Several of the wealthiest people in California started their companies in the Golden State.
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How wealthy are California residents?
The Golden State is home for four of the wealthiest people in the nation, according to Forbes.
Forbes recently released its 2026 list of the 400 richest people in America — including 85 California residents, Each have a net worth of at least $1 billion.
The wealthiest people in California include founders, presidents and CEOs of tech companies, some of which started their businesses in the state.
These are the richest people in California — and how much they’re worth:
Who is the wealthiest person in the United States?
According to Forbes, Elon Musk was the wealthiest person in the United States in 2026, with a net worth of $908 billion as of Sept. 15.
He is the co-founder of Tesla, SpaceX and OpenAI, among other companies.
When SpaceX went public in June, Musk became the first trillionaire in the world. He lives in Boca Chica, Texas., near SpaceX’s headquarters.
Musk is worth $530 billion more than the second-wealthiest person on the list, Amazon chairman and founder Jeff Bezos. Amazon’s subsidiaries include Whole Foods, Zappos, Twitch, Ring and Audible.
Bezos, who lives in Florida, had a net worth of $378 billion as of Sept. 15. He currently owns The Washington Post and an aerospace company, Blue Origin.
Musk is $630 billion richer than Google co-founder Larry Page, who ranked third in the nation in terms of overall wealth.
How much is California’s richest resident worth?
Page, who lives in Palo Alto, was the wealthiest person in California in 2026, according to the Forbes list of the 400 richest people in America.
The former Alphabet CEO had a net worth of $278 billion as of Sept. 15.
California’s second wealthiest person in 2026 was Google co-founder, Sergey Brin. He ranked fifth richest nationwide.
Brin, a Los Altos resident, had a net worth of $256 billion.
Page and Brin met while attending Stanford University, building the search engine that became Google in their dorm rooms in 1995. They later moved operations to a garage in Menlo Park.
How rich is Mark Zuckerberg? Jensen Huang?
As of Sept. 15, Meta Platforms co-founder Mark Zuckerberg was the third-richest billionaire in California, with a net worth of $212 billion, Forbes said.
Zuckerberg was the sixth-richest person in the nation, according to Forbes.
Zuckerberg, who started Facebook as a Harvard College student, has an “ever-expanding compound” in Palo Alto that he’s spent more than $112 million and 14 years to build, according to Realtor.com.
Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang had a net worth of $199 billion in March, making him the fourth-richest billionaire in the state and the eighth wealthiest in the United States.
The Stanford University graduate has homes in Santa Clara County and a $38 million mansion in San Francisco, where his neighbors include entrepreneurs Larry Ellison and David Sachs.
Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google from 2001 through 2011, was the fifth-richest billionaire in California with a net worth of $37.8 billion.
Schmidt, who holds two graduate degrees from UC Berkeley, has homes in Montecito, Malibu, Santa Barbara and San Francisco, plus five properties in Los Angeles.
Where were these companies founded?
According to Forbes, the 10 richest people in California come have ties to seven different companies.
A number of those business got their starts in California — including Google, which is headquartered in Mountain View.
Broadcom Corporation co-founder Henry Samueli helped start the semiconductor company while working as a professor at UCLA. Samueli, who lives in Newport Beach, was the sixth-wealthiest billionaire in California as of September.
Kingston Technology president John Tu and chief operational officer David Sun are the seventh and eighth richest people in California, respectively. They started their Fountain Valley memory and storage company in an Orange County garage.
Tu lives in Rolling Hills, while Sun calls Irvine home.
San Jose resident Robert Pera, the ninth-richest billionaire in California, worked at Apple Inc. before leaving to start his own company, wireless equipment maker Ubiquiti Networks in San Jose.
The 10th wealthiest person in California was Greg Brockman, co-founder and president of OpenAI. He lives in San Francisco, where the artificial intelligence company is headquartered.
Who are the 10 richest people in California?
According to Forbes, these were the 10 richest people in California in 2026, and how much they’re worth:
Larry Page: $278 billion net worthSergey Brin: $256 billionMark Zuckerberg: $212 billionJensen Huang: $199 billionEric Schmidt: $37.8 billionHenry Samueli: $33.8 billionJohn Tu: $32.2 billionDavid Sun: $32.2 billionRobert Pera: $29.6 billionGreg Brockman: $25.5 billion
Who are the richest people in the United States?
In 2026, Forbes said, these were the 10 richest people in the nation:
Elon Musk: $908 billion net worthJeff Bezos: $378 billionLarry Page: $278 billionMichael Dell: $263 billionSergey Brin: $256 billionMark Zuckerberg: $212 billionLarry Ellison: $204 billionJensen Huang: $199 billionSteve Ballmer: $156 billionWarren Buffett: $144 billion
Alexiah Syrai Olsen
The Tribune
Alexiah Syrai Olsen is a service journalism reporter for The Tribune in San Luis Obispo, California. She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and design from The New School in New York City.
