U.S. billionaires had a bad year

NEW YORK, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- The 400 richest U.S. citizens lost a collective $300 billion in the past year, the highly anticipated annual list of richest Americans reveals.

In the past 12 months, Warren Buffett, No. 2 on the list, lost $10 billion of his personal wealth, Forbes.com reported Thursday. While he was the biggest loser of the year, Buffet is still worth $40 billion, the magazine said.

Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, maintained his spot on the top of the list for the 16th consecutive year.

Gates, valued at $50 billion, lost $7 billion in the past year.

The Top 10 also includes Oracle founder Lawrence Ellison (worth $27 billion), Wal-Mat heirs Christy Walton ($21.5 billion), Jim Walton ($19.6 billion), Alice Walton $19.3 billion) and S. Robson Walton ($19 billion), media mogul Michel Bloomberg ($17.5 billion), and energy investors David and Charles Koch ($16 billion each).