Despite its income inequality, the United States is an extremely wealthy country. This is reflected in the fact that the country leads the world in the number of billionaires, by a long shot.
The backgrounds of the uber rich vary, from rags-to-riches immigrants, to self-made magnates, to benefactors of multi-generational wealth. The rapid growth in technological developments during the 90s, with the rise of commercial internet use, likely explains the tech industry’s outsized presence on this gilded list. Here is a list of the cities in every state with the most billionaires.
Though they might own a Hawaiian Island retreat, or a luxury “ranchsion” in Jackson Hole, Montana, the billionaires on this list tend to be domiciled in urban areas. These 25 cities are home to billionaires sitting on a staggering $2.28 trillion in billionaire wealth, led by New York City. The Bay Area, including Silicon Valley and San Francisco, houses billionaires holding over $860 billion in wealth. Here is a list of the richest person is every state.
In some cases, one billionaire makes up more than half of the total billionaire wealth in that city. For example, Tesla cofounder and SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s recent relocation to Texas more than doubled the billionaire wealth in Austin.
It’s important to note that net worth is linked to the value of investments, which can fluctuate constantly, so the following data reflect a recent snapshot in time rather than current figures. For example, amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos experienced a big jump in his net worth.
Here’s a list of the 25 cities with the most billionaires.
25. Los Altos Hills, California
> Billionaires residing in Los Altos Hills: 4
> Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $10.4 billion
> Wealthiest billionaire in city: Ken Xie ($4.5 billion)
This 58-year-old Chinese-born billionaire founded two multibillion-dollar companies — IT security companies NetScreen, which sold to Juniper Networks in 2004, and Fortinet — making the Stanford-educated electrical engineer the richest billionaire in this wealthy incorporated town bordering Palo Alto and Mountain View.
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24. Miami, Florida
> Billionaires residing in Miami: 4
> Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $11.7 billion
> Wealthiest billionaire in city: Rakesh Gangwal ($3.8 billion)
Born in Kolkata, India in 1953, this Wharton-educated airline industry executive made his fortune co-founding Delhi-based budget carrier IndiGo in 2006 after serving as chief executive and chairman of US Airways Group.
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23. Denver, Colorado
> Billionaires residing in Denver: 4
> Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $23.5 billion
> Wealthiest billionaire in city: Philip Anschutz ($10.1 billion)
The son of an oil baron, this 81-year-old, Kansas-born billionaire started in railroads and petroleum and has since spread out into telecommunications, real estate, sports, and music-entertainment, including investments in football and soccer leagues, major sporting and music venues, and the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
22. St. Louis, Missouri
> Billionaires residing in St. Louis: 5
> Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $18.5 billion
> Wealthiest billionaire in city: Pauline MacMillan Keinath ($4.9 billion)
The 86-year-old great-granddaughter of William Wallace Cargill, founder of the global food corporation that bears his name, owes her wealth to a sizeable stake in one of the largest privately held companies in the United States that continues to be controlled by the founder’s descendants.
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21. Naples, Florida
> Billionaires residing in Naples: 5
> Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $22.7 billion
> Wealthiest billionaire in city: Shahid Khan ($7.9 billion)
One of the rags-to-riches billionaires on this list, this 70-year-old Pakistani-born sports tycoon got his start founding Flex-N-Gate, a major U.S. auto parts supplier, and he later became owner of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars.
20. Las Vegas, Nevada
> Billionaires residing in Las Vegas: 6
> Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $14.3 billion
> Wealthiest billionaire in city: Steve Wynn ($3.2 billion)
This 79-year-old hotel and casino magnate was forced in 2018 to step down as CEO of Wynn Resorts, the massive global developer and operator of casino resorts, following accusations of sexual misconduct, but he remains the wealthiest billionaire in Sin City.
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19. Miami Beach, Florida
> Billionaires residing in Miami Beach: 6
> Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $23.2 billion
> Wealthiest billionaire in city: David Tepper ($13 billion)
The 63-year-old Carnegie Mellon-educated businessman and former Goldman Sachs junk-bonds trader has for years been one of the world’s highest-paid hedge fund manager, and who currently owns the NFL’s Carolina Panthers and Major League Soccer’s Charlotte FC.
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18. Woodside, California
> Billionaires residing in Woodside: 6
> Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $136.4 billion
> Wealthiest billionaire in city: Larry Ellison ($90.7 billion)
One of the five Silicon Valley-area billionaires on this list, the 76-year-old co-founder, chairman and chief technology officer of Austin-based Oracle Corporation spends his time racing yachts and chilling on his own Hawaiian island when he’s not busy continuing to be a mover in global enterprise IT.
17. Phoenix, Arizona
> Billionaires residing in Phoenix: 7
> Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $24.9 billion
> Wealthiest billionaire in city: Ernest Garcia III ($8.7 billion)
At 39, the Stanford-educated cofounder of Carvana, an ecommerce platform for the used-car trade, is one of the youngest billionaires on this list. He got a kick-start in his empire with seed money from his father, who built his empire selling used cars and sub-prime car loans and owns a stake in his son’s business.
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16. Fort Worth, Texas
> Billionaires residing in Fort Worth: 8
> Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $81.6 billion
> Wealthiest billionaire in city: Alice Walton ($62.6 billion)
One of two heiresses on this list, the 71-year-old only daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton became an equity analyst and money manager who dabbled in investment banking but has spent a lot of her time focused on economic development in Northwest Arkansas (where Walmart was founded and remains headquartered) and collecting art.
