Forbes magazine has published The Forbes Four Hundred, its list of the 400 wealthiest people in the United States. Apple CEO Steve Jobs made the list, though he’s solidly in the middle of the pack at number 158.
The numbers have changed a bit — there’s been a lot of bloodletting in the past year in the wake of the dot bomb fallout and the general malaise that’s followed technology stocks. But most of the list is comprised of the familiar faces you’d expect to see in any list documenting the movers and shakers in American capitalism today.
Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen placed numbers one and three respectively. Gates’ net worth was US$54 billion at last measure, according to Forbes, while his pal Paul Allen has assets worth about $28.2 billion. The fellow running the show at Microsoft now — CEO Steve Ballmer, whose on-stage antics are now the stuff of legend — is worth about $15.1 billion.
Apple board member, Oracle CEO and Jobs confidant Larry Ellison’s showed a respectable fourth place finish at $21.9 billion (though he dropped from second place last year). And Michael Dell — the founder and CEO of that direct-sales PC maker that so many Mac users love to hate — came in at number 15, with $9.8 billion (down two spots from last year).
With $1.4 billion to his name, Jobs may seem like small potatoes compared with some on the list, but his bankroll still makes him one of the richest people not just in the US but also the world (Forbes ranked him 387 on this year’s edition of that list). Jobs’ position is up from last year’s ranking, too — in 2000, he was number 236.