• Business Insider has compiled a list of the richest people in the fashion industry, based on Forbes' Real Time Billionaires ranking.
• The list includes designers, founders, CEOs, and heiresses who have made their fortunes in fashion, from haute couture to fast fashion.
• Fashion's richest billionaires are behind luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton,Gucci, and Chanel, and fast fashion retailers including Uniqlo and Zara.
• The 15 richest people in the fashion industry are worth a combined $395.6 billion.
• The richest person in fashion is French businessman Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH, who's worth $105.7 billion.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Fashion is a $2.5 trillion global industry that has made its leading players, from designers and CEOs to founders and heiresses, very rich.

Business Insider has compiled a list of the richest people in the fashion industry, based on Forbes' Real Time Billionaires ranking — and the top 15 are worth a combined $395.6 billion.

The wealthiest person in fashion is Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH, the world's largest maker of luxury goods that's behind brands such as Louis Vuitton, Dom Perignon, Christian Dior, and as of November 2019, Tiffany & Co. Arnault is the world's third-richest person with an estimated net worth of $105.7 billion.

Others on the list include Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, the Japanese billionaire behind Uniqlo, and the Spanish retail mogul who owns Zara.

Read on for the 15 richest people in the fashion industry, ranked in ascending order.

Bobbie Edsor contributed to an earlier version of this story.

SEE ALSO: Bernard Arnault is the world's third-richest person and CEO of LVMH, which just finalized a deal to buy Tiffany. Here's how the French billionaire makes and spends his $100 billion fortune.

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15. Ding Shizhong: $5.8 billion

Ding Shizhong is the chairman and CEO of Anta Sports, one of China's largest sportswear makers.

Anta Sports, which owns brands including Fila, Descente, and Kingkow, made more than $3.4 billion in revenue in 2018.

14. Johann Rupert: $6.1 billion

Johann Rupert is the chairman of Compagnie Financiere Richemont, the Swiss luxury goods firm behind brands such as Cartier, Chloé, and Montblanc.

The South African billionaire founded Richemont as a spin-off of Rembrandt Group Limited (now Remgro Limited), a company founded by his father in the 1940s.

13. Sandra Ortega Mera: $6.6 billion

Sandra Ortega Mera is the daughter of Zara founder Amancio Ortega with his late ex-wife, Rosalia Mera.

Sandra inherited the title of Spain's richest woman after her mother's death. Sandra holds a roughly 4.5% stake in her father's company, Inditex, but she is not involved in the company, according to Forbes.

12. Ralph Lauren: $6.7 billion

The founder and former CEO of the eponymous American luxury fashion brand Ralph Lauren remains executive chairman of the label he started in the 1960s.

Lauren started designing neckties with a wider cut — branding them the "Polo" cut — and selling them in New York department stores while also working at the men's boutique Beau Brummell.

More than 50 years later, the internationally renowned brand brought in more than $6.1 billion in revenue in 2018.

11. Anders Holch Povlsen: $8.1 billion

Anders Holch Povlsen is the CEO and sole owner of Danish fashion retailer Bestseller. Povlsen's parents started the company in 1975 and he was only 28 when his father, Troels Holch Povlsen, made him the sole owner of the company in 1990.

Bestseller is the parent company of 11 fashion labels that include Vero Moda, Only, and Jack & Jones.

Povlsen, who is the richest person in Denmark, also has "significant stakes" in online clothing retailer ASOS and payments company Klarna, according to Forbes.

In April 2019, three of Povlsen's four children were killed in the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka that left at least 290 people dead.

10. Giorgio Armani: $11 billion

The cofounder and sole owner of the Armani empire, Giorgio Armani's luxury fashion house has ventures in haute couture, sportswear, beauty, restaurants, interior design, hotels and resorts, and ready-to-wear fashion, among others.

The Italian-born fashion designer founded his company in 1975 after leaving medical school early. Now, Armani is often dubbed one of the most successful Italian fashion designers in history, with revenue of $2.3 billion in 2018, according to Bloomberg.

Armani owns a 213-foot jet-black superyacht and has homes in Italy and the Caribbean.

