10 Richest People in America

America's rich are wealthy at a historic level. Depending on how and when you measure it there are between 750 and 800 billionaires in the United States. Each commanding the wealth of a small nation, these 800 individuals are collectively worth about one-fifth of the entire American GDP (around $6 trillion).

To break into the top tier of this group, though, takes even more. The 10 wealthiest people in America each own at least $100 billion in total assets. The exact details shift based on the market at any given time, but the overall cohort is fairly stable. Based on data published by Forbes , Bloomberg , and the data site Statista , here are the 10 members of this twelve-figure club.

Consider speaking with a financial advisor to build a plan for your financial goals.

10 Richest People in America

1. Elon Musk: Net Worth Around $200 Billion

Musk is the CEO of several different companies in the tech, manufacturing and aerospace fields. While he has made the most headlines for his private acquisition of X, formerly Twitter , his wealth comes primarily from high-tech transportation.

Specifically, Musk has made most of his billions from two companies. His stake in the publicly traded company Tesla contributes most of Musk's fortune . His ownership share of the privately held aerospace firm SpaceX constitutes a significant secondary portion. While Musk currently holds a reliable spot at or around the top of any wealthiest person list, his exact net worth can fluctuate very widely. This is because so much of his net worth is held in shares of a single public stock, which creates an inherent volatility.

2. Jeff Bezos: Net Worth Around $195 Billion

Bezos and Musk are often neck-and-neck for the title of richest person in America. (While not American, France's Bernard Arnault often competes with the net worth of both thanks to his fashion empire.)

The source of Bezos' wealth is, unsurprisingly, his stake in Amazon. Although best known as the retailer and online bookstore that the company started out as, today Amazon is a sprawling company with operations in virtually every aspect of the tech industry. The company makes most of its money from AWS, or "Amazon Web Services," an online infrastructure service that provides storage space and processing power to other websites and online firms.

For news that may affect Amazon, Tesla and other potential investments, sign up for the Market Minute newsletter .

3. Mark Zuckerberg: Net Worth Around $180 Billion

As with Bezos, the majority of Zuckerberg's wealth comes from a single company that he founded. In this case, Zuckerberg famously created the social media platform Facebook out of his college dormitory.

Facebook arguably created the era of social media. During the early- and mid-2000's, several different companies were trying to launch similar products and websites. The most famous was Facebook's early competitor Myspace, but there were many smaller services that offered the basic function of posting, sharing and creating an individual space on the internet. Facebook took this idea and made it work in a way that none of its then-competitors managed, and in the process made Zuckerberg one of the richest people in history. Facebook has since rebranded to Meta.

4. Larry Ellison: Net Worth Around $140 Billion

Unlike the previous three people on this list, Ellison is not necessarily a household name. This is in part due to personal style, as Musk, Zuckerberg and Bezos all tend to seek out publicity in a way that Ellison does not.

However it's also in very large part because of the nature of Ellison's wealth. Ellison's net worth comes primarily from Oracle, a company that he co-founded in 1977. Unlike more public-facing firms like Amazon and Tesla, Oracle is primarily a technology infrastructure company. It makes essential under-the-hood products like databases, server software, and communications technology. Like many infrastructure companies (otherwise known as B2B or Business-to-Business), Oracle is often invisible to mainstream consumers even as it makes the products which underlie many consumer-facing companies.

5. Warren Buffet: Net Worth Around $133 Billion

Sources tend to agree that Buffett is worth between $130 billion and $140 billion. Buffet's source of wealth is investing, most notably through his firm Berkshire Hathaway , a former textiles company that Buffet bought and repurposed. Through his investments, Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway own or have a significant stake in numerous major businesses, from insurer GEICO to Dairy Queen and many more.

6. Bill Gates: Net Worth Around $130 Billion

Gates co-founded the Microsoft, a wide-ranging technology company from which he derives most of his wealth.

In many ways, through Microsoft , Gates can be credited for creating the personal information age. The history of computing dates back to early in the 20th Century, and most of the technology we use today for laptops, phones and other devices was developed around the 1970s and 1980s. But it was Gates and his company Microsoft that introduced computers as widely available products for the individual consumer. By creating the era of inexpensive, interoperable computers that most people could afford, Microsoft arguably introduced America to the PC and much of the infrastructure we rely on today.

