Los Angeles is an enormous city both in landmass and population. The City of Los Angeles is 503 square miles, with four million people. The County of Los Angeles is 4,753 square miles with more than 10 million people. Of those 10 million people, 49 residents of the County of Los Angeles are billionaires. And despite the global pandemic and the shutdown of businesses across the county, the billionaires of Los Angeles (and the U.S. as a whole) are doing very well. Just since mid-March when the shutdown started their net worths have grown by 20%. The rich are, quite literally getting richer. The poorest of the City of Angels’ billionaires are worth $1 billion. Elon Musk, with the incredible surge in his net worth this year, is the wealthiest Angelino, with a net worth of $96 billion as of this writing
Biotech and technology are the industries L.A.’s billionaires are most likely to belong to. Biotech billionaires in particular have seen their fortunes rise due to the coronavirus pandemic, including Patrick Soon-Shiong. Another industry that is doing right by L.A. billionaires is private equity, which includes Tom Gores and Antony Ressler.
Marijke Mars is a new to L.A. billionaire. She is an heiress to the Mars, Inc. food empire. Billionaires that dropped off the list last year and returned to it this year include Cargill heiress Sarah MacMillan, businessman Bassam Alghanim, and Donald Friese.
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Billionaires that left the list this year include Sumner Redstone, who passed away in August, and Public Storage’s Tamara Hughes Gustavson who sold her Malibu home and moved to her horse farm in Kentucky. Arthur Levine and Lauren Leichtman, the husband and wife team who ran Levine and Leichtman Capital Partners also moved out of town. Finally, Ric Kayne moved to New Zealand.
Everyone on this list must live in Los Angeles County.
#46. Jeffrey Gundlach – $1 billion
#46. Michael Eisner – $1 billion
#45. Donald Friese – $1.2 billion
#44. George Joseph – $1.4 billion
#43. Gary Karlin Michelson – $1.5 billion
#41. Aubrey Chernick – $1.6 billion
#41. Bassam Alghanim – $1.6 billion
#39. Sarah MacMillan – $1.7 billion
#39. Vera Guerin – $1.7 billion
#38. Charlie Munger – $1.75 billion
#37. Ray Irani – $1.8 billion
#35. Gary Winnick – $1.9 billion
#35. John Shea (not the actor) – $1.9 billion
#33. Nicolas Berggruen – $2 billion
#33. Alec Gores – $2 billion
#31. Don Hankey – $2.1 billion
#31. Marc Nathanson $2.1 billion
#30. Bruce Karsh – $2.2 billion
#29. Robert Day – $2.4 billion
#28. Lowell Milken – $2.6 billion
#27. Tom Gores – $2.9 billion
#23. Neil Kadisha – $3 billion
#23. Antony Ressler – $3 billion
#23. David Murdock – $3 billion
#23. Sean Parker – $3 billion
#22. Peter Thiel – $3.3 billion
#20. Anthony Pritzker – $3.4 billion
#20. Haim Saban – $3.4 billion
#19. Lynsi Snyder – $3.6 billion
#16. Steven Spielberg – $3.7 billion
#16. Steven Udvar Hazy – $3.7 billion
#16. Michael Milken – $3.7 billion
#14. Jeffrey Skoll – $3.8 billion
#14. Donald and Rochelle Sterling – $3.8 billion
#12. Rick Caruso -$4 billion
#12. Travis Kalanick – $4 billion
#11. Bobby Murphy – $4.2 billion
#9. Evan Spiegel – $4.5 billion
#9. Eric Smidt – $4.5 billion
#8. Stewart and Lynda Resnick – $5 billion
#7. Edward Roski, Jr. – $5.8 billion
#6. Marijke Mars – $6 billion
#5. John Tu – $7.1 billion
#4. Eli Broad – $7.2 billion
#3. David Geffen – $8 billion
#2. Patrick Soon-Shiong – $15.5 billion
#1. Elon Musk – $96 billion
