The world can be divided into two groups which own equal amounts of wealth. The first group are 62 of the richest people in the world, while everyone rest is in the second group. No, really, 62 richest people in the world own as much health as the remaining 7 billion put together.
Today, however, we are not concerned with who the richest people in the world are, how much wealth they own and whether they are getting even richer or losing money. Today, we are looking at the cities with the largest billionaire populations.
According to the people from Forbes, there are just over 1,800 billionaires in the world (a bigger number than we expected) and they live in 67 countries around the world. But, which cities are the most attractive cities for billionaires? Attractive enough that they call them their homes?
More importantly, did any American cities make the list?
The Forbes folks collated a list of 25 cities with the most billionaires, and we’ve got two U.S. cities that open the list at #25, together with Geneva, Switzerland. Namely, Palo Alto, Chicago and Geneva are all home to 13 billionaires each. Geneva and (to an extent) Chicago are Old Money, while Palo Alto is as New Money as they come. The startup and tech mecca of Palo Alto boasts a billionaire population worth almost $125 billion together. Of course, the biggest portion of this wealth belongs to Mark Zuckerberg who is valued at $44.6 billion. In Chicago, the richest person is the founder of hedge fund firm Citadel, Ken Griffin whose wealth is valued at $7.5 billion.
The next U.S. city is Dallas, Texas which shares the 18th spot with Guangzhou, China. Dallas is home to 16 billionaires according to Forbes and between them, the 16 richest Dallas residents have assets valued at $51 billion. The richest person in Big D is a real character by the name Andrew Beal, a college dropout who is worth almost ten billion. He made his money buying up distressed assets during the Financial Crisis and the ensuing depression. Andrew is also in the record books for the largest real estate purchase ever in Dallas, spending $100 million on a 25-acre estate.
Los Angeles is the next U.S. city on the list, sharing the 14th spot with Taipei. Twenty billionaires call Los Angeles their home and the richest among them isPatrick Soon-Shiong. Patrick made his money in the medical research field where he headed some of the most successful bioresearch companies in history. His net worth is valued at around $11.8 billion while his group is valued at around $70 billion.
We have to move up to spot #10 to find the next American city, San Francisco, with 28 billionaires of its own. Together, they are worth $74.5 billion and the richest among them is Dustin Moskovitz with new worth of $8.9 billion. Out of 28 San Fran billionaires, 16 made their money in tech. Moskovitz is one of those 16, making the biggest share of his wealth thanks to his stake in Facebook. He also happens to be the CEO of Asana.
The only other American city on the list is New York City, of course, which also happens to be the most popular city for billionaires. NYC is home to 79 billionaires whose combined net worth is a staggering $364.6 billion. The richest of them is former mayor Michael Bloomberg with net worth of $43.7 billion. Bloomberg made his money as the founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P., a position he left when he became mayor of New York and to which he return once his three terms ended.
In case you wondered about the other cities that made it, here is the complete list.
#1 New York City – 79 billionaires
#2 Hong Kong – 68 billionaires
#3 Moscow – 60 billionaires
#4 Beijing – 51 billionaires
#5 London – 48 billionaires
#6 Mumbai – 32 billionaires
#7 Shanghai – 31 billionaires
#8 (Tie) Seoul and Shenzhen – 30 billionaires
#10 San Francisco – 28 billionaires
#11 Istanbul – 26 billionaires
#12 Paris – 22 billionaires
#13 Singapore – 21 billionaires
#14 (Tie) Los Angeles and Taipei – 20 billionaires
#16 Tokyo – 18 billionaires
#17 Hangzhou – 17 billionaires
#18 (Tie) Dallas and Guangzhou – 16 billionaires
#20 Milan – 15 billionaires
#21 (Tie) Bangkok, Dubai, Delhi and Sao Paulo – 14 billionaires
#25 (Tie) Chicago, Geneva and Palo Alto – 13 billionaires
