October 14, 2004 | Read Time: 1 minute
The net worth of the 400 wealthiest Americans in the United States grew to $1-trillion, up $45-billion from the previous year, according to Forbes magazine’s annual ranking of the nation’s richest people (September 24).
Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, was at the top of the list, with $48-billion in net worth. He was followed by the investor Warren Buffett, with $41-billion.
But take philanthropy out of the equation and Mr. Buffett would be much further behind Mr. Gates, the magazine notes.
Mr. Gates has donated 37 percent of his fortune, which would otherwise total an estimated $76.3-billion.
Others on the list who saw their wealth shrink because of charitable giving are Gordon Moore, of Intel, who has given away about $6.8-billion, or 64 percent of his wealth; the financier George Soros, who has donated $5.4-billion, or 43 percent of his money made in hedge funds; the news-and-entertainment mogul Ted Turner, at $799-million, or 30 percent; and the biomedical entrepreneur Alfred Mann, at $608-million, or 30 percent.
Others on the list gave away far smaller portions of their fortune. Among them, Phil Knight, the head of Nike, who the magazine says gave 1 percent of his wealth to charity. But Mr. Knight’s spokesman said that the magazine’s calculations were probably off because many of the superrich give anonymously.
However, Eli Broad, the Los Angeles businessman who has given away 21 percent of his fortune according to the magazine, said he doubted that was the case. “I’m not aware of any large gifts that are anonymous.”
The rankings, including the look at the percentage of wealth 21 people on the list gave away, are available online at http://www.forbes.com.
