8.Alice Walton

Alice Walton

• 

Net Worth

$26.3 B As of September 2012

At a Glance

• Chairman, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
• Age: 62
• Source of Wealth: Wal-Mart
• Residence: Fort Worth, TX
• Country of Citizenship: United States
• Education: Bachelor of Arts / Science, Trinity University
• Marital Status: Divorced

Forbes Lists

#8 Forbes 400

#43 Power Women

#17 Forbes Billionaires 

#8 in United States

Profile:

Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton opened her ambitious Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in November 2011. The museum, which seeks to bring a world-class art experience to Bentonville, Ark., includes works she has donated herself (with a personal collection valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars.) Alice and her siblings have also donated about $2 billion to the Walton Family Foundation over the last five years. Daughter of retail visionary Sam, Alice graduated from Trinity College in San Antonio, Tex., and now runs a horse ranch in central Texas. Since last year, she received more than $420 million in Wal-Mart dividends after taxes. [...] more

7.Jim Walton

Jim Walton

• 

 Net Worth

$26.8 B As of September 2012

At a Glance

• Chairman and CEO, Arvest Bank Group, Inc.
• Age: 64
• Source of Wealth: Wal-Mart
• Residence: Bentonville, AR
• Country of Citizenship: United States
• Education: Bachelor of Arts / Science, University of Arkansas
• Marital Status: Married
• Children: 4

Forbes Lists

#7 Forbes 400

#16 Forbes Billionaires 

#7 in United States

Profile:

Wal-Mart heir Jim Walton is the youngest son of retail visionary Sam (d. 1992), who founded the massive retailer with his brother James, opening a single store in Rogers, Ark. in 1962. Wal-Mart now has sales of $444 billion and employs 2.2 million people worldwide. Since last year, Jim received more than $430 million in dividends after taxes. He and his siblings have given about $2 billion to the Walton Family Foundation over the last five years. Jim is also the CEO of his family's Arvest Bank, which has branches in Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri. He gave $100,000 to the Super PAC for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. [...] more

6.Christy Walton & family

Christy Walton & family

Net Worth

$27.9 B As of September 2012

At a Glance

• Co-Chair, Children's Scholarship Fund
• Age: 57
• Source of Wealth: Wal-Mart
• Residence: Jackson, WY
• Country of Citizenship: United States
• Marital Status: Widowed
• Children: 1

Forbes Lists

#6 Forbes 400

#11 Forbes Billionaires 

#6 in United States

Profile:

Wal-Mart widow Christy Walton is the richest woman in the United States once again. She inherited her wealth when husband John Walton, a former Green Beret and Vietnam war medic, died in an airplane crash in 2005. John's investment in First Solar had boosted Christy's net worth well above the rest of her family, but the stock tanked in 2012, closing her lead to just $1.1 billion (down from $3.4 billion last year) over brother-in-law Jim. The rest of her holdings are in Wal-Mart, the massive retailer founded by her father-in-law Sam Walton and his brother James in 1962. Since last year, Christy received more than $420 million in Wal-Mart dividends after taxes.

5.David Koch

David Koch

• 

 

Net Worth

$31 B As of September 2012

At a Glance

• Age: 72
• Source of Wealth: Diversified
• Residence: New York, NY
• Country of Citizenship: United States
• Education: Bachelor of Arts / Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Master of Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Marital Status: Married
• Children: 3

Forbes Lists

#4 Forbes 400

#12 Forbes Billionaires 

#5 in United States

#45 Powerful People

Profile:

New York City's richest resident David Koch is full of surprises: A New York delegate at the Republican National Convention told Politico that week that he believes in gay marriage and in raising taxes to pay down the federal debt. Earlier in the year, he and his brother Charles had sued the conservative Cato Institute, which they helped found in 1977, over issues of control; the parties later settled. Despite any drama, Koch Industries, the second largest privately held in the U.S. with interests in pipelines, refineries, fertilizer and consumer products like Brawny paper towel and Dixie cups, continues to generate rich cash flow and pay down debt. David, who is vice-chairman, is worth $6 billion more this year thanks to an increase in the company's value. A prostate cancer survivor, he says his biggest philanthropic contributions so far go toward a "moon shot" campaign to finding a cure for cancer, to which he's donated a quarter of a billion dollars.

4.Charles Koch

Charles Koch

 Net Worth

$31 B As of September 2012

At a Glance

• Age: 76
• Source of Wealth: Diversified
• Residence: Wichita, KS
• Country of Citizenship: United States
• Education: Master of Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Bachelor of Arts / Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Marital Status: Married
• Children: 2

Forbes Lists

#4 Forbes 400

#12 Forbes Billionaires 

#4 in United States

#45 Powerful People

 

Profile:

The head of the nation's second biggest private company, $115 billion (sales) Koch Industries, Charles Koch continues to pay down debt and generate rich cash flow. By FORBES' estimates the Wichita, Kansas company, with interests in chemicals, refining and Georgia Pacific, which makes Brawny paper towels and Dixie cups, is now worth $75 billion, pushing up Koch's own net worth by $6 billion in the past year. A well-known Libertarian, he gives $40 million plus a year to his foundation, which gives grants to colleges and universities to study "market-based tools that enable individuals, institutions and societies to prosper." He also helped found the Cato Institute, which he sued last year but the parties settled, and the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, both bastions of free-market and libertarian scholarship. And he's busy funding groups designed to raise a new generation of free-market entrepreneurs, including Youth Entrepreneurs Kansas (or Youth Entrepreneurs) with $1.5 million in assets, which teaches entrepreneurship to about 1,000 high school students each year; and the Bill of Rights Institute (2010 spending: $3.7 million) which runs programs to educate teachers and students on the importance of the Constitution in "securing our liberty as Americans."

