Business & Tech
15 Billionaires In Illinois Are On Forbes 400 List of Ultra Wealthy
Hedge fund giant Ken Griffin and his $30.8 billion again topped the list of the wealthiest Illinoisans, which includes Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
ILLINOIS — For the first time since the Great Recession, the 400 richest Americans didn’t get wealthier this year, according to the 2022 Forbes 400, which includes 10 of the 15 billionaires who live in Illinois.
As a group, the net worth of super-rich Americans was down $500 billion, or 11 percent, to $4 trillion, Forbes said. The Forbes list is based on stock prices from Sept. 2.
However, in Illinois, five of the 15 billionaires calling the Land of Lincoln home saw their wealth increase. That list was topped by hedge fund giant Ken Griffin, who again topped the list of wealthiest Illinoisans at $30.8 billion.
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Griffin, who announced earlier this year he was pulling his Citadel company’s corporate headquarters out of Chicago, ranked as the 21st wealthiest person in the U.S.
In Illinois, the wealthiest people include:
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- Ken Griffin, $30.8 billion, hedge funds
- Lukas Walton, $20.5 billion, Walmart
- Patrick Ryan, $8.5 billion, insurance
- Neil Bluhm, $6.2 billion, real estate
- Sam Zell, $5.3 billion, real estate, private equity
- Mark Walter, $5.2 billion, Finance
- Joe Mansueto, $5 billion, investment research
- Thomas Pritzker, $4.7 billion, hotels, investments
- Joseph Grendys, $4.2 billion, poultry processing
- Ty Warner, $4.1 million, plush toys, real estate
- Elizabeth Uihlein, $3.9 billion, packaging materials
- Richard Uihlein, $3.9 billion, packaging materials
- Eric Lefkofksy, $3.8 billion, Groupon, investments
- J.B. Pritzker, $3.6 billion, hotels, investments
- Steven Sarowitz, $3.3 billion, payroll software
Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein were the only new additions to this year’s list of Illinois billionaires. In addition to Griffin, Walton, Ryan, Grendys and Thomas Pritzker, they saw their net worth grow over the past year.
“The rich don’t always get richer,” Chase Peterson-Withorn, Forbes’ deputy wealth editor said, noting that like many Americans, the wealthiest 400 people in the country are feeling the stock market slowdown.
“But they’re doing just fine,” he said. As a group, they are $1 trillion richer than they were in 2019 before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Elon Musk, who co-founded six companies, including electric carmaker Tesla and rocket producer Space X, topped the real-time list of super-rich Americans for the first time with a real-time net worth Thursday of $263.2 billion. That’s up from $251 billion from Sept. 2.
He unseated Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who had topped the list for four years. Bezos’ real-time net worth is $141.4 billion, down from $151 billion when the list was compiled.
Facebook founder and Meta Platforms co-founder Mark Zuckerberg was knocked out of the top 10, coming in at No. 11, down from No. 3 last year. His real-time net worth Thursday was $51.2 billion, down from $57.7 billion when the list was released.
Forbes said Zuckerberg has lost more than half of his fortune, $76.8 billion, since September 2021. No one on the Forbes 400 lost more money in the past year than Zuckerberg, the financial news outlet said.
Former president Donald Trump returned to the list after falling out of the ranking in 2021. Forbes lists his real-time net worth at $3.2 billion. Of note, Forbes noted, New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing Trump, three of his children, and the Trump Organization for $250 million, claiming they had repeatedly and grossly inflated the value of his properties to obtain loans.
The other eight billionaires in the Top 10 and their real-time wealth Thursday are:
No. 3: Bill Gates, Microsoft founder and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation co-founder, $103 billion.
No. 4: Larry Elison, Oracle founder and CTO, $89.9 billion.
No. 5: Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway CEO, $95 billion.
No. 6: Larry Page, Google co-founder and board member, $86.6 billion.
No. 7: Sergey Brin, Google co-founder and board member, $83.1 billion.
No. 8: Steve Ballmer, Los Angeles Clippers owner, $78.8 billion.
No. 9: Michael Bloomberg, Bloomberg LP CEO, $76.8 billion.
No. 10: Jim Walton, Arvest Bank Group Inc. chairman and CEO, $57.9 billion.
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