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Apr 14, 2021,06:30am EDT|19,076 views
These 10 Colleges Have Produced The Most Billionaire Alumni
Mukesh Ambani, Elon Musk and Mackenzie Scott
T
American universities dominate, but it’s not all Ivy Leaguers on the 2021 World’s Billionaires list.
The 2,755 people on Forbes’ 2021 World’s Billionaires list received their undergraduate degrees all over the world, from Al-Azhar University in Egypt to the Zhejiang University of Technology in China. Hundreds did not attend college at all, or left before obtaining a diploma, including a pair of Harvard dropouts who are among the five richest people in the world: Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.
But among the billionaires who completed their undergraduate education, a few schools stand out. Harvard leads the way, with at least 29 billionaire alumni on the Forbes list. (We found information about the undergraduate education of a majority, but not all, of the list members.) Four other Ivy League universities make the top ten. Nine of these ten schools are located in the United States—MIT and a trio of California schools round out the American colleges—although their alumni hold diverse citizenship, from Colombia to Ireland to the Philippines. The lone non-U.S. school? The University of Mumbai, a public university in India that is one of the largest colleges in the world by enrollment. Just missing the cut are South Korea’s Seoul National University and China’s Tsinghua University.
Here are the ten colleges with the most billionaire undergraduate alumni, based on education data collected by Forbes; net worths are as of March 5, 2021.
#1 | Harvard University
29 BILLIONAIRES
LOCATION: CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
TOTAL NET WORTH: $207 BILLION
Harvard University
Getty Images
Harvard Yard served as stomping grounds for the highest number of billionaire graduates of any school. Of its 29 billionaires, 17 amassed their fortunes in the finance and investment industry, including the college’s three newcomers to the World’s Billionaires list: Bitcoin twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. But Harvard’s two richest undergraduate alumni hail from other sectors. Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer’s $68.7 billion fortune stems from his time at the helm of Microsoft, while Brazilian investment banker Jorge Paulo Lemann owes his $16.9 billion net worth to smart dealmaking in the food and beverage industry—his firm’s portfolio includes stakes in Anheuser-Busch InBev and Kraft Heinz.
#2 (tie) | University of Pennsylvania
28 BILLIONAIRES
LOCATION: PHILADELPHIA
TOTAL NET WORTH: $284.8 BILLION
More than half of Penn’s billionaire alumni received their undergraduate degrees from the famed Wharton School. The Philadelphia institution was a launching pad for two of today’s noisiest billionaires: former president Donald Trump and Elon Musk, whose stakes in Tesla and SpaceX helped him rise to the number two spot on the World’s Billionaires list. The university’s two new billionaires this year are Lance Gokongwei, the CEO of Filipino conglomerate JG Summit, and venture capitalist Gary Lauder, whose fortune stems from cosmetics empire Estée Lauder, which his grandmother founded. Philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, who graduated in 1985, is set to speak at the university’s commencement ceremony in May.
#2 (tie) | Stanford University
28 BILLIONAIRES
LOCATION: STANFORD, CALIFORNIA
TOTAL NET WORTH: $124.4 BILLION
A breeding ground for startups, Stanford is the alma mater of more newly minted billionaires this year than any other school. The school’s eight newcomers comprise the founders of Carvana, DoorDash, Nubank, Robinhood and Zillow—all technology or tech-adjacent companies. They include Colombian David Velez, who built Nubank into the most valuable digital bank in the world, as well as Baiju Bhatt and Bulgaria-born Vlad Tenev, whose no-commission trading platform Robinhood was at the center of the GameStop short squeeze in January and February. Another Stanford grad, Yahoo cofounder Jerry Yang, was elected to chair the university’s board of trustees and will begin his term later this year.
#4 | Yale University
21 BILLIONAIRES
LOCATION: NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
TOTAL NET WORTH: $140.8 BILLION
Yale’s undergraduate alumni include candy heirs John, Valerie and Victoria Mars, as well as oil heirs Lee, Edward, Robert and Sid Bass. In 2018, Edward Bass made a $160 million gift to the university to renovate its Peabody Museum. Other notable billionaires who graduated from the New Haven, Connecticut college include Alibaba cofounder and Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai and Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of investment firm Blackstone. Yale’s newest billionaire is Paul Sciarra, who crossed the 10-figure mark after shares in Pinterest, the image sharing app he cofounded in 2010, soared over the past year.
