California’s 20 wealthiest billionaires — See who tops the list

The first billionaire ever is thought to be Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller back in 1916, or perhaps Henry Ford in 1925. Fast forward some 100 years to 2021: as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to rage, a record-breaking 660 people became billionaires globally, growing the previous year’s number by 30%.

While the U.S. is home to the most billionaires out of any other country, Americans are somewhat split in their feelings on the billionaire class. According to Pew Research Center data, people in the U.S. became somewhat more critical of billionaires between 2020 and 2021.

Although support for individual billionaires like Elon Musk or Bill Gates is relatively strong, many Americans view the ultra-rich — as a group rather than as individuals — negatively. Meanwhile, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is projected to become the world’s first trillionaire by 2026.

The wealthiest billionaires in the U.S. are mostly concentrated within just a couple of industries: finance and investments, and technology. Other wealthy sectors include food and drink, fashion and retail, and media and entertainment. Using data from Forbes, what follows is a list of the richest billionaires that are residents of California. Billionaires are ranked by net worth as of Jan. 3. Forbes lists 175 billionaires in California.

#20. Steven Rales
– Net worth: $7.8 billion (#272 wealthiest in the world)
– Residence: Santa Barbara, California
– Source of wealth: manufacturing, investments, self-made

#19. George Roberts
– Net worth: $7.9 billion (#257 wealthiest in the world)
– Residence: Atherton, California
– Source of wealth: private equity, self-made

#18. Stewart & Lynda Resnick
– Net worth: $8.0 billion (#249 wealthiest in the world)
– Residence: Beverly Hills, California
– Source of wealth: agriculture, water, self-made

#17. John Collison
– Net worth: $8.1 billion (#245 wealthiest in the world)
– Residence: San Francisco, California
– Source of wealth: payments software, self-made

#16. Patrick Collison
– Net worth: $8.1 billion (#245 wealthiest in the world)
– Residence: San Francisco, California
– Source of wealth: payment software, self-made

#15. John Doerr
– Net worth: $8.6 billion (#220 wealthiest in the world)
– Residence: Woodside, California
– Source of wealth: venture capital, self-made

#14. David Cheriton
– Net worth: $8.8 billion (#209 wealthiest in the world)
– Residence: Palo Alto, California
– Source of wealth: Google, self-made

#13. Eric Smidt
– Net worth: $9.5 billion (#191 wealthiest in the world)
– Residence: Beverly Hills, California
– Source of wealth: hardware stores, self-made

#12. Andreas von Bechtolsheim & family
– Net worth: $9.6 billion (#189 wealthiest in the world)
– Residence: Palo Alto, California
– Source of wealth: Google, self-made

#11. Marijke Mars
– Net worth: $9.7 billion (#185 wealthiest in the world)
– Residence: Los Angeles, California
– Source of wealth: candy, pet food

#10. Laurene Powell Jobs & family
– Net worth: $10.9 billion (#162 wealthiest in the world)
– Residence: Palo Alto, California
– Source of wealth: Apple, Disney

#9. Charles Schwab
– Net worth: $11.8 billion (#149 wealthiest in the world)
– Residence: Woodside, California
– Source of wealth: discount brokerage, self-made

#8. Jan Koum
– Net worth: $13.4 billion (#132 wealthiest in the world)
– Residence: Atherton, California
– Source of wealth: WhatsApp, self-made

#7. Jensen Huang
– Net worth: $13.5 billion (#130 wealthiest in the world)
– Residence: Los Altos, California
– Source of wealth: semiconductors, self-made

#6. Robert Pera
– Net worth: $15.8 billion (#105 wealthiest in the world)
– Residence: San Jose, California
– Source of wealth: wireless networking gear, self-made

#5. Eric Schmidt
– Net worth: $16.0 billion (#103 wealthiest in the world)
– Residence: Atherton, California
– Source of wealth: Google, self-made

#4. Donald Bren
– Net worth: $17.4 billion (#94 wealthiest in the world)
– Residence: Newport Beach, California
– Source of wealth: real estate, self-made

#3. Mark Zuckerberg
– Net worth: $45.3 billion (#26 wealthiest in the world)
– Residence: Palo Alto, California
– Source of wealth: Facebook, self-made

#2. Sergey Brin
– Net worth: $74.9 billion (#13 wealthiest in the world)
– Residence: Los Altos, California
– Source of wealth: Google, self-made

#1. Larry Page
– Net worth: $78.1 billion (#11 wealthiest in the world)
– Residence: Palo Alto, California
– Source of wealth: Google, self-made

Republished pursuant to a CC BY-NC 4.0 License

This article was copy edited from it’s originally published version.