2016, a stake in the mixed martial arts promoter Ultimate Fighting Championship, purchased from the Fertitta brothers (also billionaires) for $4 billion.
Ralph Lauren ( 5.5 billion USD )
The founder of America's beloved fashion brand, Ralph Lauren stepped down as the company's CEO in 2015. He remains chairman of the $7.4 billion (sales) company and also controls 82% of the voting rights. His son David, who is married to Lauren Bush (a niece of former President George W. Bush), became chief innovation officer and vice chairman of the board in October 2016; son Andrew is an indie film producer, while daughter Dylan founded and runs boutique candy shop chain Dylan's Candy Bar. Born Ralph Lifshitz in the Bronx to Russian Jewish immigrants, Lauren worked part time in the garment industry as a teenager. He then opened a tie-making business in a tiny office at the Empire State building. Lauren's car collection, valued at more than $300 million, may be one of the world's most valuable.
Ted Turner ( 2.2 billion USD )
America's second-largest individual landowner, Ted Turner, continues to make land deals. In June he reportedly flipped an Oklahoma ranch for $74 million; last year he picked up a 46,000-acre ranch in South Dakota. Altogether he owns roughly 2 million acres of land in the United States, with additional property in Argentina. He also owns the world's largest private bison herd. Turner took control of his father's business after his dad committed suicide in 1963. He later created CNN, the pioneer in 24-hour television news. He sold the media company to Time Warner for $7.3 billion in stock in 1996.
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