Martine Rothblatt founded United Therapeutics to search for a cure for her daughter’s rare disease. The company’s shares skyrocketed in 2024, making her the new billionaire.
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Billionaires are booming. With the AI gold rush in full swing, celebrity and athlete profits soaring higher than ever and the stock market hitting record highs, Forbes has found numerous new billionaires in 2024. These new members of the three-comma club join more than 2,800 others on our list of real-time billionaires, with a combined worth of an impressive $15.4 trillion.
The youngest new billionaires in 2024 are Ed Craven ($1.3 billion) and Bijan Tehrani ($1.3 billion) – 28 and 30, respectively – from crypto-funded online casino Stake.com. The richest new faces are Marilyn Simons (estimated net worth: $31 billion) – the widow of hedge fund legend Jim Simons, who died in May at age 86 – and Lyndal Stephens Greth ($27.4 billion) , whose late father Autry Stephens (d. August) founded the oil and gas company Endeavor Energy Resources.
Techies pushing AI into the billionaire ranks this year include Brett Adcock, whose company Figure builds robots with the goal of entering the workforce, and Herald Chen of marketing software company AppLovin.
Others have become super-rich on everything from iron (Arnold Schwarzenegger), fashion (Aritzia founder Brian Hill) and sandwiches (Jersey Mike’s Subs founder Peter Cancro).
Here are some of the most notable members of the 2024 billionaire class: (Net worth as of December 19, 2024)
Peter Cancro
Source of Wealth: Jersey Mike’s Subs
Net worth: $5.6 billion
Age: 67
Citizenship: United States
The owner and CEO of the popular sandwich chain Jersey Mike’s got his start in 1971 at the age of 14 when he began working at Mike’s Subs in his hometown of Point Pleasant, New Jersey. Cancro bought the business three years later after taking out a loan, changed its name to Jersey Mike’s and began franchising throughout the United States in 1981. In November, he agreed to sell much of the fast-growing business to Blackstone at a reported $8 billion, including debt, but plans to retain a stake and stay on as chairman.
Ed Craven & Bijan Tehrani
Source of wealth: online casino
Combined net worth: $2.6 billion
Age: 28, 30
Citizenship: Australia, USA
Their company Stake.com is considered the largest crypto-based online casino in the world. The site, founded in 2017 by Craven and Tehrani, generated $2.6 billion in revenue last year, even though such gambling is either not legal or unavailable in the United States, the United Kingdom and much of Europe. They have put the Stake brand on Formula 1 cars, English Premier League jerseys and UFC octagons. After stake streams were banned on Twitch in late 2022, Craven and Tehrani launched Kick, their own streaming service. Between 2020 and 2022, Stake’s gross gaming revenue increased from $100 million to over $2 billion.
Herald Chen
Source of wealth: software
Net worth: $1.3 billion
Age: 54
Citizenship: United States
A KKR graduate, Chen joined AppLovin, a marketing software company that helps companies grow their apps, in 2019 ahead of its 2021 IPO. Chen served as the company’s president and chief financial officer before stepping down in 2023 and is the company’s fifth billionaire thanks to the slew of stock options he received during his tenure. AppLovin’s stock is up more than 700% this year.
Brett Adcock
Source of wealth: robots
Net worth: $1.5 billion
Age: 38
Citizenship: United States
Figure, Adcock’s robotics company, aims to introduce AI-powered humanoid machines – capable of performing countless tasks and communicating with humans – into the world of work. The company, backed by investors including Microsoft, Nvidia, Jeff Bezos and OpenAI, was valued at $2.6 billion in February. Combined with his roughly 50 percent stake in Figure and shares from a previous startup, he is now worth an estimated $1.5 billion.
Luis von Ahn
Source of wealth: Duolingo
Net worth: $1.2 billion
Age: 46
Citizenship: United States, Guatemala
Raised in Guatemala in a low-income family, von Ahn immigrated to the United States in 1996 to study mathematics at Duke University and then earned his doctorate. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. There he co-developed the CAPTCHA verification system that distinguishes humans from robots online, and sold it to Google in 2009 for an undisclosed sum before launching the language learning app Duolingo. Von Ahn took Duolingo public in 2021 and owns about 10% of the shares, which have risen more than 40% this year. His co-founder Severin Hacker is also a new billionaire.
Selcuk Bayraktar
Source of wealth: military drones
Net worth: $1.2 billion
Age: 45
Citizenship: Türkiye
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s son-in-law is profiting from the war in Ukraine through the manufacturer of unmanned military drones Baykar. Baykar was founded by his father in 1984 to produce parts for the Turkish auto industry. In 2022, Baykar reported revenue of $1.4 billion. In 2023, exports increased to $1.8 billion. It is a major seller of drones to Ukrainian troops. Bayraktar owns 52.5% of Baykar, is chairman of the board and chief technology officer. His brother Haluk, also a new billionaire, is CEO and owns the rest.
Peter Beck
Source of wealth: rockets
Net worth: 1.2 billion
Age: 47
Citizenship: New Zealand
The New Zealander’s rocket company, Rocket Lab USA, develops rockets, satellites and other spacecraft for government and commercial customers. A self-taught engineer who…
