There were 67 new U.S. names on Forbes' annual billionaires list, more than a quarter of which were tech founders or investors in tech startups.
The newcomers to the list, which included first-timers like Taylor Swift and Magic Johnson, also includes 20 U.S. tech titans who've built artificial-intelligence businesses, software companies, investment firms and more.
New tech billionaires, according to Forbes, include Sam Altman, the OpenAI founder with a reported net worth of $1 billion. OpenAI has raised more than $11 billion in total funding, though Altman said he owns no equity in the AI firm. Altman does have equity in Reddit, which recently went public, with Altman's shares worth over $600 million.
Other U.S. techies to join the Forbes list for the first time include Brett Adcock, the founder of robotics startup Figure AI. Figure raised a $675 million fundraising round earlier this year at a $2.6 billion valuation. Figure is building a humanoid robot designed for commercial operations and has a deal with BMW to explore potential use cases for its robots in the carmaker's factories. Figure's backers include a who's who of tech titans, including OpenAI, Nvidia, Microsoft and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Here are the tech founders and investors who are new entrants to Forbes' billionaires list:
- Charles Liang ($6.1 billion): Chairman, president and CEO of server and storage systems provider Supermicro
- Seth Boro ($3.3 billion): Managing partner at software-focused private equity firm Thoma Bravo
- Scott Crabill ($3.3 billion): Managing partner at Thoma Bravo
- Holden Spaht ($3.3 billion): Managing partner at Thoma Bravo
- Andrew Bialecki ($2.5 billion): Co-founder and CEO of Klaviyo, a marketing automation software firm
- Susan Ocampo ($1.8 billion): Board member and the largest individual shareholder of semiconductor firm Macom Technology Solutions
- Sarah Liu ($1.5 billion): Co-founder of Supermicro
- Christopher Stolte ($1.5 billion): Co-founder of data-analytics company Tableau
- Brett Adcock ($1.4 billion): Founder of Figure AI
- Nir Zuk ($1.4 billion): Founder of cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks
- Christian Chabot ($1.3 billion): Co-founder of Tableau
- Lisa Su ($1.3 billion): CEO of semiconductor firm Advanced Micro Devices
- Ingrid Wu ($1.3 billion): Co-founder of electronics manufacturer AAC Technologies
- Ankur Jain ($1.2 billion): Founder of rental-rewards startup Bilt Rewards
- Craig Abod ($1.1 billion): Founder of Carahsoft, a technology company that specializes in IT services for government agencies
- Antonio Gracias ($1.1 billion): Founder and CEO of growth-equity firm Valor Equity Partners, which has invested in Tesla and SpaceX
- Nicholas Howley ($1.1 billion): Co-founder of TransDigm, an aerospace firm
- Sam Altman ($1 billion): CEO of OpenAI
- Harvey Jones ($1 billion): Investor and board member of Nvidia
- Dharmesh Shah ($1 billion): Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of marketing software firm HubSpot.
In total, there are more than 140 U.S. tech industry names on Forbes' latest list.
Bezos is the top techie, with a net worth of $194 billion, which is up from $114 billion last year, according to Forbes. Behind Bezos is Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, with a net worth of $177 billion. His wealth has climbed substantially from 2023, when his net worth was $64.4 billion, Forbes reports.
Overall, there are more billionaires on Forbes' list than ever before — 2,781 in total and 26 more than in 2021, the previous record.
