Forbes has released its annual Forbes 400 list, which ranks the 400 richest people In America.
This time around four Black Billionaires have made it onto the 2024 Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans. To make the cut individuals needed to have a minimum net worth of $3.3 Billion, an increase of $400 million from the year before. The Black Billionaires on the list made their wealth from the finance, tech, and sports industry.
The 400 richest people in America this year are worth a record $5.4 trillion, up nearly $1 trillion from last year. There are around ten Black Billionaires in the States, which include well-known celebrities such as Oprah, Jay-Z, and LeBron James.
However, these four Black Billionaires made the cut as part of the 400 richest people in America
David Steward
IT entrepreneur David Steward is the wealthiest Black person in America, with an estimated net worth of $11.4 billion. This is up from $7.6 billion in 2023 and $6 billion in 2022.
Steward grew up in the segregated South with seven siblings, where his father worked as a mechanic, janitor, and trash collector. After graduating from Central Missouri University, he was a salesman for the Missouri Pacific Railroad, Union Pacific, and FedEx.
In 1983, Steward purchased his first business—an auditing company called Transportation Business Specialists— using loans from community banks throughout Missouri.
He is the majority owner of World Wide Technology (WWT), which he and partner Jim Kavanaugh co-founded in 1990. In the company’s early days, Steward sometimes went without a paycheck and once watched his car get repossessed from the office parking lot.
Over the years, the IT service provider went on to nab top corporate clients, including Apple, Citi, Microsoft, and the federal government. In 2023, WWT had sales of $17 billion.
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Robert Smith
Robert Smith is the second richest black person in America, with an estimated net worth of $10.8 billion. In 2000, he founded Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm that invests exclusively in software companies.
Vista is one of the nation’s best-performing private equity firms. With about $100 billion in assets, it has posted annualized returns of 31% since its inception.
Smith graduated from Cornell University with a chemistry degree and worked at Kraft Foods and Goodyear Tire before completing his MBA at Columbia Business School. As a college student, Smith secured an internship at Bell Labs after calling the company every week for five months.
In an iconic moment during a commencement speech at Morehouse College in 2019, Smith vowed to wipe out the entire graduating class’s $34 million student debt.
He established Fund II Foundation in 2014, a philanthropic body that funds efforts to conserve African American culture, promote music education for young people, and rectify human rights abuses. Forbes recognized him as one of the 100 Greatest Living Business Minds in 2017 for his business acumen and leadership skills.
Alexander Karp
Alexander Karp is one of the 23 newcomers on the list. His net worth is estimated to be $4.1 billion. He is co-founder and CEO of data mining firm Palantir Technologies, which received early backing from CIA investment arm In-Q-Tel. He met Palantir cofounder and billionaire Facebook investor Peter Thiel at Stanford Law School.
The firm, founded in 2004, does contract work for government agencies such as the Department of Defense, the FBI, and the Danish National Police. In 2020, Karp took Palantir public on the New York Stock Exchange in an unusual direct listing process.
He obtained a bachelor’s degree from Haverford College in 1989, Stanford Law School (J.D., 1992), and Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany (Ph.D., 2002). Karp is an avid practitioner of Chen-style tai chi and cross-country skiing.
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Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan is a former professional basketball player widely considered one of the greatest all-around players in history. His career salary totaled $90 million, but he earned $2.4 billion (pre-tax) from corporate partners such as Nike, Hanes, and Gatorade.
He became part-owner and head of basketball operations for the Charlotte Hornets (then named the Bobcats) in 2006 and bought a controlling interest in 2010, before selling his majority stake in 2023.
Jordan also owns 23XI Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series. In September 2020, he joined sports-betting firm DraftKings as a special advisor to the board and an investor.
Jordan grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina, and entered the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1981. As a freshman, he made the winning basket against Georgetown in the 1982 national championship game.
Jordan was named College Player of the Year in his sophomore and junior years, leaving North Carolina after his junior year. He led the U.S. basketball team to Olympic gold medals in 1984 in Los Angeles and 1992 in Barcelona, Spain.
Here is the full 2024 Forbes 400 list here.
