ILLINOIS — Billionaire Lukas Walton is the wealthiest person in Illinois, according to The Forbes 400, an annual ranking of America’s super-rich released Tuesday.
Overall, the 400 richest billionaires in America are worth $4.5 trillion, tying a record set in 2021. Overall, they are about $500 billion richer than they were a year ago, in large part because of rebounding stock markets and an AI-driven tech boom, Forbes said.
Billionaires had to have a net worth of at least $2.9 billion to be included on the prestigious list, up from $2.7 billion a year ago. Forbes said its net worth calculations use stock prices from Sept. 8.
Walton, 37, the richest person in Illinois, is worth an estimated $24.2 billion. Walton, who is part of the Walmart family fortune, is ranked as the nation’s 37th wealthiest person, according to Forbes.
Other Illinois billionaires who made the cut:
Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, the owner of the social media platform X, tops the list for a second year with an estimated net worth of $251 billion — $90 billion richer than Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and No. 2 on the list, and $93 billion ahead of Oracle software development company founder Larry Ellison.
Forbes also tracked the charitable giving of every member of The Forbes 400 and scored each person on a scale of 1 (those who have given less than 1 percent of their wealth away so far) to 5 (those who have given at least 20 percent). The richest people in America are, so far, not all that generous. Two-thirds of them have given less than 5 percent of their wealth away so far; only 11 have donated 20 percent or more.
In Illinois, 11 of the 13 billionaires scored either 1 at 2 on Forbes’ philanthropy scale while J.B. and Penny Pritzker each scored a three on the scale, Forbes reported.
Read more about Forbes’ methodology.
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