In addition to Bloomberg, three other Jewish billionaires made the top 20: Oracle CEO Larry Ellison (#5), who was born to an unwed Jewish mother, is worth $43 billion; casino mogul Sheldon Adelson (#15) has a net worth of $26.5 billion; and Google co-founder and CEO Larry Page (#20) is worth $23 billion.
“The mayor has one year left in his third and supposedly final term,” writes Forbes of Bloomberg, “but no one expects him to disappear after leaving office. After a star turn navigating NYC through Hurricane Sandy, a high-profile endorsement of President Obama proved his influence extends beyond the city’s borders.”
The 71-year-old mayor has recently signaled that he plans to use that vast wealth to stay politically relevant after leaving City Hall at the end of the year – specifically to fight gun violence.Last month, he spent more than $2 million of his fortune to engineer the defeat of a pro-gun congressional candidate in Illinois. Democrat Robin Kelly beat the NRA’s preferred candidate, former Rep. Debbie Halvorson, with Bloomberg’s help.
Of Adelson, Forbes writes, “The majority share owner of the Las Vegas Sands casino empire was dealt a losing hand at the political poker table in November. The Republican money man gave at least $53 million in super PAC donations to Mitt Romney and a slew of congressional candidates. Despite the political defeats, his casinos continue to win: Shares of LVS are up more than 20% since the summer.”
“Larry Page saw the company through the $50 billion revenue milestone in 2012,” the magazine reports, while Ellison “is $7 billion wealthier than a year ago, thanks to a more than 20% jump in the value of his Oracle stock.”
Other Jewish billionaires who did not quite make it into the top 20 include investor George Soros ($20 billion); Google co-founder Sergey Brin ($18.7 billion); Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg ($17.5 billion); computer magnate Michael Dell ($15.9 billion); Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer ($15.7 billion); Russian businessman Mikhail Fridman ($13.4 billion); hedge fund titan John Paulson ($12.5 billion); Russian business magnate and art collector Viktor Vekselberg ($12.4 billion); Russian business tycoon Roman Abramovich ($12.1 billion), owner of the world’s largest yacht; and MacAndrews & Forbes chairman and CEO Ronald O. Perelman ($12 billion).
Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim Helu topped the Forbes ranking for the fourth year in a row with a net worth of $73 billion.
