Bill Gates first appeared on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans in 1986.
The Forbes 400 is an annual ranking of the wealthiest people in the United States. Gates entered the list in 1986, the year Microsoft became a publicly traded company. His ownership of Microsoft shares made it possible for Forbes to estimate his wealth using the company’s market value.
Microsoft’s initial public offering took place in March 1986. The offering made Gates wealthy on paper and created a public market for shares in the company he had co-founded with Paul Allen.
This appearance should not be confused with Gates’s first listing among the world’s billionaires, which came in 1987. The Forbes 400 concerns the United States, while the global billionaires list measures wealth internationally. Both rankings helped establish Gates as a major technology fortune during the 1980s.