Tech tycoons rule US rich list

NEW DELHI: Microsoft founder Bill Gates is the richest person in America for the 14th year in a row, followed by investor Warren Buffett, according to Forbes magazine's latest list of the wealthiest Americans.

The pair's fortunes each grew by $6 billion in the past year, Forbes said, with Gates' fortune $59 billion and Buffett $52 billion.

The list once again showed the growing influence of the technology industry on US economy, with Gates leading the list of 34 tech executives out of a total of 400.

The Microsoft chairman was joined by two other people who made their fortunes at Microsoft: co-founder Paul Allen and CEO Steve Ballmer.

The software tycoon Larry Ellison, chief executive of Oracle Corp, remained at No 4 with a personal worth of $26 billion, on the 25th annual ranking of 400 rich Americans. The list now requires a minimum net worth of $1.3 billion for inclusion.

For the first time since 1989 there are no members of the Walton family, descendants of Wal-Mart Stores Inc founder Sam Walton, in the top 10. Four members -- Jim, Christy, Robson and Alice -- slipped to 12th and 15th place.

The Waltons were displaced by Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who came in at No 5 with fortunes of $18.5 billion. They are also jointly the second-youngest billionaires on the list.

In all, five Google billionaires made the Forbes list. The others are Google CEO Eric Schmidt (No 48, $US6.5b), the head of sales and business development Omid Kordestani (No 204, $US2.2b) and Kavitark Shriram (No 271, $US1.8b), a board member who was an early investor in the company.

Michael Dell, chief executive of Dell Inc, the world's second-largest PC maker, was No 8 on the list with a fortune of $17.2 billion.

Other notable tech billionaires who made the cut are Apple co-founder Steve Jobs (No 56, $US5.7b), eBay founder Pierre Omidyar (No 32, $US8.9b), Intel founder Gordon Moore (No 68, $US4.5b) and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (no 35, $US8.7b).

Of the top 400 richest Americans, Forbes said 270 were entirely self-made, 74 inherited their wealth and 39 are women. There were 82 American billionaires who did not make the list.

The youngest member, and new to the list, is 33-year-old hedge fund manager John Arnold, who came in at No 317 with a $1.5 billion wealth, while the oldest is 98-year-old John Simplot, valued at $3.6 billion and No 214 on the list.