Four Indian-American Billionaires Among the Richest 400 people in the U.S.

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NEW YORK– Four Indian-American billionaires are ranked among the wealthiest 400 people in the United States, according to Forbes’ 2018 ranking of the 400 richest people in America.

Among the Indian-Americans, Rakesh Gangwal is ranked #354 richest person with his wealth valued at $2.3 billion; and the three Vinod Khosla, Niraj Shah and Kavitark Ram Shriram are all ranked at #368 with $2.2 billion valuation each.

According to Forbes, airline veteran Gangwal made his fortune from InterGlobe Aviation, the parent outfit of budget airline IndiGo, India’s largest by market share.

Gangwal started his airline career with United Airlines in 1984 and went on to run US Airways Group as its chief executive and chairman. The 65-year-old Gangwal is Miami resident. The Indian-born mechanical engineer studied at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur before getting his M.B.A. at Wharton.

Khosla, 63, is the founder of Khosla Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. He co-founded computer hardware firm Sun Microsystems in 1982 with Andy Bechtolsheim, Bill Joy and Scott McNealy. He spent 18 years at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers before launching his own fund, according to Forbes.

Shah, 44, is co-founder and CEO of publicly-traded Wayfair, a Boston-based  online home furnishings retailer that he co-founded with Steve Conine in 2002.

Before founding Wayfair, Shah served as CEO and co-founder of Simplify Mobile, an enterprise software company which was sold in 2001. Prior to that, he served as Entrepreneur-in-

Residence at Greylock Partners, COO and a member of the Board of Directors at iXL, a publicly traded global technology consulting firm, and the CEO and co-founder of Spinners, which was sold to iXL in 1998. Mr. holds a B.S. in engineering from Cornell University, and lives in Boston.

An early Google backer, Shriram, 61, has sold of most of his stock but remains on the board of its parent company, Alphabet, according to Forbes. Born in India, Shriram studied math at the University of Madras. After moving to the U.S. he joined Netscape in 1994 as an executive. Later he became president of Junglee, an online comparison shopping firm acquired by Amazon in 1998.

He took on a vice president position at Amazon, and left Amazon and since 2000, Shriram has been investing in technology startups through his firm, Sherpalo Ventures.

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Indian-American Billionaires List This Year Includes A Self-Made Woman

The billionaires on Forbes’ 2018 ranking of the 400 richest people in America, have a record-breaking, combined total net worth of $2.9 trillion, up from $2.7 trillion in 2017. The minimum net worth now required to be counted among the very richest Americans hit an all-time high of $2.1 billion, up from $2 billion in 2017, Forbes said in a statement.

Even at these new heights, 15 newcomers made this year’s list. But more billionaires than ever were too poor to make the ranks: 204 Americans with 10-figure fortunes fell short. The average net worth of a Forbes 400 member hit $7.2 billion, also a record high, up from $6.7 billion a year ago.

“We’re seeing more billionaires than ever before, thanks in part to the strong stock market and continuing tech boom. For the first time, more than a third of U.S. billionaires were too poor to make this elite list of the nation’s 400 richest,” said Luisa Kroll and Kerry Dolan, assistant managing editors of wealth at Forbes Media.

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, whose fortune jumped $78.5 billion in one year, leads The Forbes 400 list this year, with a net worth of $160 billion – by far the highest ever. Bill Gates, worth $97 billion, who held the No. 1 spot for 24 consecutive years, is now ranked at No. 2 on the list. Warren Buffett, worth $88.3 billion, comes in at No. 3. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg holds spot No. 4 with a net worth of $61 billion, despite being $10 billion poorer than he was a year ago. Rounding out the top 5 is Larry Ellison, worth $58.4 billion.

Donald Trump’s ranking dropped to No. 259 on the list but his net worth remained the same from last year at $3.1 billion. Trump was ranked No. 248 in 2017. As part of the Forbes 400 package, Forbes unveils a new in-depth analysis of how President Donald Trump’s businesses have been

2018 Forbes 400 Top 10

For the complete ranking, methodology and more, visit: www.forbes.com/forbes-400

2018 Forbes 400 Highlights:

• This is the first year that Jeff Bezosis in the No. 1 spot, and also the first time anyone has had a 12-figure fortune on The Forbes 400.
• Women: 57  ** includes 2 women who share fortunes with and are listed with their husbands (vs. 55 last year, including 5 women listed with their husbands)
• Self-made Forbes 400 members: 269 (vs. 267 in 2017)
• Youngest Forbes 400 member: Evan Spiegel(cofounder/CEO of Snapchat), age 28, worth $2.3 billion, down from $3.1 billion in 2017. He is one of 12 under the age of 40.
• Oldest Forbes 400 Member:
  • Sumner Redstone, age 95. Chairman Emeritus of Viacom, worth $4.8 billion (No. 143)
• The top three industries are:
  • Finance and Investments: 88
  • Technology: 65
  • Food and Beverage: 45
• Drop-offs: 17 people who appeared on the 2017 Forbes 400 missed the cut this year, including:
  • David Murdock age 95, who was the oldest member on last year’s list. He’s now worth $2 billion
  • Reid HoffmanLinkedIn cofounder quietly gave away $1.5 billion, knocking him from the ranks
  • Bill Gross, Pimco founder drops off after giving his ex-wife more than $1 billion
  • Peter Buck, Subway cofounder whose fortune sputtered along with his troubled sandwich chain
• Newcomers: 15 newcomers joined The Forbes 400 this year, including:
  • Dropbox founder Drew Houston
  • Wayfair founders Niraj Shah and Steve Conine
  • Ripple chairman and cofounder Chris Larsen, the first ever person to make the list thanks to crypto-currency
  • In-N-Outburger chain president Lynsi Snyder, who at 36 is also the youngest woman in the ranks.

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