From Republican megadonors and top backers of Trump, to leaders in tech and aerospace, and even the cofounders of Panda Express, Nevada is home to a handful of the country’s billionaires.
This year’s Forbes’ 2026 World’s Billionaires List was topped by Elon Musk, cofounder of carmaker Tesla and SpaceX, and briefly the head of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, with a net worth of $839 billion.
Over 3,300 people made the list worldwide. The US has the most billionaires, 989, and 20 of them reside in Nevada.
Combined, Nevada’s richest residents are worth $125.4 billion. To put that into perspective, some reports show that eliminating homelessness in the US would cost between $11 billion and $30 billion per year.
With $43 million per year (about 0.034% of their combined worth), Nevada could implement a universal free school lunch program.
So who are the richest people in Nevada?
Miriam Adelson & family — No. 56
Miriam Adelson has a net worth of $36.3 billion and lives in Las Vegas, according to Forbes. She is the widow of Sheldon Adelson, the founder and former CEO of casino company Las Vegas Sands, who died in 2021. She and her family now own more than half of the New York Stock Exchange-listed gambling empire, which has casinos in Singapore and Macao.
The Adelsons are well known as GOP megadonors and are top backers of President Donald Trump. Adelson also owns the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the city’s largest distributed newspaper.
Nancy Walton Laurie — No. 134
Heiress to the Walmart family, Nancy Walton Laurie has a net worth of $19.8 billion. According to Forbes, she lives in Henderson. When her father, Bud Walton, died in 1995, Walton Laurie and her sister, Ann Walton Kroenke, received enough Walmart stock to make them both billionaires.
David Duffield — No. 407
Cofounder of Workday, a payroll and HR management software, David Duffield lives in Incline Village, Nevada. According to Forbes, he has a net worth of $8.7 billion.
Jay Chaudhry — No. 422
Jay Chaindhry is one of the tens of thousands of people who have relocated from the Bay Area to Reno in recent years—what sets him apart is his $8.7 billion net worth. He is the CEO of Zscaler, a cybersecurity firm he founded in 2008.
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Don Hankey — No. 440
Don Hankey started calling Las Vegas home just this year after buying a condo in Summerlin for $21 million—the most ever paid for a condo in the area. The billionaire (whose net worth is $8.2 billion, according to Forbes) moved from Los Angeles to Las Vegas because of California’s proposed 5% wealth tax on billionaires, which aimed to raise around $100 billion to fund health care and education programs.
Hankey’s company, Westlake Financial, is one of the nation’s largest subprime lenders, working with 50,000 dealerships and offering high-interest car loans to buyers with poor or no credit, according to Forbes.
Peggy and Andrew Cherng — No. 487
Husband and wife, Peggy and Andrew Cherng, cofounded Panda Express in 1983. Today, the co-CEOs have a net worth of $7.5 billion, according to Forbes, and the chain has 2,500 locations in the US, Canada, Mexico, Dubai and South Korea.
The Cherngs have multiple homes in Pasadena, Las Vegas and Hawaii, but according to Forbes, they live in Nevada.
Eren Ozmen — No. 869
Eren Ozmen is chairwoman, president and majority owner of private aerospace and defense company Sierra Nevada Corporation—a company she and her husband Fatih bought in 1994 when it had just 20 employees. She has a net worth of $4.9 billion, according to Forbes, and lives in Reno. Ozmen also earned a master’s degree from UNR’s College of Business.
Fatih Ozmen — No. 908
Fatih Ozmen is married to Eren Ozmen and is the CEO and co-owner of Sierra Nevada Corporation. His net worth is $4.7 billion, according to Forbes. He also attended UNR for his master’s degree. Sierra Nevada Corporation has a $13.1 billion contract from the US Air Force to develop its next E-4 “Doomsday” plane, which would run the military’s response to a nuclear war.
Phil Ruffin — No. 972
Phil Ruffin owns the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino, the Circus Circus Hotel and Casino, the Las Vegas Festival Grounds, and 50% of the Trump International Las Vegas hotel alongside friend Donald Trump. Ruffin has a net worth of $4.3 billion and lives in Las Vegas, according to Forbes.
Lorenzo Fertitta and Frank Fertitta III — No. 1,163
The Fertitta brothers are sons of Frank Fertitta Jr. who created Station Casinos to cater to Las Vegas locals—they are still involved in the company and its investment parent company Red Rock Resorts (RRR). Frank Fertitta III and his brother, Lorenzo, bought UFC for $2 million in 2001 and sold it to WME/IMG for $4 billion in 2016. Just a year later, they sold their remaining stakes in UFC at a $5 billion valuation. The Fertittas took their casino business, Red Rock Resorts, public in 2016. According to Forbes, each brother has a net worth of $3.6 billion.
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Weili Dai — No. 1,285
Weili Dai cofounded semiconductor company Marvell Technology with her husband, Sehat Sutardja, and his brother in 1995. The couple moved to Las Vegas in 2017 and began investing in real estate. Dai co-founded the startup MeetKai in 2018, which is focused on digital media technology and artificial intelligence. And in 2021, she cofounded Silicon Box, a Singapore-based company that designs and manufactures chiplet packaging for other artificial intelligence companies. Dai’s net worth is $3.4 billion, according to Forbes.
Mark Davis — No. 1,285
Mark Davis is the owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, which he inherited from his father in 2011 and relocated to Las Vegas in 2021, and the Las Vegas Aces WNBA team. Davis’ only jobs have ever been with the Raiders, according to Forbes. When Davis took over the Raiders, Forbes valued the team at $761 million. Now, it’s worth more than $7 billion. According to the billionaires list, he has a net worth of $3.3 billion and lives in Las Vegas.
John Krystynak — No. 1,440
Another billionaire who resides in Incline Village, John Krystynak, cofounded AI-powered advertising technology company AppLovin in 2012. According to Forbes, he owned 4% of AppLovin as of December 2023 and has a net worth of $2.9 billion.
William Boyd & family — No. 1,560
Bill Boyd cofounded Las Vegas-based gambling and hospitality company Boyd Gaming Corporation with his father, Sam Boyd, in 1975. Recently, he has served as chairman emeritus and owns approximately 17% of the company. Boyd Gaming, a publicly traded company, has 28 casino properties in 10 states. According to Forbes, Boyd has a net worth of $2.6 billion and resides in Las Vegas.
William “Bill” Foley II — No. 1,611
Bill Foley owns the Vegas Golden Knights NHL team, as well as the Indoor Football League team Vegas Knight Hawks. He founded the title insurance company Fidelity National Financial in 1984 and still serves as its chairman. According to Forbes, he has a net worth of $2.6 billion and lives in Las Vegas. Foley is also a financial supporter of Donald Trump.
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JB Straubel — No. 2,274
JB Straubel is the founder and CEO of Redwood Materials, an electric vehicle battery recycling startup headquartered in Carson City, where he lives, according to Forbes. Straubel is also the former chief technology officer of Tesla. According to the billionaires list, he has a net worth of $1.8 billion.
John Oyler — No. 2,177
John Oyler is the CEO, cofounder, and chairman of global oncology company BeOne Medicines, which specializes in developing cancer treatment drugs. According to Forbes, Oyler lives in Reno and has a $1.7 billion fortune.
Daniel Calugar — No. 2,712
Dan Calugar is a Las Vegas-based private investor. According to Forbes, he has a net worth of $1.4 billion. Calugar develops his own computer programs to analyze market data and execute trades, particularly in high-frequency trading, to capitalize on short-term market inefficiencies.
