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Only $1bn? It's not enough for the US rich list

This article is more than 16 years old

A billion dollars is no longer enough to secure a place on Forbes' rich list of Americans, the business magazine said yesterday .

The 25th annual ranking of the wealthiest individuals in the US found the minimum net worth required for inclusion on this year's list was $1.3bn (£647m), up $300m from last year.

It is the first time that simply having $1bn would not secure you a place among the top 400 names on the list, and 82 US billionaires missed out, Forbes said.

The collective net worth of those listed this year rose $290bn to $1.54 trillion.

Google billionaires Sergey Brin and Larry Page make the top 10 for the first time, with $18.5bn, along with brothers Charles and David Koch, who displace Wal-Mart's Walton family.

There has been a Walton on the list since its inception in 1982, and this is the first time since 1989 that a Walton has not appeared in the top 10. Nearly half of the 45 new members come from hedge fund and private equity investments.

Casino mogul Kirk Kerkorian is this year's biggest gainer, increasing his wealth by $9bn over the past 12 months. A total of 39 women appear on the list this year, with an average net worth of $4bn, and 270 of the 400 billionaires are self-made.

The Forbes 400 top 10 are: Bill Gates, Microsoft, $59bn; Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, $52bn; Sheldon Adelson, casinos and hotels, $28bn; Larry Ellison, Oracle, $26bn; Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Google, $18.5bn each; Kirk Kerkorian, casinos and investments, $18bn; Michael Dell, Dell, $17.2bn and Charles and David Koch, oil and commodities, $17bn each.

· This article was amended on Wednesday September 26 2007. We said that the casino mogul Kirk Kerkorian increased his wealth by $9m over the past year. In fact the figure reported by Forbes was $9bn, not $9m. This has been corrected.

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