In the United States, history is always intertwined with the stories of the most successful immigrants. To celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, “Forbes” has updated the ranking of the wealthiest citizens currently residing in the US but born overseas. The world’s richest person naturally is the richest in the US, with a total of 11 Taiwanese immigrants on the list, two of whom made it into the top ten. Mainland China has 9 people listed, with one among the top ten.
This year’s list includes a total of 144 immigrant billionaires, setting a historical record with a total wealth of $2.2 trillion. In comparison, last year’s list had 125 individuals with a total wealth of $1.3 trillion. They account for nearly 15% of all US billionaires and own one-fourth of the total wealth of this group.
Among the top ten wealthiest individuals globally, three are US immigrants. This includes South African-born Elon Musk (who briefly became the world’s first trillionaire in June), Google co-founder Sergey Brin, and Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang. The combined wealth of these three individuals represents over 60% of the total wealth of immigrant billionaires.
These US immigrant billionaires come from 45 countries and regions, up from 42 last year. Haiti, the Philippines, Poland, and Spain all have representatives on the list. Meanwhile, the only immigrant billionaire from Guatemala, Luis von Ahn, co-founder of Duolingo, dropped out of the “billion-dollar wealth club” due to a decline in stock prices.
India has become the country producing the most immigrant billionaires for the second consecutive year, with a record-breaking 19 individuals, up from 12 last year. This is thanks to several newcomers on the list, including venture capitalist Hemant Taneja, Sanjay Gajendra and Jitendra Mohan, co-founders of semiconductor company Astera Labs, as well as Shyam Sankar, Chief Technology Officer of Palantir. In fact, India is the only country this year to have more than one new entry on the list (there were also five new entrants last year).
Israel and Taiwan closely follow with 11 individuals each on the list. For Taiwanese immigrants, aside from Jensen Huang, Kingston co-founder David Sun ranks sixth. The other nine Taiwanese immigrant billionaires on the list are: Garmin co-founder Min Kao ranked 32nd, Westlake’s Chao family (co-CEOs Albert Chao and James Chao, and sister Dorothy Chao) tied at 72nd place, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang tied at 72nd place, Su Tseng Chang, CEO of AMD, ranked 79th, Sunrider founder Chen Der philosopher ranked 84th, and Wang Wenxiang, youngest son of JM Eagle chairman and Taiwan Plastics Group founder YC Wang, ranked 97th, Supermicro co-founder Liang Jianhou ranked 123rd.
There are 9 Chinese mainland immigrants on the list, with John Tu ranked at joint 6th place, born in Zhejiang, China, and raised in Taiwan, co-founded Kingston with David Sun. Ken Xie, co-founder and CEO of cybersecurity company Fortinet, ranks 18th; his brother Michael Xie ranks 22nd; Andrew Cherng, founder of Panda Express, ranks 38th; Eric Yuan, founder of the video conference software Zoom, ranks 49th; Weili Dai, co-founder of Marvell Technology, ranks 53rd; Michael Hsing, founder and CEO of Monolithic Power Systems, MPS, ranks 102nd; Shuo Wang, co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer of Dill, tied at 102nd place; and Tony Xu, co-founder and CEO of DoorDash, ranks 112th.
For some of the wealthiest immigrants in the US, staying in America was not their initial plan.
“After completing my undergraduate studies in India, I came here to pursue a master’s degree. My plan at the time was to come to the US, get a degree, work for about five years, and then return home,” said Jitendra Mohan from Astera Labs. “As it turns out, everything went smoothly except for the last step according to the plan, so I’ve been here for 32 years now.”
These billionaires express that starting companies and pursuing the “American Dream” opportunities remain as vibrant as ever. “It has been a journey of coming to America with grand dreams. For me, the goal has always been to start a company of my own,” said Sanjay Gajendra, co-founder of Astera Labs.
Born in Jordan, Amjad Masad, co-founder of “vibe coding” startup Replit, added, “America still offers abundant opportunities, and it is one of the most dynamic and innovative markets.”