9. Heinrich Deichmann: $11.5 billion

Heinrich Deichmann is the CEO of international shoe manufacturer Deichmann, founded by his grandfather as a cobbler's shop in Germany in 1913. 

Deichmann's reputation for creating affordable footwear is ingrained in its history. The family company organized a second-hand shoe exchange scheme in order to help struggling customers after the war, according to the company's website.

Today, Deichmann has grown to become one of Europe's leading shoe retailers, with 3,989 stores in Germany, the US, and throughout Europe. 

8. Alain and Gerard Wertheimer: $16.6 billion

Alain Wertheimer co-owns the French fashion house Chanel with his brother, Gerard. Alain serves as Chanel's chairman while Gerard manages the company's watch department in Switzerland.

The Wertheimer brothers inherited the Chanel empire from their grandfather, Pierre Wertheimer, who founded the brand with Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel in 1913. 

The Wertheimers are known as "fashion's quietest billionaires," according to The New York Times.

''We're a very discreet family, we never talk,'' Gérard Wertheimer told The New York Times Magazine in 2002.''It's about Coco Chanel. It's about Karl [Lagerfeld]. It's about everyone who works and creates at Chanel. It's not about the Wertheimers."

7. Stefan Persson: $18.8 billion

Chairman of best-selling fashion retailer H&M, Stefan Persson owns a 32% stake in the company. His son, Karl-Johan Persson, is the company's CEO.

H&M Group, which also owns brands like Weekday, COS, and Monki, brought in more than $22 billion in net sales in 2018, according to the company's annual report.

The Swedish fast-fashion business has about 4,900 stores in 73 markets.

6. Leonardo Del Vecchio: $24.7 billion

Leonardo Del Vecchio is the founder of eyewear giant Luxottica, which went on to acquire Sunglass Hut, Ray-Ban and Oakley and make glasses for brands including Chanel and Bulgari, according to Forbes.

Luxottica merged with French lens maker Essilor in 2018 to become the world's largest producer and retailer of sunglasses and prescription glasses.

5. Tadashi Yanai: $29.8 billion

Tadashi Yanai is the founder and owner of Japanese clothing empire Fast Retailing, the largest clothing retailer in Asia and the parent company of Uniqlo.

Yanai, the richest person in Japan, began his career at his father's roadside tailor shop in suburban Japan, according to Bloomberg. Yanai later changed the name of the company to Fast Retailing in the early 1990s in order to reflect his fast-fashion business strategy.

Yanai opened the first Uniqlo store in 1984 and has expanded the brand to more than 2,000 stores in at least 20 countries.

Fast Retailing has thousands of stores worldwide and reported a yearly revenue of $16.9 billion in August 2017, according to Bloomberg.

4. Francois Pinault: $35.1 billion

François Pinault is the founder and owner of Kering luxury group, which includes iconic fashion houses such as Gucci and Alexander McQueen. He's been married to Mexican-American actress Salma Hayek since 2009.

The French businessman and art collector also owns a plethora of auction houses, wineries, and French publications. He's the second-richest person in France after Bernard Arnault.

Since the beginning of 2019, Pinault's wealth has increased by more than $9 billion, according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index.

3. Phil Knight: $38.5 billion

Phil Knight is the founder of shoe giant Nike. Knight, a former track runner, started the company that would become Nike with his college track coach, Bill Bowerman, in 1964.

Knight retired as chairman of Nike in 2016 after 52 years, according to Forbes.

2. Amancio Ortega: $70.7 billion

Amancio Ortega is the sixth-richest person in the world, according to both Forbes and Bloomberg's Billionaires Index. Ortega made his $70.7 billion fortune through the Spanish fashion retail group Inditex, which he founded with his ex-wife Rosalia Mera in 1975.

Ortega owns 59% of Inditex, the world's largest clothing retailer that owns Zara, Pull&Bear, Bershka, Massimo Dutti, Stradivarius, and other brands.

1. Bernard Arnault: $105.6 billion

Bernard Arnault is the chairman and CEO of LVMH, the world's largest luxury goods company. The French billionaire is the third-richest person in the world, trailing only Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos.

