While high school history teachers might not frame it so bluntly, the foundation of the United States is deeply rooted in the belief that individuals have the right to accumulate private wealth. We’re not just talking about modest wealth, but significant fortunes that could attract the attention of monarchs across the ocean, eager for their share. Although the Declaration of Independence highlights ideals such as equality and the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, these principles served as embellishments to a core desire: a group of entrepreneurs seeking independence from the British Crown’s taxes on their hard-earned profits.

Unlike any other nation in history, the United States was uniquely established on material principles. The concepts of capitalism and the right to earn an income, free from government or religious interference, are intricately interwoven into the nation’s foundational documents and societal DNA.

Indeed, today we pay taxes, but it wasn’t always so. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was established in 1862, and it wasn’t until 1913, with the ratification of the 16th Amendment, that Congress introduced a federal income tax. Property taxes, in particular, can seem puzzling—why pay annually for something you already own? However, these taxes fund essential services like police, roads, fire departments, and the military, despite not being part of the original framework of the United States.

This distinctive foundation is why America stands as the wealthiest nation globally today. It’s why countless individuals worldwide aspire to reach its shores, chasing the American dream—a dream that has led to some of the largest personal fortunes in modern history.

As of now, 15 of the world’s 20 wealthiest individuals are Americans. The top six wealthiest people, including Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, and Elon Musk, hail from the United States. Notably, Sergey Brin and Larry Page were born in Russia and South Africa, respectively, but are now proudly counted among America’s own.

This raises intriguing questions: Who are the richest Americans throughout history? And when factoring in inflation, who holds the title of the wealthiest American of all time?

How do today’s tech tycoons match up net-worth-wise with their industrial age predecessors?

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The Richest Americans of All Time

#10: John Jacob Astor – $180 billion (1763 – 1848, New York City real estate)

John Jacob Astor made his first fortune by dominating the fur trade in America. Astor then used his vast financial resources to acquire real estate in New York City, including what would eventually become The Waldorf Astoria hotel. Astor was the first multimillionaire ever in America, and at the time of his death in 1848, he had a net worth equal to $180 billion in today’s dollars.

#9: Mark Zuckerberg – $227 billion (1984 – present, Meta)

Mark famously founded thefacebook.com from his Harvard dorm room in 2004. Twenty-two years later, the company is an AI and social media behemoth. While Mark’s wealth has seen extreme volatility, his net worth reached an all-time peak of $227 billion during the tech rally of 2025. People often see Mark as a modern-day Rockefeller—a man who built an empire, used it to dominate the competition, and changed the world’s social fabric in the process.

#8: Jeff Bezos – $259 billion (1964 – present, Amazon founder)

Jeff Bezos is the founder and executive chair of Amazon.com. He single-handedly changed the way the world shops, starting from a garage and building a $3 trillion juggernaut. Jeff first became the world’s richest person in 2017. As we’ve noted before, if Jeff and MacKenzie Scott had never divorced in 2019, Jeff’s current net worth would be well over $400 billion, which would place him in the top three of this list.

#7: Sergey Brin – $267 billion (1973 – present, Google)

Originally from Russia, Sergey Brin co-founded Google with Larry Page while the two were students at Stanford. As Google (now Alphabet) hit record highs in 2025 and 2026 due to the AI revolution, Brin’s personal fortune surged to an all-time peak of $267 billion. He remains a major force behind the company’s “moonshot” investments.

#6: Cornelius Vanderbilt – $275 billion

(1794 – 1877, railroads and shipping) “The Commodore” Cornelius Vanderbilt made an early small fortune running steamboats, but didn’t come into his vast wealth until he invested in railroads at the age of 70. He used his money to start Vanderbilt University, and his descendants still own vast real estate in New York City. At the time of his death in 1877, Cornelius Vanderbilt had amassed a net worth of $275 billion in today’s dollars.

#5: Larry Page – $287 billion (1973 – present, Google)

As the co-founder of Google, Larry Page owns a slightly larger stake than Sergey Brin, which puts him at the #5 spot on the all-time list. His peak wealth of $287 billion represents the value of the most dominant search engine and data empire in history. Like his partner, Page has largely stepped back from the limelight to focus on aviation and healthcare innovations.

#4: Larry Ellison – $393 billion (1944 – present, Oracle)

The Oracle founder saw an unprecedented wealth surge in late 2025. Driven by an AI boom that made Oracle the backbone of modern cloud data centers, Ellison’s net worth briefly hit an astonishing $393 billion. This catapulted him past historical heavyweights like Vanderbilt and Astor, making him the richest software tycoon in history.

#3: Andrew Carnegie – $460 billion (1835 – 1919, US Steel)

At the peak of the steel boom, Andrew Carnegie invested heavily in steel companies, which paid off handsomely. In 1901, Carnegie sold his company to banker J.P. Morgan for $480 million in interest-bearing bonds. At the peak of his power, Andrew Carnegie was worth the equivalent of $460 billion in today’s dollars. After selling his company, he spent the rest of his life giving his entire fortune away to hospitals and libraries.

#2: John D. Rockefeller – $500 billion (1839 – 1937, Standard Oil)

For over a century, John D. Rockefeller was the undisputed richest American to ever live. As the founder of Standard Oil, he controlled 90% of all the oil in the U.S. When the government broke up his monopoly, the resulting companies (like Exxon and Chevron) actually made his fortune explode. Adjusted for today’s economy, Rockefeller’s peak wealth is valued at $500 billion. He was the first American ever to be worth over $1 billion.

#1: Elon Musk – $750 billion (1971 – present, Tesla & SpaceX)

Elon Musk is the richest American ever to live. In early 2026, the combination of SpaceX’s $800 billion valuation and the restoration of his massive Tesla pay package pushed Musk to a net worth of $750 billion. This represents roughly 2.5% of the total U.S. GDP—a larger share of the American economy than even John D. Rockefeller held at his peak.

But Wait! There Are Three Major Caveats…

There are three major caveats to the list above:

1. What if Jeff Bezos had never gotten divorced?
2. What if Warren Buffett had never donated a dime to charity?
3. What if Bill Gates had never donated a dime to charity AND never gotten divorced?

Let’s start with Jeff Bezos. 

In 2019, Jeff Bezos transferred roughly 25% of his Amazon stake to MacKenzie Scott. At 2026’s all-time high stock prices, that “lost” stake would be worth roughly $150 billion today. Had Jeff never gotten divorced, his net worth would be $400 billion, comfortably placing him ahead of Larry Ellison and nipping at the heels of Andrew Carnegie.

And now Warren.

Warren Buffett is the greatest victim of his own generosity. Because he began donating his Berkshire Hathaway shares in 2006, he missed out on twenty years of compounding growth on those shares. If the “Oracle of Omaha” had kept his original 31% stake in Berkshire, his 2026 net worth would be approximately $400 billion.

And now Bill. 

Bill Gates has self-inflicted his peak fortune in TWO ways. First, he gave a bunch of his Microsoft shares to the Gates Foundation. Secondly, he got divorced. Under different circumstances, if Bill was still married and significantly greedier, today he would be worth $315 billion, placing him just behind the Google founders.

The Final Verdict

For nearly a century, John D. Rockefeller stood as the gold standard of wealth. But in January 2026, Elon Musk officially moved the goalposts. At $750 billion, Musk’s fortune represents roughly 2.5% of the total U.S. economy. To put that in perspective, Rockefeller’s peak was roughly 1.6%.

We are living through the greatest accumulation of private capital in human history. The only question left is: how long until someone adds a “T” to their net worth and becomes the world’s first Trillionaire?