7. Steve Ballmer: Net Worth Around $120 Billion

Like Gates, Ballmer generated most of his wealth from Microsoft. While not a founder, Ballmer was an early employee of Microsoft, joining the firm in 1980. In 2000 he took over as CEO when founder Bill Gates stepped down.

Ballmer is generally credited for leading Microsoft through a difficult era. His rise to CEO came around the same time as a major antitrust suit, the resurgence of competitor Apple, and the dot-com crash of the early-2000's, and first major flops of its flagship Windows OS. He has since stepped down from Microsoft and is best known as the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers.

8. Larry Page: Net Worth Around $114 Billion

This is another area where market fluctuations can skew rankings data. Depending on the current state of the market, Page might be worth around $114 billion (making him #8 on this list) or as much as $150 billion (which would make him #4). Either way, Page is one of the ten wealthiest people in the country.

Page generated most of his wealth as a co-founder of the search engine Google. Over the years, Google's business has diversified to a wide range of online and software services, and then into hardware and associated technology. The core of the business, and the core of Page's money, has generally come from the data and analytics generated by those products. While he has stepped down as the CEO of Alphabet, the renamed parent company of Google, he remains on its Board of Directors.

Consider speaking with a financial advisor about your financial goals and how they may be able to help you reach them.

9. Sergey Brin: Net Worth Around $110 Billion

Brin co-founded and invented Google with Larry Page.

Like Page, Brin has made most of his fortune from the search engine. The majority of his net worth comes from his stake in Alphabet, the newly renamed parent company of Google. Along with Page, Brin led Google, then Alphabet, in his case serving as the President of the company. He has since stepped down as President of Alphabet, but remains on the company's board of directors.

He appears to now be heavily invested in blimps .

10. Jensen Huang: Net Worth Around $112 Billion

Readers will note the discrepancy of placing Huang (net worth $112 billion) below Brin (net worth $110 billion). This is due to market trends. While at time of writing Huang's wealth had edged out Brin's, Brin appears to be consistently worth more than Huang. As a result, it is more accurate to place them in slots #9 and #10, respectively, to reflect overall trends.

Huang's source of wealth is his stake in NVIDIA . He co-founded this company in 1993, and is a relative newcomer to the truly high-end echelons of wealth. Huang, along with his co-founders Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem, has long been wealthy thanks to his stake in his company. However, this has dramatically accelerated in recent years as major applications, from cloud computing to AI, have opened up a huge demand for the kind of specialty chipmaking that NVIDIA dominates. The result has been a surge of value for the company, and a surge of wealth for Huang.

Sign up for the Market Minute newsletter for news that may affect NVIDIA and other potential investments.

The Bottom Line

The ten wealthiest people in America are each worth at least $100 billion. They come mainly from the technology world, a sector that has dominated most wealth creation for the past 20 years or more.

Tips On Growing Your Own Wealth

• You don't need to buy a fading t-shirt factory in order to invest well. In fact, with the right risk management, aggressive and growth-oriented investing can be a very smart section of your portfolio. Here's how to think about it.
• A financial advisor can help you build a comprehensive retirement plan. Finding a financial advisor doesn't have to be hard. SmartAsset's free tool matches you with up to three vetted financial advisors who serve your area, and you can have a free introductory call with your advisor matches to decide which one you feel is right for you. If you're ready to find an advisor who can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now .
• Keep an emergency fund on hand in case you run into unexpected expenses. An emergency fund should be liquid — in an account that isn’t at risk of significant fluctuation like the stock market. The tradeoff is that the value of liquid cash can be eroded by inflation. But a high-interest account allows you to earn compound interest. Compare savings accounts from these banks .
• Are you a financial advisor looking to grow your business? SmartAsset AMP helps advisors connect with leads and offers marketing automation solutions so you can spend more time making conversions. Learn more about SmartAsset AMP .

Photo credits: Grok

The post 10 Richest People in America appeared first on SmartReads by SmartAsset .