The cutoff for The Forbes 400 list is higher than it’s ever been—yet nearly four dozen billionaires debuted on the 2021 list of the country’s wealthiest people.
It’s been a bumper year for billionaires. The 400 richest Americans are now 40% richer than they were last year—worth a collective $4.5 trillion—and those ranks have been bolstered by the addition of 44 new entrants, the highest number of newcomers since 2007. More than twice as many people joined The Forbes 400 this year compared to last year, with nearly two-thirds of them making their fortunes in finance and technology. And that’s in a year when the minimum net worth to make the cut jumped to a record $2.9 billion, $800 million more than last year and the first time the cutoff has increased since 2018. Forbes used stock prices from September 3, 2021 to calculate net worths for the list.
Leading the newcomers, with a $30.4 billion fortune, is Miriam Adelson, wife of the late casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who died in January at age 87. She and her late husband have been among the biggest backers of the Republican party; in the 2020 elections they gave $180 million to political action committees and Republican candidates’ campaigns. At age 75, Adelson isn’t the eldest newcomer in 2021: That distinction goes to 80-year-old Robert Brockman, the secretive billionaire software investor who has been charged by the U.S. government with directing the biggest tax-evasion scheme in American history; he’s pleaded not guilty. After deducting $1.3 billion of his assets that have been frozen, Forbes estimates his net worth at $4.7 billion.
The youngest newcomer is 29-year-old cryptocurrency billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, who is the second-richest new entrant, with an estimated $22.5 billion fortune. Close behind in age—if not net worth—are fellow crypto entrepreneurs Brian Armstrong ($11.5 billion) and Fred Ehrsam ($3.5 billion), cofounders of crypto exchange Coinbase, and Baiju Bhatt ($2.9 billion), cofounder of stock trading app Robinhood Markets. Outside of finance and tech, the next largest cohort of newcomers is from the healthcare industry, including Li Ge of Shanghai-based medical devices maker Wuxi AppTec ($11.6 billion) and a trio of backers and executives of vaccine maker Moderna: early investor and Harvard professor Timothy Springer ($5.9 billion), Moderna’s cofounder and chairman Noubar Afeyan ($5 billion) and cofounder and MIT professor Robert Langer ($4.9 billion).
Another notable newcomer is philanthropist Melinda French Gates, the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, who now has an independent fortune worth an estimated $6.3 billion after the couple announced their divorce in early May. Rounding out the 44 new entrants are the billionaire twin brothers and crypto entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who fittingly graced the first cover of Forbes magazine to be turned into a non-fungible token in April.
Here are the 44 new members of The Forbes 400 (net worths are as of September 3, 2021):
Miriam Adelson
Net Worth: $30.4 billion
Source of wealth: Casinos
Adelson inherited her late husband’s 57% stake in Las Vegas Sands, the publicly traded gambling empire with casinos in Singapore and Macau, after his death in January. That stake was worth roughly $19 billion on September 3, the date Forbes locked in closing stock prices for the list. In March, the company sold its assets in Las Vegas—including the Venetian Resort and the Sands Expo and Convention Center—to alternative investment firm Apollo Global for $5 billion in cash and $1.2 billion in loans. A medical doctor who specializes in drug addiction, Miriam Adelson does not serve on the board of Las Vegas Sands; she has served as the company’s director of community involvement since 1990.
Sam Bankman-Fried
Net Worth: $22.5 billion
Source of wealth: Cryptocurrency
The 29-year-old MIT grad owes most of his $22.5 billion fortune to his stake in the cryptocurrency derivatives exchange FTX—which he cofounded in 2019—and his share of its FTT tokens. He also founded Alameda Research, a quantitative crypto trading outfit with $2.5 billion in assets under management. His aim is to get as rich as possible and then give it all away.
Jeff Yass
Net Worth: $12 billion
Source of wealth: Trading, investments
The former pro gambler joins The Forbes 400 thanks to his stake in trading firm Susquehanna International Group, which he cofounded in 1987 and built into one of the most successful firms on Wall Street. According to Alphacution Research, the company traded 1.8 billion stock options contracts in 2020, making up nearly a quarter of all options trades in the U.S. Susquehanna also invests in private companies, ranging from Tiktok parent Bytedance to credit monitoring firm Credit Karma.
Brian Armstrong
Net Worth: $11.5 billion
Source of wealth: Cryptocurrency
The 38-year-old cofounder of crypto exchange Coinbase took the company public in April, a debut that valued the nine-year-old firm at $86 billion and gave Armstrong an $11.8 billion fortune. His net worth has dipped since then, following a drop in Coinbase’s stock price and the value of the largest cryptocurrencies.
Net Worth: $9.5 billion
Source of wealth: Packaging
The University of Massachusetts graduate joins the list thanks to his stake in packaging products supplier Yunnan Energy New Material, which he also chairs. His shares in the Shenzhen-listed firm were worth $9.4 billion on September 3, accounting for 98% of his fortune.
