These VA Billionaires Make New List Of World's Richest

Jacqueline Mars, the owner of candy maker Mars Inc., once again is among the world’s richest billionaires who live in Virginia, according to a new list released by Forbes on Tuesday.

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.

Mars, the richest Virginia billionaire on the list, owns an estimated one-third of Mars, the candy, food and pet care firm founded by her grandfather. She worked for the company for nearly 20 years and served on the board until 2016.

Mars is worth approximately $49.1 billion, according to Forbes. She is also the 38th richest person in the world.

A few other Virginians on the list are:

• Pamela Mars, $12.3 billion | Heir to her family's candy and pet care fortune (Mars Inc.)
• Bob Pender, $9.5 billion | Co-founder of liquified natural gas exporter Venture Global
• Daniel D'Aniello, $4.9 billion | Co-founder of private equity firm Carlyle Group
• Winifred J. Marquart, $4.8 billion | President of the Johnson Family Foundation, heir to the family-owned cleaning products company SC Johnson
• William Conway Jr., $4.2 billion | Co-founder of private equity firm Carlyle Group
• Steve Case, $2.4 billion | Co-founded investment firm Revolution
• Richard Fairbank, $1.6 billion | Chairman and CEO of Capital One Financial
• Sarah Humphreys Atkins, $1.2 billion | Heiress to the Galena, Kansas-based Tamko roofing fortune
• Sheila Johnson, $1.2 million | Co-founder of cable TV channel Black Entertainment Television, CEO of Salamander Hotel and Resorts
• Craig Abod, $1.1 million | Founder and owner of technology company Carahsoft

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.