SpaceX and Tesla cofounder Elon Musk has topped Forbes' list as the wealthiest person in America for the third time. Musk is one of seven Austin billionaires who have made the newForbes 400, a list of the 400 richest people in the United States for 2024.
Forbes estimates Musk's net worth in 2024 as $244 billion, which is $7 billion less than his estimated net worth last year. Musk, 53, is the cofounder of seven companies, including SpaceX, xAI, The Boring Company, among others. He serves as the CEO of Tesla, which is headquartered in Austin.
In 2022, Musk famously acquired Twitter in a $44 billion deal.
"Forbes estimates that the social media company, which he renamed X, is worth nearly 70 percent less as of August 2024.," Forbes wrote in Musk's profile.
Most recently, court filings revealed Musk shifted his plans to relocate X's headquarters from San Francisco to Bastrop, a city 30 miles southeast of Austin. He originally stated he would be moving the company's headquarters to Austin in July 2024, after California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a new law that barred school districts from requiring staff to notify parents of their child’s gender identification change.
Meanwhile, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell is Austin's second-richest resident, with his net worth estimated at $101 billion in 2024. He ranked No. 12 on Forbes' list of richest Americans, which is an 11-place increase from his No. 23 rank in 2023.
The Forbes 400list, released October 1, is a definitive ranking of the wealthiest Americans, using interviews, financial data, and documentation provided by billionaires and their companies.
According to the report, America's elite class is now worth $5.4 trillion collectively, which is a $1 trillion jump since 2023.
“The Forbes 400 is richer than ever, and it’s harder than ever to be one of the 400 richest people in America," said Forbes senior editor Chase Peterson-Withorn in a press release.
In all, 43 Texas billionaires made the list.
Other Austin-area billionaires that made Forbes 2023 world’s richest list are:
- Venture capitalist Robert F. Smith: tied for No. 88 with an estimated net worth of $10.8 billion, up from $8 billion in 2023
- Airbnb cofounder Joe Gebbia: tied for No. 158, $7.5 billion, down from 7.6 billion
- Tech entrepreneur Thai Lee: tied for No. 169, $7 billion, up from $4.8 billion
- Software investor Joseph Liemandt: tied for No. 210, $6.2 billion, up from $4.5 billion
- Tito's Vodka baron Bert Beveridge: tied for No. 230, $5.7 billion, up from $4.6 billion
Three local billionaires are missing from the list in 2024: Patrón Spirits founder
John Paul DeJoria, whose real-time net worth is $3 billion as of October 1; finance chief executive
David Booth, whose net worth is estimated at $2.3 billion, up from $1.7 billion last year; and
Hayes Barnard, the co-founder and CEO of eco-friendly home solutions marketplace GoodLeap. Barnard's real-time net worth is estimated at $3.3 billion.
Find all the Texans on the new Forbes 400 list here.