85 California billionaires ranked among the 100 richest people on the planet

Call it a California gold rush.

The Golden State is home to 85 of America’s wealthiest people, according to Forbes’ annual ranking of the country’s 400 richest, which features tech titans, entrepreneurs and billionaire families.

The 2026 list has a record $8 trillion in combined wealth, with 34 newcomers joining the elite club. The price of admission? At least $4.4 billion, up from $3.8 billion last year.

Overall, California boasted more billionaires on the Forbes 400 list than any other state. New York trails behind with 54, followed by Florida with 49 and Texas with 43.

That concentration of wealth comes as California voters prepare to weigh in on a very different question: whether to impose a one-time 5% tax on the fortunes of billionaires who were California residents at the start of 2026.

Proposition 40 is on the Nov. 3 ballot, with 45% of likely voters currently supporting it and 42% opposed, according to a September UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times.

According to Forbes’ annual ranking, which is a snapshot of each member’s wealth as of Sept. 4, 2026, Alphabet co-founder Larry Page leads the California pack, landing at No. 3 nationwide with a staggering $278 billion fortune.

Not far behind is fellow Alphabet co-founder Sergey Brin, the second-wealthiest Californian and fifth-richest American overall, with $265 billion to his name.

Both men climbed the Forbes ladder this year — but not everyone in California’s billionaire club was moving up.

Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg rounds out the Golden State’s top three, but his national ranking slipped to sixth, down from third in 2025. His net worth now stands at $212 billion.

Still, he probably isn’t losing too much sleep over it. After all, a record 590 American billionaires didn’t have pockets deep enough to even make the Forbes 400 this year.

Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang is the only other Californian to crack the national top 10. His $199 billion fortune makes him California’s fourth-richest person and America’s eighth-richest overall.

Then the numbers take a dramatic turn.

Eric Schmidt, Google’s former CEO, is the fifth-richest person on the state’s roster. His $37.8 billion fortune ranks him No. 26 nationwide.

Next comes Henry Samueli, co-founder of chipmaker Broadcom. His $33.8 billion net worth makes him the sixth-richest person in the state and No. 31 in the country.

Just behind him are Kingston Technology CEO John Tu and co-founder David Sun, who are tied with $32.2 billion fortunes each. They rank seventh and eighth on the California list and are tied at No. 34 nationally.

Robert Pera, founder and CEO of wireless equipment maker Ubiquiti, follows with a $29.6 billion fortune. He ranks ninth locally and 38th across the US.

Rounding out California’s top 10 is Greg Brockman, co-founder and president of OpenAI. His fortune of $25.5 billion puts him at No. 45 among America’s richest people — but he has the distinction of being the list’s wealthiest new addition.

It’s no surprise that tech dominates the Golden State’s top fortunes, with Silicon Valley producing some of the biggest net worths on the entire list.

And there’s plenty more where that came from. More than a dozen AI moguls are among the 34 newcomers who cracked Forbes’ list this year, as the industry continues to boom.

But even the Golden State’s billionaires can’t touch the richest American of them all.

That title belongs to Elon Musk, whose eye-popping $908 billion fortune puts him firmly at the top. The Tesla CEO left California in 2020 and now lives in Boca Chica, Texas, near SpaceX’s Starbase launch facility.

And the gap between Musk and Jeff Bezos, the nation’s second-wealthiest person, is staggering.

The Amazon founder, who lives in Florida, has a comparatively measly $378 billion fortune — less than half of Musk’s.

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