Forbes 400 Richest Americans: Gates and Buffet maintain first and second rank

The twenty-fifth edition of the Forbes 400 Richest Americans list is out and Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates, 51, retains his number one position for the 14th consecutive year. His friend and partner in charity, Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO, Warren Buffett, 77, came in second after him. According to Forbes, Gates, 51, has a net worth of $59 billion, $7 billion more than Buffet''s $52 billion.

The top five slots were filled in by Sheldon Adelson, 74, the chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corp., with $28 billion; Oracle Corp. Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison, 63, with $26 billion; and Google Inc. co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, each with $18 billion.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, dropped to the 11th slot with $16.8 billion.

An interesting statistic is the fact that the youngest member of the top-400 list is 33-year-old John Arnold, a former Enron Corp. trader who runs the Centaurus Energy hedge fund in Houston, whose net worth is estimated at $1.5 billion, while the oldest member of the list is 98-year-old John Simplot, who made his fortune with potatoes.

Also, it may not surprise a lot of people to learn that Hedge fund and private equity managers make up more than half of the newest entries.

According to Forbes the collective net worth of Forbes 400 members is $1.54 trillion, with the last ranked member at 400 having a net worth of $1.3 billion. This amount is up $300 million from last year.