3.Larry Ellison

Larry Ellison

 

 Net Worth

$41 B As of September 2012

At a Glance

• CEO, Oracle
• Age: 68
• Source of Wealth: Oracle, Self-made
• Residence: Woodside, CA
• Country of Citizenship: United States
• Education: Drop Out, University of Chicago; Drop Out, University of Illinois at Urbana
• Marital Status: Divorced
• Children: 2

Forbes Lists

#3 Forbes 400

#6 Forbes Billionaires 

#3 in United States

Profile:

Larry Ellison, America's third richest man, can now add "owns 98% of Hawaiian island of Lanai" to his long list of accomplishments. He bought the 141-square mile island, including its two resort hotels and a housing development, from fellow billionaire David Murdock in June for a reported $500 million or more. In May Ellison told the audience at a tech conference that Oracle's 2009 purchase of hardware giant Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion had paid for itself, and after jettisoning unprofitable pieces of the business, it has perhaps the highest profit margins around for its servers. Shareholders seem to agree; the stock has climbed 20% since late August 2011, adding $8 billion to Ellison's net worth. This, despite ongoing legal battles with some of its biggest competitors: SAP, HP and Google. His other passion, yachting, is making its mark on San Francisco as warm-up events for the 2013 America's Cup yacht race kick into gear. Ellison, who signed on to the Gates-Buffett Giving Pledge in 2010, has thus far donated $445 million, mostly via Oracle stock, to his Ellison Medical Foundation, which supports research on aging and age-related diseases. His latest gift to the foundation was 1.6 million shares of Oracle -worth $45 million - in April.

2.Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett

 Net Worth

$46 B As of September 2012

At a Glance

• Chairman, Berkshire Hathaway
• Age: 82
• Source of Wealth: Berkshire Hathaway, Self-made
• Residence: Omaha, NE
• Country of Citizenship: United States
• Education: Master of Science, Columbia University; Bachelor of Arts / Science, University of Nebraska Lincoln
• Marital Status: Widowed, Remarried
• Children: 3

Forbes Lists 

#2 Forbes 400

#3 Forbes Billionaire

 #2 in United States

#20 Powerful People

Profile:

Buffett recently completed radiation treatment for prostate cancer, five months after he notified Berkshire Hathaway shareholders of his condition, assuring them that it was "not remotely life-threatening." Still, he has gotten his house in order: In December he chose his farmer son, Howard, as the future non-executive chairman and "guardian of the firm's values." In February he said he'd picked his CEO replacement but has declined to give a name. He's also stepping up philanthropically. He gave $1.5 billion to the Gates Foundation in July, bringing his total giving to $17.25 billion. On his birthday in August he pledged $3 billion of stock to his children's foundations. His fortune is up $7 billion as class A shares jumped more than 20% since last year. After studying under Benjamin Graham at Columbia Business School, Buffett offered to work for his former professor's investment partnership, Graham-Newman Corporation, for free. According to Buffett, "he turned me down as overvalued." It was only after several years of "pestering" that the father of value investing agreed to take on the younger man in 1954. When Graham retired two years later, Buffett returned to Nebraska to launch his own partnership. In 1962 Buffett began buying up shares of a struggling textile company called Berkshire Hathaway. Though Buffett has called Berkshire "the dumbest stock" he ever bought, the firm has long since shed its textile assets and today serves as Buffett's famed investment vehicle. In May, Berkshire snapped up dozens of local newspapers from Media General after announcing a deal for the Omaha World-Herald in November 2011.

1.Bill Gates

Bill Gates

Net Worth:

$66 B As of September 2012

At a Glance

• Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• Age: 56
• Source of Wealth: Microsoft, Self-made
• Residence: Medina, WA
• Country of Citizenship: United States
• Education: Drop Out, Harvard University
• Marital Status: Married
• Children: 3

Forbes Lists

#1 Forbes 400

#2 Forbes Billionaires 

#1 in United States

#5 Powerful People

 

Profile:

 

Bill Gates, the planet's most generous person --he's given away $28 billion so far -- has a new obsession: building a better toilet for those without water or sewage systems. Every year 1.5 million children die from food and water tainted with fecal matter, more than the annual deaths from AIDS and malaria combined. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is also spearheading a malaria vaccine that is showing promise in clinical trials. The vaccine non-profit he founded, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), has raised $4.3 billion in pledges from various countries to provide life-saving vaccines against a range of deadly infections that harm millions of children in developing countries, including those that cause meningitis, pneumonia, and severe diarrhea. Since June 2011, 13 countries have introduced vaccines against pneumococcal disease and rotavirus, two of the world's biggest killers. In April his wife Melinda went public with a big push to spread access to contraceptives worldwide, and pledged a total $1.1 billion to the cause. Gates' net worth climbed $7 billion since last August on the strength of Microsoft shares, which rose 20%, and on gains from investments in private equity, bonds, and stocks such as hygiene tech firm Ecolab and Mexican TV broadcaster Televisa. He continues to sell shares of Microsoft --he shed 80 million in the past year, about 15% of his stake -- so that now just one-fifth of his net worth stems from the software company he co-founded 37 years ago. Gates and his good friend Warren Buffett continue to recruit new members to their Giving Pledge, in which the very wealthy promise to give away at least half of their net worth during their lifetime or after they die.