In order to be among the 400 richest Americans you must have a net worth of at least $1.3 billion. The Forbes 400, which ranks the 400 richest Americans by their net worth was released yesteray. Bill Gates still leads the pack, but Warren Buffett is nipping on his heels in 2nd place.
Something I found very interesting is the number of billionaires on this list that have made much or all of their money through investments or leveraged buyouts. The largest gainer on this year's list is Kirk Kerkorian, who added $9 billion to his fortune. Kerkorian did this largely thanks to huge gains ou
t of MGM Mirage (NYSE:MGM). Carl Icahn, who I have profiled before, comes in at #18 this year. Ronald Perelman, another buyout king ranks #28 on the list. George Soros ranks #33 on this year's list with a net worth of about $8.8 billion. Soros has a huge position in Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (NYSE:RIO), which has risen 300% in the past year. Stephen Scharzman, co-founder of Blackstone Group (NYSE:BX), ranks at #40 this year after the company came public earlier this year. #41 belongs to Philip Anschutz, whose largest two positions in his investment portfolio are Qwest Communications (NYSE:Q) and Regal Entertainment Group (NYSE:RGC).
The youngest member of the Forbes 400 this year is John Arnold. Arnold is a 33 year old who formerly worked as a trader at Enron and now runs Centarus Energy, a major hedge fund.
There were 45 new members of the Forbes 400, and nearly half of the group of newbies made their fortune through wall street. Most of them did so through private equity or hedge funds.
Wall Street may have had some summer jitters this year, but it certainly did stop the richest investors on wall street from getting richer.
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