From Miami’s “Billionaire Bunker” to San Francisco’s Bay Area, and just about everywhere in between, billionaires can be found across the country — except in a few select states.
Alaska, Delaware, and West Virginia are the only three states that are not home to a single billionaire, according to Forbes.
West Virginia may soon be taken off that list, if retired Intuit CEO Brad Smith — the state’s richest person — continues to see his net worth climb thanks to the financial software firm’s surging stock price. Smith has a net worth of about $900 million, according to Forbes.
Leonard Hyde, president of commercial real estate developer JL Properties, has a net worth of $400 million and lives in Anchorage, Alaska, making him and his family the richest people in the state.
And in Delaware, Elizabeth Snyder is the richest person, with a $900 million net worth. Her fortune comes from the waterproof fabric Gore-Tex, developed by her family’s Newark, Delaware-based business, W.L. Gore & Associates.
On the other hand, states like California, New York, and Florida have fierce competition for richest resident: California has 197 billionaires, New York has 139, and Florida is home to 107.
Florida has become a major draw for the 10-figures-and-up club — in part because it is a state with no capital gains tax. And, it recently became home to one of the world’s richest people.
Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos announced last November that he would be relocating from Seattle, where the company’s headquarters have been located since 1994, to his hometown of Miami to be closer to family and the operations of his aerospace company, Blue Origin. (The move could also save him hundreds of millions of dollars.)
He has reportedly already purchased three homes on the same Miami-area island, known as South Florida’s “Billionaire Bunker.” Bezos has a net worth of over $200 billion, according to Forbes.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk — who currently claims the title of the richest person in the U.S. with a $251 billion net worth — is the richest billionaire in Texas.
The electric vehicle manufacturer is headquartered in Austin, the city Musk calls home. The Boring Company and Neuralink, two other Musk-owned businesses, also have offices in Central Texas.
Musk made the move to the Lone Star state from California during the pandemic.
