Thread: California home to 88 of Forbes' 400 richest Americans

California home to 88 of Forbes' 400 richest Americans

September 29, 2011 | Agustin Armendariz

The Golden State boasts the most billionaires living within its borders among all U.S. states, according to calculations by Forbes to determine the 400 richest Americans.

Of course, if you control for population, Wyoming, Montana, New York, Connecticut and Nevada all have a higher per-capita concentration of billionaires. But California has a couple of billionaires for every million people living in the state.

Oracle co-founder and CEO Larry Ellison is the richest Californian, with a net worth of $33 billion, and the third-richest American behind Bill Gates ($59 billion) and Warren Buffett ($39 billion).

The vast majority of California's billionaires are older than 50, but two are still in their 20s and work at Facebook. With a net worth of $17.5 billion, 27-year-old Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is the second-richest Californian and 14th-richest American, according to Forbes. Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz is also 27, and Forbes estimates his net worth at $3.5 billion.

Googlers Larry Page and Sergey Brin are both 38, among the youngest billionaires, and rank just behind Zuckerberg. They are tied for third-richest Californian and 15th-richest American.

Nationwide, eight out of every nine billionaires on the list is older than 50.
For the full list, visit www.forbes.com/forbes-400.

The ten richest Californians on the Forbes list:

National rank
Name
Age
Net worth
(billions)
Residence
Source
Industry




3

Larry Ellison

67

$33

Woodside, CA

Oracle, self-made

Technology
============


14

Mark Zuckerberg

27

$17.5

Palo Alto, CA

Facebook, self-made

Technology
================


15

Larry Page

38

$16.7

Palo Alto, CA

Google, self-made

Technology
============


15

Sergey Brin

38

$16.7

Los Altos, CA

Google, self-made

Technology
===========


26

Donald Bren

79

$12

Newport Beach, CA

real estate, self-made

Real Estate
===============


39

Steve Jobs

56

$7

Palo Alto, CA

Apple, Pixar, self-made

Technology
================


39

Patrick Soon-Shiong

59

$7

Los Angeles, CA

generic drugs, self-made

Health care
==================


48

Eli Broad

78

$6.3

Los Angeles, CA

investments, self-made

Investments
=================


50

Eric Schmidt

56

$6.2

Atherton, CA

Google, self-made

Technology
=================


58

David Geffen

68

$5.5

Malibu, CA

movies, music, self-made

Media

http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/ ... cans-12820

Lots of money made in technology or directly internet-related 'innovations.'

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