Aided by a white hot stock market, the average Forbes 400 member’s wealth is a record $11.3 billion, up 40% from last year. Eight are now worth $100 billion or more, up from just two a year ago.

It has been a terrible year for many, but the good times keep on rolling for the nation’s richest. The 400 wealthiest Americans saw their collective fortune increase 40% over the last year, to $4.5 trillion. Nearly all are richer than they were a year ago. There are 44 new names on the list, which now requires a minimum net worth of $2.9 billion, up $800 million from a year ago. What hasn’t increased? Their generosity. The number of Forbes 400 members who gave away more than 20% of their net worth since last year’s list dropped from ten to eight, while those who gave away less than 1% of their wealth rose from 127 to 156.

Fortunes were calculated using stock prices and exchange rates from September 3, 2021.

00:00 What is the Forbes 400?
00:53 Meet the 10 richest people in America
02:50 Meet the newcomers of the Forbes 400
03:30 Who is Sam Bankman Fried & RJ Scarange?
04:28 Why Donald Trump, Oprah and other fell off the list
05:36 Explaining philanthropy scores
06:49 Why the rich got richer during the pandemic

Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/forbes-400

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