American business magazine, Forbes, says 44 newcomers joined its list of 400 America’s richest people in 2021, a post on its verified Instagram page @Forbes, on Sunday, said.

According to the magazine, the 400 richest Americans are now 40 per cent richer than they were last year – worth a collective $4.5 trillion.

Those ranks had been bolstered by the addition of 44 new entrants, the highest number of newcomers since 2007.

“It’s been a bumper year for billionaires as more than twice as many people joined the Forbes 400 this year compared to last year, with nearly two-thirds of them making their fortunes in finance and technology.

“This included technology stocks, cryptocurrencies and other assets that have thrived in the COVID era.

“The market’s wild swings and stunning rise since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic had made many millennial avid investors, and nobody had benefited more from their obsession with meme stocks and cryptomania than a few of their young peers,” it reported

In all, 15 members of The Forbes400 are under 40, up from 12 last year, with 44 of them appearing on the list for the first time.

The 15 included 29-year-old Sam Bankman-Fried who’s amassed an astonishing $22.5 billion via his FTX the cryptocurrency exchange.

Rival exchange Coinbase’s co-founders Brian Armstrong (38) at $11.5 billion and Fred Ehrsam (33) at $3.5 billion; Robinhood Markets’ 37-year-old co-founder Baiju Bhatt at $2.9 billion.

Mark Zuckerberg (37), by far the wealthiest person in this group with a $134.5 billion fortune.

It would be recalled that the magazine had on Oct 5 reported that the former US President Donald Trump was now worth an estimated $2.5 billion, leaving him $400 million short of the cutoff to make this year’s Forbes 400 list.

The real estate mogul was just as wealthy as he was a year ago, when he stood at No. 339 on the ranking, but he was down $600 million since the start of the pandemic.

But big-city properties which make up the bulk of Trump’s fortune had languished, knocking the former president out of the nation’s most exclusive club.

Forbes is owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family and it features original articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics.

In addition, it also reports on related subjects such as technology, communications, science, politics, and law. (NAN)

Update news