America is known as the world’s superpower and one of the wealthiest nations on the face of the Earth. But you may be surprised to know a sizable amount of that wealth is generated by people who aren’t even from the country.

Immigrants and the sons and daughters of immigrants have come to this country to establish roots that quickly became gardens of cash. So who are these people? Let’s take a look at immigrants and their kids who made it big in the U.S.

24/7 Wall St. Insights

• Famous immigrants that made their riches in America include the likes of Elon Musk and Bruce Willis.
• In the past few years, a record number of immigrants have become billionaires in the U.S.
• Even the thickest wallets can be eaten away by inflation and high taxes. But you can protect your nest egg by investing in dividend-paying stocks. To get started, check out our free report: 2 Dividend Legends to Hold on Forever.

Tope Awotona

Net worth: $1.4 billion

Calendly founder Tope Awotona immigrated from Nigeria with his parents in 1996. He then graduated with a degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Georgia in 2002. Afterward, he worked with big names in the tech world like Dell, IBM and Perceptive Software. But one day, he found himself incredibly stressed out trying to put together and schedule his meetings. He found a tool to streamline the process in an effective way didn’t exist. So he invented it. And today, millions use Calendly.

Eren Ozmen

Net worth: $4 billion

Turkish Eren Ozmen reached for the stars and became president of Sierra Nevada Corporation, a private aerospace and defense company. In fact, the company’s Dream Chaser spacecraft is contracted by NASA for several cargo missions to the International Space Station. Ozmen’s numerous awards include Aviation Week’s Laureate Award, the BENS Eisenhower Award, the NDIA James Forrestal Award and the Service to the Flag Award from Women in Defense.

Eric Yuan

Net Worth: $4.4 billion

Zoom founder Eric Yuan hailed from a family of mining engineers in China’s Shandong Province. Determined to make it big in the American tech world, he desperately tried to earn a Visa after college. But he was denied nearly 10 times. Still, hard work paid off in the summer of ‘97 when he was granted a Visa and set out to California, where he joined WebX as its only employee. And the versatility of his company’s work was put to the test during the global pandemic when video conferences became the norm for workers all over the world. While the world was far from a pristine place during the height of the Covid pandemic, it’s safe to say it would have been a dimer spot without the kind of technology that Yuan and others like him put to use to help keep what was left of the world running.

Jeff Skoll

Net Worth: $5 billion

Canada’s Jeff Skoll made his fortune as eBay’s first president in 1995. But the billionaire also has a heart of gold. Through The Skoll Foundation and Skoll Global Threats Fund, he’s donated more than $1.2 billion to fight poverty and other worldwide issues. During the pandemic alone, The Skoll Foundation increased its grants to $200 million. But Skoll is also creative. In fact, his movie and TV studio has earned 21 Academy Awards. Talk about a triple threat.

Kamala Harris

Net worth: $8 billion

The parents of Vice President Kamala Harris hail from India and Jamaica. They met at the University of California at Berkeley as part of a Black student group. Their daughter went on to become a U.S. senator and an attorney general of California before becoming VP. Today, she’s the Democratic nominee in the presidential race of 2024.

Steve Jobs

Net worth: $10.2 billion

While Apple founder Steve Jobs was born in California, his biological father Jandali was a Syrian political science professor. He and biological mother Joanne Schieble gave their unnamed son up for adoption. He was later adopted by Clara and Paul Jobs who named him Steve. The rest, of course, is history. As co-founder of Apple, he created a tech empire that gave birth to products like the iPod, iPad and iMac.

Sergey Brin

Net worth: $119.5 billion

You’ve probably used it in the last hour. The search giant and all-knowing super machine Google was the brainchild of Russian-born Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Brin moved to the U.S. with his family from Russia. He eventually went to Stanford University. There, he met Page and the computer wizzes began working on what would become Google right out of their dorm rooms. But Brin eventually pulled out of his doctorate program to keep working on Google. After a few years, Brin and Page unleashed Google into the net in 1998.

Natalie Portman

Net worth: $90 million

Famous actress Natalie Portman was born in Israel as Neta-Lee Hershlag. Her family eventually moved to Long Island, where Portman started studying ballet and modern dance. And one day while out for pizza, a modeling scout discovered her and she began taking the stage name Natalie Portman as an actress. In fact, she was still in high school when she starred in Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Fast forward to 2010, and she won an Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in Black Swan.

Bruce Willis

Net worth: $250 million

Bruce Willis is known as one of the biggest American action heroes of all time. But he actually comes from Germany. Back in high school, Willis was teased and nicknamed “Buck Buck” due to his stutter. Determined to overcome this issue, he joined the school’s Drama Club. As a result, he worked on his stutter and discovered his talent and passion for acting. He went on to attend the State University of New Jersey at Montclair. He then moved to New York to pursue an acting career. He tended bar in between auditions. And his big break came in the form of an off-Broadway production of Fool For Love. Afterward, he became the Bruce Willis we all know and love with hits like the Die Hard franchise, Armageddon and The Sixth Sense.

Elon Musk

Net worth: $250.5 billion

The face of Tesla and SpaceX and one of the most talked about people in America was actually born in South Africa. And his business accomplishments go back to 1999 when he founded X.com which would become PayPal. And he made his first million when he sold his start-up company Zip2 to a division of Compaq Computers. He even went on to take an advisory role in the Trump Administration and claim the social media giant Twitter, which he renamed “X.”

Why we covered this

Immigrants have played a crucial role in building wealth in America and fueling the country’s economy. So have the children of immigrants. Among these big players are the likes of Elon Musk, Kamala Harris, the late Steve Jobs and more. So we thought we’d take a close look into the lives of immigrants and children of immigrants who made it big in the U.S.

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