Lin Bin
Net Worth: $8.5 billion
Source of wealth: Smartphones
Before cofounding Xiaomi, one of the world’s largest smartphone brands, in 2010, Lin worked as an engineering director at Google and did stints at ADP and Microsoft. He currently serves as vice chairman of Xiaomi and his stake in the Hong Kong-listed firm makes up 87% of his estimated net worth.
Mat Ishbia
Net Worth: $8.3 billion
Source of wealth: Mortgage lender
Former college basketball player Mat Ishbia turned his father's small-time mortgage lender into a nationwide brand, United Wholesale Mortgage, and took the 35-year-old company public through a merger with a SPAC in January 2021. The listing turned him and his brother, Justin—an early investor in the family firm—into billionaires thanks to their sizable stakes in the business.
Sun Hongbin
Net Worth: $6.9 billion
Source of wealth: Real estate
The real estate tycoon joins The Forbes 400 due to his stake in Tianjin-based Sunac China Holdings, one of China’s largest real estate developers. Shares in the Hong Kong-listed firm have fallen by nearly 27% since September 3, dragged down by market concerns over Sunac rival and heavily indebted developer Evergrande.
Michael Kim
Net Worth: $6.7 billion
Source of wealth: Private equity
Kim is the cofounder of Seoul-based private equity outfit MBK Partners—the name stands for his initials—a firm with $20 billion in assets that he founded in 2005. Born in South Korea and educated in the U.S., Kim is also an art collector and a writer outside of his investing career; he published his first novel in 2020, Offerings, about the life of an investment banker during the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s.
Philippe Laffont
Net Worth: $6.5 billion
Source of wealth: Hedge funds
Melinda French Gates
Net Worth: $6.3 billion
Source of wealth: Microsoft
Timothy Springer
Net Worth: $5.9 billion
Source of wealth: Biotech
David Baszucki
Net Worth: $5.6 billion
Source of wealth: Online games
Trudy Cathy White
Net Worth: $5.5 billion
Source of wealth: Chick-fil-A
Bom Kim
Net Worth: $5.2 billion
Source of wealth: Online retailing
Jeff Tangney
Net Worth: $5.1 billion
Source of wealth: Healthcare IT
Scott Shleifer
Net Worth: $5 billion
Source of wealth: Private equity
Noubar Afeyan
Net Worth: $5 billion
Source of wealth: Biotech
Robert Langer
Net Worth: $4.9 billion
Source of wealth: Biotech
Matthew Prince
Net Worth: $4.7 billion
Source of wealth: Cybersecurity
Robert Brockman
Net Worth: $4.7 billion
Source of wealth: Software
Gary Friedman
Net Worth: $4.5 billion
Source of wealth: Furniture retail
Cameron Winklevoss
Net Worth: $4.3 billion
Source of wealth: Cryptocurrency
Tyler Winklevoss
Net Worth: $4.3 billion
Source of wealth: Cryptocurrency
George Kurtz
Net Worth: $4 billion
Source of wealth: Security software
Ramzi Musallam
Net Worth: $4 billion
Source of wealth: Private equity
Michael Xie
Net Worth: $3.9 billion
Source of wealth: Cybersecurity
Steven Sarowitz
Net Worth: $3.8 billion
Source of wealth: Payroll software
Hao Hong
Net Worth: $3.8 billion
Source of wealth: Pharmaceuticals
Scott Watterson
Net Worth: $3.7 billion
Source of wealth: Fitness equipment
Fred Ehrsam
Net Worth: $3.5 billion
Source of wealth: Cryptocurrency
RJ Scaringe
Net Worth: $3.4 billion
Source of wealth: Electric vehicles
Behdad Eghbali
Net Worth: $3.4 billion
Source of wealth: Private equity
Thomas Tull
Net Worth: $3.4 billion
Source of wealth: Movies, investments
Frank Laukien
Net Worth: $3.4 billion
Source of wealth: Scientific equipment
Ben Silbermann
Net Worth: $3.3 billion
Source of wealth: Pinterest
Robert Hale, Jr.
Net Worth: $3.2 billion
Source of wealth: Telecom
Alexis Lê-Quôc
Net Worth: $3 billion
Source of wealth: Cloud computing
Jed McCaleb
Net Worth: $3 billion
Source of wealth: Cryptocurrency
J. Tomilson Hill
Net Worth: $3 billion
Source of wealth: Investments
Baiju Bhatt
Net Worth: $2.9 billion
Source of wealth: Robinhood
Paul Sciarra
Net Worth: $2.9 billion
Source of wealth: Pinterest
Joseph Edelman
Net Worth: $2.9 billion
Source of wealth: Hedge funds
SEE THE FORBES 400 LIST OF 2021
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