Eight local billionaires have landed on Forbes' prestigious list of the 400 richest Americans in 2025, with Elon Musk and Michael Dell leading the pack in Austin. It's been a fruitful year for this elite club: America's wealthiest billionaires are $1.2 trillion richer in 2025, bringing their collective worth to a staggering $6.6 trillion.
The annual Forbes 400 list is a definitive ranking of the wealthiest Americans, using interviews, financial data, and documentation provided by billionaires and their companies.
"It’s been a year unlike any we’ve seen in the four decades we’ve tracked America’s billionaire class,” said Forbes senior editor Chase Peterson-Withorn in a press release. "The super-rich at the very top are richer than ever — and between the White House and the booming stock market, they’re as powerful as they’ve ever been."
Unsurprisingly, the richest person in America in 2025 is Elon Musk. Musk, 54, saw his net worth skyrocket to $428 billion this year, or $184 billion more than his 2024 net worth. He claimed the No. 1 spot in the U.S. for the fourth time. Earlier this year, he reclaimed the title as the world's richest billionaire.
Elon Musk is Texas' richest man, and the richest person in the world. cdn.britannica.com
Dell Technologies CEO and chairman Michael Dell, 60, is Austin's second-richest billionaire, and the 10th richest person in the U.S. Forbes estimates his net worth at $97.7 billion this year, up from $91 billion in 2024. His wealth has nearly doubled since 2023, when his net worth was $50.1 billion.
Returning to the Forbes 400 list for the first time since 2021 is venture capitalist Jim Breyer, who was one of the first investors in Facebook. Breyer, 64, founded his own global venture capital firm, Breyer Capital, in 2006, which "bet[s] on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency," according to Forbes.
"He has invested in over 40 companies that have had successful IPOs or mergers, and is the second largest individual shareholder of stablecoin firm Circle, which went public in June 2025," Forbes wrote in his profile. "Breyer is a trustee of the American Film Institute in Los Angeles and SFMOMA in San Francisco and a board member of investment firm Blackstone."
The publication estimates Breyer's net worth at $3.8 billion in 2025, and he ties with multiple other Texas-based billionaires as the 389th richest person in America. When he last appeared on the list four years ago, he had a $2.9 billion net worth.
Other Austin-area billionaires that made Forbes 2024 America's richest list are:
- Venture capitalist Robert F. Smith: tied for No. 123 nationally with an estimated net worth of $10 billion. Last year: $10.8 billion
- Airbnb cofounder Joe Gebbia: ranks No. 158 nationally with an estimated net worth of $8 billion. Last year: $7.5 billion.
- Tech entrepreneur Thai Lee: tied for No. 192 nationally with an estimated net worth of $7.5 billion. Last year: $7 billion.
- Software investor Joseph Liemandt: ranks 210th nationally with an estimated net worth of $6.6 billion. Last year: $6.2 billion.
- Tito's Vodka baron Bert Beveridge: ranks 270th nationally with an estimated net worth of $5.6 billion. Last year: $5.7 billion.
Richest Texans
In all, 43 billionaires across Texas made it on the 2025 Forbes 400 list.
Fort Worth's Walmart heiress Alice Walton is the richest woman in America, and the richest billionaire in all of Dallas-Fort Worth. She simultaneously holds the title as the richest woman in the world.
Walton's estimated net worth has risen to $106 billion this year, up from her 2024 net worth of $89.2 billion. Forbes says she is the first female centibillionaire (a person with a 12-digit fortune) in America. Now that's wealth.
"Tariffs. Inflation. Slowing employment. None of it has hit the fortunes of America’s billionaires," Forbes said. "A decade ago, when it took $1.7 billion to make The Forbes 400, a net worth of $3.8 billion was comfortably within the top half of the ranking — now that lofty sum is the minimum required."
