These CA Billionaires Are Among The World's Richest: Forbes 2022 List

CALIFORNIA — The billionaires of the world are worth a whopping $12.7 trillion— even though their fortunes fell by more than $400 billion as sanctions target Russian oligarchs following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the pandemic continues to cause economic difficulties, according to the recently released Forbes World's Billionaires List.

California, the state of Silicon Valley and Hollywood, is home to a staggering 186 billionaires, more than any other U.S. state. (New York comes close, with 135, followed by Florida, with 78.) If California were an independent country, it would rank third in the world, behind the United States (724), and China (698.) It is the only U.S. state to come ahead of any other countries, beating out India (140) and Germany (136.)

More than 1,000 billionaires are richer than they were a year ago. And more than 200 people became billionaires over the past year as ordinary Americans grapple with record gas prices and rising food costs at the grocery store.

The number of billionaires on this year’s list slipped to 2,668 — 87 fewer than last year.

California’s top earners are likely the reason you found you were able to find your way to this article: Google founders Larry Page, with a net worth of $111 billion, and Sergey Brin, with a net worth of $107 billion. Page is the sixth richest person in the world, and Brin is seventh.

Both saw their wealth increase handsomely in the past year: in a state where the median annual salary is $78,672, Page increased his wealth by $19.5 billion since April 2021. Page made his money by selling shares of Google-parent Alphabet, whose stock rose by more than 26% in the past year, according to Forbes. Brin also sold shares in Alphabet, and saw his net worth increase by $18 billion since April 2021.

Mark Zuckerberg, whose company Meta has come under increasing scrutiny for its practices around data and hosting of misinformation, saw his net worth drop significantly due to tanking Meta stocks. In 2021, he was the third richest person on the Forbes list with a net worth $134.5 billion, ahead of Page and Brin. On the 2022 list, he is worth exactly half that, at $67.3 billion, and he has fallen to #15 on the list.

With titans like Elon Musk, Larry Ellison, and Jeff Bezos in other states, the next richest Californian is Eric Schmidt, at number 70 on the list.

The state's richest residents overwhelmingly live in Silicon Valley. The highest ranking Southern California resident is real estate magnate and Newport Beach resident Donald Bren, at #112 on the Forbes list, and seventh on the list of Californians. Of the top 20 richest Californians, 18 live in the Bay Area, and just two live in Southern California.

Below are the top 20 richest Californians:

To compile this year’s list, Forbes used a snapshot of its real-time billionaires rankings by analyzing stock prices and exchange rates for March 11.

The United States still leads the world with 735 billionaires worth a collective $4.7 trillion. This includes Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who tops the World’s Billionaires List for the first time.

Former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos fell to the second spot on this year’s list. Bezos, who founded the e-commerce giant out of his garage in Seattle, Washington, stepped down as CEO in 2021 and is now executive chairman of the company.

Meanwhile, France’s Bernard Arnault of LVMH remains at No. 3, followed by Bill Gates of Microsoft at No. 4. Rounding out this year’s top five is Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway.

U.S. billionaires could surrender more wealth should Congress pass a “Billionaire Minimum Tax” proposed in President Joe Biden’s fiscal year 2023 budget proposal.

Under the proposal, households worth more than $100 million would pay at least 20 percent in taxes on both income and “unrealized gains,” or the increase in an unsold investment’s value. Many wealthy people hold onto these investments for decades, meaning they’re never taxed, the administration said.

However, the bill’s prospects seem grim after Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin spoke out against it.

“You can’t tax something that’s not earned. Earned income is what we’re based on,” Manchin told The Hill. “There’s other ways to do it. Everybody has to pay their fair share.”

See the full 2022 Forbes Billionaires List.