Meet America’s Richest Immigrants In 2025

Forbes

A record 125 foreign-born U.S. citizens are billionaires living in the United States. They hail from 41 countries but became rich in America.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdurot/2025/07/09/americas-richest-immigrants-2025/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, America's Richest Immigrants 2025.

00:06Billionaire Steven Udvar-Hazy, who is 79 years old, immigrated to New York from Hungary as a child,

00:13packed boxes in a Manhattan warehouse for 30 cents an hour at age 14,

00:17and then later went on to create the airplane leasing industry.

00:21He says, quote,

00:22When you live in an oppressed, totalitarian country like I did, and you have no money,

00:27there's no sense of having a future where that life will get better, so you wonder if there's any hope left.

00:33Udvar-Hazy adds, quote,

00:35When you get out of that situation and come to America,

00:38you have a completely different value system than the people that are born here,

00:41who are used to their surroundings and all the conveniences, freedoms, and material things that are around us.

00:46So you start out from a different point, where you appreciate creating value,

00:50you appreciate people that are going to be helpful to you,

00:53and you're more prone to set goals and objectives,

00:55because you want to get away from that history and past as quickly as possible.

00:59The motivation level is just totally different than it is for a person that was born and raised here.

01:05Udvar-Hazy is one of the record 125 foreign-born American citizens on Forbes' Billionaires list,

01:12who currently live in the United States.

01:14That number is up by more than a third from our last tally of 92 in 2022.

01:20These immigrants hail from 41 countries and account for 14% of the country's nearly 903 comma fortunes.

01:28These American immigrants are worth a record $1.3 trillion combined

01:32and hold 18% of America's $7.2 trillion in total billionaire wealth.

01:37Three of the 10 richest people in America, and the world, are immigrants,

01:43including the world's wealthiest person, Elon Musk, who is 54 years old

01:48and who was born in South Africa and came to the U.S. via Canada as a college student.

01:54Musk is now worth an estimated $393.1 billion.

01:57Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who is 51 years old, is the second richest immigrant,

02:04with an estimated $139.7 billion fortune.

02:09Brin's family moved to the U.S. from Russia when he was 6 years old

02:12to escape the anti-Semitism they faced in their home country.

02:16America's third richest immigrant, NVIDIA co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang, who is 62 years old,

02:23was born in Taiwan, but moved to Thailand as a child with his family.

02:27When Huang was 9 years old, his parents sent him and his older brother to the U.S.

02:32to escape widespread social unrest in Thailand.

02:35Huang, who is worth an estimated $137.9 billion,

02:40is one of 11 billionaire immigrants from Taiwan, up from four in 2022.

02:46That's enough to tie Taiwan with Israel as the place with the second most billionaire immigrants

02:50on Forbes' 2025 list, and to give Taiwan bragging rights for having the biggest jump

02:56since we last looked at billionaire immigrants.

02:59Among the new faces from Taiwan are Huang's cousin and chip-making rival, AMD CEO Lisa Su.

03:06Su, who is 55 years old, is one of only 17 billionaire immigrants who are women, up from 10 in 2022.

03:15Another newcomer in the ranks is Iranian-born Maki Zanganay.

03:19The 54-year-old Zanganay says,

03:21quote,

03:22Being an immigrant is about seeking the best opportunities and learning to adapt to new environments

03:26while holding on to your core values.

03:30Zanganay first moved to the U.S. to work for a robotic surgery firm in 2002

03:34after running the company's European operations.

03:37She is now the co-CEO of biotech firm Summit Therapeutics,

03:42whose stock jumped nearly 200% in the past year,

03:44pushing Zanganay into the billionaire ranks thanks to the company's promising lung cancer drug candidate.

03:52India added the second-most immigrant billionaires to Forbes' list, with five more,

03:56and overtook Israel as the birthplace of the most billionaire immigrants.

04:01India now has 12, while Israel has 11.

04:03Newcomers from India include 53-year-old Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai,

04:0957-year-old Microsoft chief Satya Nadella,

04:13and 57-year-old Nikesh Arora,

04:15who has run cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks since 2018.

04:19While more than a quarter of America's three-comma club inherited their money,

04:2593% of immigrant billionaires are self-made.

04:28Nearly two-thirds of them got rich in either the tech sector,

04:32where 53 immigrants became billionaires,

04:34or in finance, where 28 became billionaires.

04:38For full coverage, and to see the whole list,

04:41check out Matt Duro's piece on Forbes.com.

04:45This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

04:48Thanks for tuning in.

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