After losing the excruciatingly close 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush, Al Gore firmly stepped off the political stage. But the former vice president didn't let the disappointment drag him down. In the years since, Gore has won an unlikely pile of accolades, including a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change, and an Oscar for his documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Along the way, he has also amassed a personal fortune rivaling that of another fabulously wealthy losing presidential candidate: Mitt Romney. Here, a look at Gore's nest egg, by the numbers:
$1.7 million
Gore's estimated net worth in 1999 as he campaigned for the presidency
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$200 million
The former Democratic veep's approximate wealth now, according to Bloomberg News
$250 million
Romney's estimated wealth. The 2012 GOP presidential nominee made his fortune as a financier at Bain Capital.
$70 million
Amount Gore reportedly netted in January, thanks to the sale of the Current TV network, which he helped to start in 2004, to Qatari-owned Al Jazeera Satellite Network
$500 million
Total value of the Current TV deal.
70 million
Homes Current TV reached worldwide at its peak
40,000
High end of the number of actual viewers the channel reached at any given time
$30 million
Gore's haul when, two weeks after the Current TV sale, he exercised options on 59,000 shares of Apple Inc. stock. He was granted the options for serving on Apple's board since 2003.
5,900
Percent increase in Apple's stock price since Gore came on board.
$460
Apple's current share price
42,358
Remaining options and shares of Apple stock that Gore has
$45.6 million
Total value of Gore's remaining holdings in the maker of iPhones and iPads
10,000
Square footage of the Nashville, Tenn., house Gore renovated with his wife, Tipper, before they separated in 2010. "It's currently uninhabited but for his dog, Bo (by strange coincidence, the name of the dog in the real White House, too), a chow mix," says Steve Fishman at New York.
$400,000
The annual salary Gore would have collected as president
$230,700
The vice president's salary
Sources: Bloomberg, InfoPlease, MarketWatch, New York
