14 Billionaires From IL Make New List Of World's Richest

Illinois billionaire Lukas Walton ranks 39th among the world's richest billionaires in a new list released by Forbes on Tuesday. He is one of 14 billionaires from the list living in the state.

Elon Musk, whose fortune has soared to an unprecedented $839 billion, remains at the top of the hierarchy of The Richest People in the World. Both wealth and membership in the exclusive club hit all-time highs in 2026, underscoring the intensifying concentration of global economic power among the ultra‑rich, Forbes said.

Lukas Walton, the richest of Illinois' 15 billionaires on the list, is the grandson of Walmart founder Sam Walton. The 39-year-old is worth $48.9 billion, according to Forbes.

Others on the list are (listed with their U.S. ranking):

• Ranked No. 422 — Neil Bluhm, 88 years old (net worth of $8.4 billion), owner of marquee Chicago properties like 900 North Michigan and the Ritz-Carlton Chicago.
• Ranked No. 461 — Patrick Ryan, 88 years old (net worth of $7.9 billion), founder and executive chairman of Chicago-based Ryan Specialty Holdings, a wholesale brokerage and specialty insurance firm.
• Ranked No. 557 — Ty Warner, 81 years old (net worth of $71 billion), creator of Beanie Babies, the plush toy fad of the 1990s.
• Ranked No. 598 — Mark Walter, 65 years old (net worth of $7.3 billion), CEO of investment firm Guggenheim Partners, which has more than $300 billion in assets under management.
• Ranked No. 677 — Thomas Pritzker, 75 years old (net worth of $6.2 billion), one of 13 billionaire heirs in the Pritzker clan behind hotel giant Hyatt
• Ranked No. 806 — Joseph Grendys, 64 years old (net worth of $5.3 billion), runs Koch Foods, a poultry processor that slaughters, ships and sells chicken under its own brands and through private label products.
• Ranked No. 852 — Eric Lefkofsky, 56 years old (net worth of $5 billion), made his fortune from the daily deals site Groupon, which he founded in 2008 with Andrew Mason and longtime business partner Brad Keywell.
• Ranked No. 891 — Joe Mansueto, 69 years old (net worth of $4.8 billion), started independent investment research firm Morningstar in 1984 with $80,000 in savings
• Ranked No. 984 — Penny Pritzker, 66 years old (net worth of $4.3 billion), investor and one of 11 billionaire heirs to the Pritzker fortune that stems from Hyatt hotels.
• Ranked 1,108 — JB Pritzker, 61 years old (net worth of $3.9 billion), governor of Illinois and heir to the Hyatt Hotels Corporation fortune.
• Ranked No. 1,676 — Jennifer Pritzker, 75 years old (net worth of $2.5 billion), one of 13 billionaire heirs in the Chicago-based Pritzker clan.
• Ranked No. 1,676 — Michael Polsky, 77 years old (net worth of $2.5 billion), founded Chicago-based Invenergy, one of the nation's biggest developers of renewable energy projects, 33 gigawatts so far.
• Ranked No. 2,177 — Matthew Roszak, 53 years old (net worth of $1.9 billion), cryptocurrency investor and cofounder and chairman of Bloq, a blockchain startup that consults on projects such as helping banks store digital assets.

U.S. billionaires dominate the ranking, with 989 people on the list, followed by China (including Hong Kong) with 610, and India in third place with 229 billionaires. Overall, billionaires from 80 countries and territories made the list. Self‑made entrepreneurs account for about 67 percent of the roster, though a large share of wealth is still inherited.

Behind Musk, whose fortune was fueled by gains in Tesla, SpaceX and associated tech ventures, are other U.S. tech magnates: Google co‑founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin occupy the second and third spots with estimated net worths of $257 billion and $237 billion, respectively, followed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ($224 billion) and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg ($222 billion).

A prominent theme in this year’s list is the explosive rise of wealth tied to artificial intelligence. At least 86 members of the so‑called “centibillionaire club” (those worth $100 billion or more) owe their fortunes in significant part to AI enterprises. Forty‑two of these individuals became billionaires for the first time in 2026, reflecting how rapid innovation and investment in AI are reshaping wealth creation globally.

The new cohort of billionaires includes a record 35 under-30 billionaires, including newcomers Surya Midha, Brendan Foody, and Adarsh Hiremath, the trio behind AI recruiting startup Mercor, based in San Francisco. The youngest self-made billionaires ever to make the list, they are each 22 years old, and worth $2.2 billion — or, as Forbes put it, “$100 million for every year they’ve been alive.”

Women remain underrepresented on the billionaire list, accounting for only 14 percent of all billionaires — a slight increase from the previous year. Among them, Alice Walton remains the richest woman in the world, with an estimated net worth of $134 billion.