Trading, AI, gas exports: which companies have turned their shareholders into billionaires

Forbes' list of the 400 richest Americans in 2025 includes 14 newcomers. Most of them found themselves in the ranking thanks to the impressive rally of the public companies whose shares they own. Among these companies are two future participants in the main US index S&P 500.

Forbes has published a list of the 400 richest Americans in 2025. To get into it, this year it was necessary to have a fortune of at least $3.8 billion - a record amount, $0.5 billion more than last year's result. Most of the participants maintained their positions or returned to the rating, but 14 businessmen were in it for the first time.

Which companies have made their co-founders, CEOs and shareholders not just billionaires, but some of the richest people in the U.S.?

The developer of marketing software and mobile games has turned into a public company-giant with a capitalization that now exceeds $192 billion. The company held an IPO in 2021, and since then its capitalization has grown more than six times, writes Forbes. In 2025 alone, its securities have already risen in price by 76%. Thanks to the growth of shares in the Forbes 400 included three shareholders of AppLovin - CEO Adam Forouhi ($ 17.4 billion) and co-founder Andrew Karam ($ 4.7 billion), as well as early investor Eduardo Vivas, who became the "poorest" of the 14 with a fortune of $ 3.8 billion.

The liquefied natural gas exporter held one of the largest energy IPOs in U.S. history in January. Despite a nearly twofold drop in stock prices since then, the fortunes of the company's executive co-chairmen Robert Pender and Michael Sabel are still worth $12.8 billion each, according to Forbes calculations. They own a combined total of roughly 84% of the company.

Stocks and cryptocurrency trading app soars on crypto boom in 2024: crypto trading revenue nearly quintupled in 2024 compared to 2023. The stock added 415% last year and is up 228% this year. Co-founder Vlad Tenev made it to the Forbes rating for the first time with a fortune of $5.8 billion. After the rating was compiled, it became known that Robinhood and AppLovin would be included in the S&P 500 index: this gave a new impetus to their securities.

The data analytics giant and developer of artificial intelligence for the military rose 400% in a year last year, giving shareholders a huge return. Co-founder Steven Cohen became a newcomer to the Forbes 400 with a fortune of $5.4 billion. Palantir's securities are up 122% this year.

The cloud company partnering with OpenAI went public in March 2025 and made four people billionaires, but only two of them made the top 400. The biggest beneficiary was CEO Michael Intrator ($6.7 billion), but his partner Brian Venturo also made the list ($4.2 billion).

The biotech company specializing in cancer diagnostics went public in June 2025 at a valuation of $5.9 billion. Since then, its shares have risen about 30%. The fortune of its main shareholder David Dean Hulbert is estimated at $4.9 billion.

The coffee chain, which started with a cart in the 1990s, now has more than 1,000 locations in the US. Dutch Bros. stock has doubled since its IPO in 2024, and its growth has turned co-founder Travis Boersma into a billionaire ($4.3 billion).

Some billionaires owe their entry into the Forbes ranking to the rise in the estimated value of private. The most prominent example is Surge AI, a data-mining service for AI training, which Forbes valued at $24 billion. This made the company's founder Edwin Chen the richest newcomer to the Forbes 400 ($18 billion).

The ranking also included Mark Lohr ($4 billion), known for selling Walmart's online shopping service Jet.com to Walmart, which is now developing the startup Wonder (valued at more than $7 billion in May).

The third private company whose CEO and co-founder Michael Dorrell made the list is infrastructure investment firm Stonepeak. It has more than $76 billion under management. Dorrell's fortune is estimated by Forbes at $8.5 billion.

In 2025, it's public companies that have become the top "billion-dollar factories." From IPOs in energy and cloud computing to growth stocks in fintech, biotech and even the coffee business, they provided a record influx of new names to the Forbes 400 and added $113 billion in total capital to the list, the magazine said.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor