Forbes' 400 Richest Americans Call California Home

Story courtesy of California Watch.

By Agustin Armendariz

The Golden State boasts the most billionaires living within its borders among all U.S. states, according to calculations by Forbes to determine the 400 richest Americans.

Of course, if you control for population, Wyoming, Montana, New York, Connecticut and Nevada all have a higher per-capita concentration of billionaires. But California has a couple of billionaires for every million people living in the state.

Oracle co-founder and CEO Larry Ellison is the richest Californian, with a net worth of $33 billion, and the third-richest American behind Bill Gates ($59 billion) and Warren Buffett ($39 billion).

The vast majority of California's billionaires are older than 50, but two are still in their 20s and work at Facebook. With a net worth of $17.5 billion, 27-year-old Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is the second-richest Californian and 14th-richest American, according to Forbes. Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz is also 27, and Forbes estimates his net worth at $3.5 billion.

Googlers Larry Page and Sergey Brin are both 38, among the youngest billionaires, and rank just behind Zuckerberg. They are tied for third-richest Californian and 15th-richest American.

Nationwide, eight out of every nine billionaires on the list is older than 50. For the full list, visit www.forbes.com/forbes-400.

Agustin Armendariz is an investigative reporter for California Watch, a project of the non-profit Center for Investigative reporting. Find more California Watch stories here.