These CA Billionaires Made Forbes New 'Richest In 2023' List

CALIFORNIA — Those on the world’s billionaires list, which is dominated by Golden State residents, aren’t as flush as they were a year ago but are collectively still worth $12.2 trillion, Forbes said with the release of its annual list.

That’s down from $12.7 trillion last year. Nearly half of the list is less wealthy than a year ago, including Elon Musk, who lost his No.1 spot after shares in Tesla fell when he bought Twitter. Musk is now No.2 on the list and was worth $192.8 billion Wednesday morning after having made about $12.8 billion since Tuesday.

Twenty-eight people fell off the list altogether, with the number of people with 10-figure fortunes now at 2,640. The United States has the most billionaires of any country — 735 people collectively worth $4.5 trillion. Overall, Forbes attributed the loss of wealth to falling stock markets, especially in the technology sector and to rising interest rates.

To calculate net worth, Forbes used stock prices and exchange rates from March 10 to determine the ranking, but the list updates wealth in real-time.

There are over 180 people on Forbes' list who are California residents, with big names such as Kim Kardashian (net worth, $1.2B), Oprah Winfrey (net worth, $2.5B) and George Lucas (net worth, $5B) not even ranking among the top ten richest people in the Golden State.

Other big names from California that slipped on this year's list are Rihanna (net worth, $1.4B) and Kanye West. West dropped off the list altogether, losing his billionaire status — which was $2B in 2022, according to Forbes. His fortune is now valued at $398 million.

Here are the top ten richest billionaires who reside in California:

• Larry Page - Co-founder of Google - Net worth $79.2 billion
• Sergey Brin - Co-founder of Google - Net worth $76 billion
• Mark Zuckerberg - Creator of Facebook - Net worth $64.4 billion
• Jensen Huang - Founder of NVIDIA - Net worth $21`.1 billion
• Donald Bren - Real estate baron - Net worth $17.4 billion
• Eric Schmidt - Former CEO of Google - Net worth $16.2 billion
• Robert Pera - CEO of Ubiquiti Networks - Net worth $15.5 billion
• Jan Koum - Co-founder of WhatsApp - Net worth $13.7 billion
• Laurene Powell-Jobs & Family - Most known for Apple and Disney - Net worth $12 billion
• Marijke Mars - Heir to Mars Inc. - Net worth $9.6 billion

With Musk’s slip from the No. 1 position, Bernard Arnault, who heads luxury goods giant LVMH, tops the list as the richest person in the world. It’s the first time a citizen of France has led the ranking, which includes seven U.S. billionaires in the top 10. Besides Musk, they are (net worth is reflected as of Wednesday and may not align exactly with their placement on the list):

• Jeff Bezos, Amazon, worth $126.9 billion;
• Larry Ellison, Oracle, worth $118.9 billion;
• Bill Gates, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, worth $109.9 billion;
• Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, worth $107.4 billion;
• Michael Bloomberg, Bloomberg Inc., worth $95.4 billion; and
• Steve Balmer, Microsoft, worth $90.1 billion.