These 10 Colleges Have Produced The Most Billionaire Alumni
Mukesh Ambani, Elon Musk and Mackenzie Scott
T
American universities dominate, but it’s not all Ivy Leaguers on the 2021 World’s Billionaires list.
The 2,755 people on Forbes’ 2021 World’s Billionaires list received their undergraduate degrees all over the world, from Al-Azhar University in Egypt to the Zhejiang University of Technology in China. Hundreds did not attend college at all, or left before obtaining a diploma, including a pair of Harvard dropouts who are among the five richest people in the world: Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.
But among the billionaires who completed their undergraduate education, a few schools stand out. Harvard leads the way, with at least 29 billionaire alumni on the Forbes list. (We found information about the undergraduate education of a majority, but not all, of the list members.) Four other Ivy League universities make the top ten. Nine of these ten schools are located in the United States—MIT and a trio of California schools round out the American colleges—although their alumni hold diverse citizenship, from Colombia to Ireland to the Philippines. The lone non-U.S. school? The University of Mumbai, a public university in India that is one of the largest colleges in the world by enrollment. Just missing the cut are South Korea’s Seoul National University and China’s Tsinghua University.
Here are the ten colleges with the most billionaire undergraduate alumni, based on education data collected by Forbes; net worths are as of March 5, 2021.
#1 | Harvard University
29 BILLIONAIRES
LOCATION: CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
TOTAL NET WORTH: $207 BILLION
Harvard University
Getty Images
Harvard Yard served as stomping grounds for the highest number of billionaire graduates of any school. Of its 29 billionaires, 17 amassed their fortunes in the finance and investment industry, including the college’s three newcomers to the World’s Billionaires list: Bitcoin twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. But Harvard’s two richest undergraduate alumni hail from other sectors. Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer’s $68.7 billion fortune stems from his time at the helm of Microsoft, while Brazilian investment banker Jorge Paulo Lemann owes his $16.9 billion net worth to smart dealmaking in the food and beverage industry—his firm’s portfolio includes stakes in Anheuser-Busch InBev and Kraft Heinz.
#2 (tie) | University of Pennsylvania
28 BILLIONAIRES
LOCATION: PHILADELPHIA
TOTAL NET WORTH: $284.8 BILLION
More than half of Penn’s billionaire alumni received their undergraduate degrees from the famed Wharton School. The Philadelphia institution was a launching pad for two of today’s noisiest billionaires: former president Donald Trump and Elon Musk, whose stakes in Tesla and SpaceX helped him rise to the number two spot on the World’s Billionaires list. The university’s two new billionaires this year are Lance Gokongwei, the CEO of Filipino conglomerate JG Summit, and venture capitalist Gary Lauder, whose fortune stems from cosmetics empire Estée Lauder, which his grandmother founded. Philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, who graduated in 1985, is set to speak at the university’s commencement ceremony in May.
#2 (tie) | Stanford University
28 BILLIONAIRES
LOCATION: STANFORD, CALIFORNIA
TOTAL NET WORTH: $124.4 BILLION
A breeding ground for startups, Stanford is the alma mater of more newly minted billionaires this year than any other school. The school’s eight newcomers comprise the founders of Carvana, DoorDash, Nubank, Robinhood and Zillow—all technology or tech-adjacent companies. They include Colombian David Velez, who built Nubank into the most valuable digital bank in the world, as well as Baiju Bhatt and Bulgaria-born Vlad Tenev, whose no-commission trading platform Robinhood was at the center of the GameStop short squeeze in January and February. Another Stanford grad, Yahoo cofounder Jerry Yang, was elected to chair the university’s board of trustees and will begin his term later this year.
#4 | Yale University
21 BILLIONAIRES
LOCATION: NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
TOTAL NET WORTH: $140.8 BILLION
Yale’s undergraduate alumni include candy heirs John, Valerie and Victoria Mars, as well as oil heirs Lee, Edward, Robert and Sid Bass. In 2018, Edward Bass made a $160 million gift to the university to renovate its Peabody Museum. Other notable billionaires who graduated from the New Haven, Connecticut college include Alibaba cofounder and Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai and Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of investment firm Blackstone. Yale’s newest billionaire is Paul Sciarra, who crossed the 10-figure mark after shares in Pinterest, the image sharing app he cofounded in 2010, soared over the past year.
