America’s richest grow their fortunes

The net worth of the richest Americans grew by 13% in the past year to $1.7 trillion (€1.3tn), Forbes magazine said, and a familiar cast populated the top of the annual list, including Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison and the Koch brothers.

The average net worth of the 400 wealthiest Americans rose to a record $4.2bn, up more than 10% from a year ago, while the lowest net worth came in at $1.1bn versus $1.05bn last year, the magazine said. Seven in 10 of the list’s members made their fortunes from scratch.

It was a bad year, however, for social media moguls, whose net worth fell by a combined $11bn. On the heels of Facebook Inc’s rocky IPO in May, the No 1 social network’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, was the year’s biggest dollar loser: his net worth fell by nearly half to $9.4bn from $17.5bn. He also slid to the No 36 slot from No 14 a year ago, Forbes said.