15. Seattle, Washington
> Billionaires residing in Seattle: 8
> Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $252.2 billion
> Wealthiest billionaire in city: Jeff Bezos ($183.1 billion)
The 57-year old Amazon.com founder and CEO, and world’s richest person, dominates seemingly any market his empire chooses to enter, largely funded from online retail sales revenue and Amazon’s market share in cloud-computing services.
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14. Boston, Massachusetts
> Billionaires residing in Boston: 10
> Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $33.9 billion
> Wealthiest billionaire in city: Edward Johnson III ($7.4 billion)
This 90-year-old retired investor made his fortune with money manager Fidelity, the second-largest mutual fund manager after Vanguard, whose roots were planted by his father in the 1940s and is currently managed by his daughter Abigail.
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13. Beverly Hills, California
> Billionaires residing in Beverly Hills: 10
> Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $43.3 billion
> Wealthiest billionaire in city: David Geffen ($9.7 billion)
This Brooklyn-born 78-year-old producer and movie executive who earned his first million dollars in his 20s, got his start as a talent agent who later made a fortune cofounding record labels and film studios, including Asylum Records and DreamWorks.
12. Atherton, California
> Billionaires residing in Atherton: 10
> Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $57.8 billion
> Wealthiest billionaire in city: Eric Schmidt ($19.1 billion)
A member of Silicon Valley royalty, the Princeton-educated software engineer has served as CEO or high-level executive at Google (later renamed Alphabet) for over two decades and has since pivoted to working as a technology advisor who advocates for the use of artificial intelligence in the U.S. defense industry.
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11. Greenwich, Connecticut
> Billionaires residing in Greenwich: 11
> Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $47.2 billion
> Wealthiest billionaire in city: Ray Dalio ($16.9 billion)
This 71-year-old Harvard Business School-educated investor made his fortune with Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund he founded in 1975 from his two-bedroom apartment in New York City.
10. Chicago, Illinois
> Billionaires residing in Chicago: 11
> Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $49.5 billion
> Wealthiest billionaire in city: Ken Griffin ($15 billion)
One of three hedge fund billionaires on this list, this 52-year-old CEO of Citadel, an investment firm he founded in 1990, three years after he began trading from his Harvard University dorm room using a fax machine and personal computer.
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9. Palm Beach, Florida
> Billionaires residing in Palm Beach: 11
> Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $61.6 billion
> Wealthiest billionaire in city: Thomas Peterffy ($25.2 billion)
Born in Hungary in 1944, the rags-to-riches immigrant founder and chairman of Interactive Brokers, one of the largest and oldest electronic-trading platforms in the U.S., continues to head his Greenwich, Connecticut-based empire from his waterfront mansion in south Florida.
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8. Atlanta, Georgia
> Billionaires residing in Atlanta: 12
> Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $55.1 billion
> Wealthiest billionaire in city: Jim Kennedy ($8.2 billion)
This 73-year-old media executive is a member of the Cox family, owner of privately held Cox Enterprises that owns a raft of media assets including AutoTrader, Kelley Blue Book and Cox Communications.
7. Austin, Texas
> Billionaires residing in Austin: 12
> Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $240.7 billion
> Wealthiest billionaire in city: Elon Musk ($168.6 billion)
The 49-year-old South African-born self-made entrepreneur who recently relocated to Austin, cofounded Tesla and founded aerospace manufacturer SpaceX, companies that have taken leads in the mass-production of electric cars and private, U.S.-based orbital-delivery rockets.
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6. Houston, Texas
> Billionaires residing in Houston: 14
> Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $52.9 billion
> Wealthiest billionaire in city: Richard Kinder ($6.4 billion)
The 76-year-old self-made energy and pipeline executive cofounded and chairs Kinder Morgan, the largest energy infrastructure firm in the U.S.
5. Palo Alto, California
> Billionaires residing in Palo Alto: 15
> Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $242.8 billion
> Wealthiest billionaire in city: Mark Zuckerberg ($95.5 billion)
One of the youngest billionaires on this list is the cofounder and head of social media giant Facebook, which along with Google dominates the digital-advertising market, who has faced scrutiny in recent years for a range of privacy and targeted-advertising practices.
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4. Dallas, Texas
> Billionaires residing in Dallas: 18
> Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $57.9 billion
> Wealthiest billionaire in city: Jerry Jones ($8.7 billion)
The 78-year-old former college athlete made his first million dollars in the 1970s in oil investments and continues to invest in Texas energy and real estate, but he grew into a solid billionaire largely as the owner of the Dallas Cowboys football team, which he purchased for $150 million in 1989.
3. Los Angeles, California
> Billionaires residing in Los Angeles: 25
> Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $98.8 billion
> Wealthiest billionaire in city: Evan Spiegel ($12.7 billion)
At 30, this tech entrepreneur and one of the world’s youngest billionaires dropped out of Stanford to develop the social media app Snapchat, which made him his first billion dollars at the age of 25.
2. San Francisco, California
> Billionaires residing in San Francisco: 41
> Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $173.8 billion
> Wealthiest billionaire in city: Dustin Moskovitz ($17.9 billion)
The 36-year-old cofounder of Facebook is among the youngest billionaires on this list, who left the world’s largest social media network to found Asana, which develops workflow software. Most of his wealth comes from his Facebook stake.
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1. New York, New York
> Billionaires residing in New York: 86
> Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $446 billion
> Wealthiest billionaire in city: Michael Bloomberg ($54.9 billion)
This 79-year-old businessman, former New York City mayor and one-time presidential candidate made most of his wealth as the majority owner and cofounder of the business data media giant that bears his name.
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