Wealth-X Reveals: America's Wealthiest Living Entrepreneurs

NEW YORK, July 2, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- In conjunction with this year's celebration of American independence on the 4^th of July, Wealth-X, the world's leading ultra high net worth (UHNW) intelligence and prospecting firm, has compiled a list of the top 10 richest living self-made American entrepreneurs.  These pioneering individuals – through their ingenuity, dedication and entrepreneurial prowess – have blazed their own trails in the "land of opportunity", making their own fortunes over the course of their lifetimes.

The 10 entrepreneurs on the list are collectively worth US$407.4 billion, accounting for about 20% of total UHNW wealth in America. Cumulatively, the market capitalisation of these 10 individuals' primary companies is US$1.7 trillion, which means they have created wealth four times what they are worth themselves.  

Bill Gates tops the list with an estimated net worth of US$80.2 billion. Gates dropped out of Harvard in 1975 and, together with his childhood friend, Paul Allen, founded Microsoft and served as CEO until 2000. He now has a limited role in the company as chairman and technology adviser, and is focused on global philanthropic work through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Below are the top 5 richest self-made Americans:

* in US$ billion

Six out of the 10 billionaires made their fortunes from technology or technology-related businesses, including Gates, Larry Ellison of Oracle and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, who is the youngest individual on the list. The oldest person on the list is legendary investor Warren Buffett.

All of the self-made entrepreneurs on the list are active in the world of philanthropy, and six of them have joined the Giving Pledge, a campaign initiated by Gates and Buffet to encourage the world's most affluent individuals to pledge at least half of their fortunes to charity.

Download the complete top 10 list here http://www.wealthx.com/articles/2014/top-10-self-made-americans

About Wealth-X
Wealth-X is the world's leading ultra high net worth (UHNW) intelligence and prospecting firm with the largest collection of curated research on UHNW individuals, defined as those with net assets of US$30 million and above. Headquartered in Singapore, it has 13 offices on five continents. (www.wealthx.com)

SOURCE Wealth-X

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