Billionaires earn money from various things, including selling roofing materials to creating energy drinks. However, specific sectors tend to be more likely to land people in The Forbes 400 ranking of the top 1% of Americans. Therefore, Forbes looked over this year’s list of orders to identify the areas within which Forbes 400’s members made their fortunes.
The most effective way to make money? Investments and finance. Over 25% of the most wealthy people in America made their money through this sector, which comprises the private equity industry, hedge funds, and money management. That’s right, making money for other people can pay very well. The 103 investment and finance billionaires included on the list are the classics like Warren Buffett and Carl Icahn and younger billionaires like the CEO of private equity Ramzi Musallam and Susquehanna International Group founder Jeff Yass. The most recent group of financial giants: the crypto billionaires. Bitcoin soared to new heights, and crypto expanded into mainstream finance. The list of billionaires has seen six new names on the list are credited with crypto for their success and include Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and 29-year-old Sam Bankman-Fried. Technology is another factor.
The tech industry has not impacted the Forbes 400 rankings quite like technology over the last decade. One-fifth of the wealthiest people in America have made their fortunes in technology, up from just 8.5 percent in 2009. 7 of the top 10 on the list come from technology, including Amazon, Jeff Bezos, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. the 11 tech-related billionaires have joined the ranks this year. George Kurtz built his $4.1 billion fortune through his efforts to track down the world’s hackers through his cybersecurity company Crowdstrike. Pinterest cofounders Ben Silbermann and Paul Sciarra made a list following the fact that the social network has seen its shares rise 107% after it was first listed in the year 2019 (Forbes utilized share prices as of September 3, 2021, to create the Forbes 400 list for this year’s.)
Selling the things we need like food and clothing is also a good business if you can achieve it on an enormous scale. Thirty-eight billionaires have made it rich in the food and beverage industry, the third most sought-after industry for Forbes 400 members. Dan Cathy, Bubba Cathy, Trudy Cathy White, and Little Caesar’s Pizza co-founder Marian Ilitch, the Chick-fil-A heirs. Fashion and retail are the next and are run by the Waltons as the heirs of the Wal-Mart fortune. They also have fresh comer Gary Friedman, CEO of Restoration Hardware.
Here are the sectors with the highest Forbes 400 members (net worths were at September 3, 2021):
Finance and Investments
103 billionaires
25.75 percent of the list
Total net worth: $846.9 billion
The richest: Warren Buffett $102 billion
Technology
80 billionaires
20 percent of the list
The net worth of the collective: $1.6 trillion
The richest: Jeff Bezos’s $201 billion
Food and Drink
38 billionaires
9.5 percent of the list
Total net worth: $242.2 billion
The richest: Jaqueline Marqueline $31.8 billion, and John Mars $31.8 billion
Fashion and Retail
31 billionaires
7.75 percent of the list
The net worth of the collective: $477.6 billion
The richest: Jim Walton $68.8 billion, Alice and Rob Walton
Media and Entertainment
26 billionaires
6.5 percent of the list
Total net worth: $254.6 billion
The richest: Michael Bloomberg $70 billion
Real estate
24 billionaires
The list is 6%.
The net worth of the collective: $122.4 billion
The most prosperous is: Don Bren $16.2 billion
Energy
17 billionaires
4.25 percent of the list
The net worth of the collective $97 billion
The richest of them all is Harold Hamm, $11.4 billion.
Manufacturing
16 billionaires
4.4% of the list
The net worth of the collective: $84.6 billion
The richest: Steven Rales $10.1 billion
Healthcare
15 billionaires
3.75 percent of the list
The net worth of the group: $109.2 billion
The richest: Thomas Frist $20.8 billion
Sports
13 billionaires
3.25 percentage of the list
The net worth of the group: $71.2 billion
The richest: Stanley Kroenke $10.7 billion