LVMH is the parent company of 75 household names, including Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Sephora, and Bulgari, and, as of November 2019, jewelry giant Tiffany & Co.

Arnault is growing richer at a faster rate than many other billionaires. Since the beginning of 2019, his fortune has risen by $34.3 billion, according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index. 

• Naomi Osaka, at age 22, is the world's highest-paid female athlete with $37.4 million in earnings over the last 12 months.
• On the heels of two back-to-back Grand Slams and on the cusp of playing in the Olympics, Osaka landed several lucrative endorsement deals last year.
• Much of Osaka's career was spent out of the public eye, but her time in the spotlight is only just beginning.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Naomi Osaka is the highest-paid female athlete in the world.

The 22-year-old tennis star raked in $37.4 million in the past year. It's a feat that involves several records broken: Serena Williams was the world's highest-paid female athlete for four years running, and Maria Sharapova previously held the title for the most money earned by a female athlete in a single year.

Osaka has seemingly come out of nowhere. A professional tennis player by the age of 16, she was largely taught how to hit the court by her father and avoided the junior tennis circuit growing up.

Osaka didn't work with her first professional tennis coach until age 18. Within two years, she was finally thrust into the international limelight when she won two Grand Slams back-to-back — which involved a major upset for Osaka's role model, Serena Williams, in the US Open.

Set to compete in the World Olympics for Japan, Osaka now has a string of lucrative endorsement deals under her belt.

A representative for Osaka declined to comment on the financial details of Osaka's various endorsements.

Here's how Osaka became the highest-paid female athlete.

SEE ALSO: Rafael Nadal, one of the highest-paid tennis players of all time, just won his 4th US Open. Here's how he spends his millions, from a $725,000 Richard Mille watch to a mansion in Mallorca.

NOW READ: Naomi Osaka became the best-paid athlete in the history of women's sport, earning almost $40 million last year. That's still less than 30% of what the highest-earning man made.

Naomi Osaka has become the highest-paid female athlete in the world, with earnings of $37.4 million in the past year — and she's only 22.

Osaka's earnings break the record for the most money earned by a female athlete in a single year. That record, per Forbes, was previously held by Maria Sharapova, who earned $29.7 million in 2015.

Her earnings also ended Serena Williams' winning streak as the world's highest-paid female athlete, a title William held for the past four years. (Osaka earned $1.4 million more than Williams over the last 12 months, according to Forbes.) Osaka ranks in the 29th spot and Williams ranks 33rd among the 100 highest-paid athletes in the world.

Osaka wasn't even ranked on Forbes' 2019 list of highest-paid athletes.

Osaka was born in Osaka, Japan, to a Japanese mother and Haitian father but moved to the US at age three. Much of her early career took place out of the public eye.

Osaka and her family first lived on Long Island before moving to Florida, the epicenter of youth tennis. She has one sister, Mari Osaka, who is also a professional tennis player. Mari competes in lower-level events and is 18 months older than Naomi.

With dual citizenship in the US and Japan, Osaka registered with the Japan Tennis Association instead of the United States Tennis Association at age 10.

"We made the decision that Naomi would represent Japan at an early age," Osaka's parents told Tom Perrotta of The Wall Street Journal. "Quite simply, Naomi and her sister Mari have always felt Japanese so that was our only rationale. It was never a financially motivated decision nor were we ever swayed either way by any national federation."

Osaka preferred to play in small International Tennis Federation events, which aren't often televised, instead of junior tournaments. She declined to enter junior Grand Slam tournaments even when her ranking was high enough to qualify, Perrotta wrote.

Sean Gregory for TIME magazine described the junior tennis circuit as "a cutthroat environment that burns out many promising teen players."

By age 16, Osaka turned pro. The USTA offered Osaka a spot in its program at this time, but she trained at Harold Solomon Tennis Academy and the ProWorld Tennis Academy with her father instead.

Osaka and her sister were largely taught how to play tennis by their father, Leonard Francois, who would take them to public courts. 

A recreational player, Francois's tennis dreams for his daughters began when he watched Venus and Serena Williams playing in the French Open on TV, wrote Gregory. He looked to the Williams sisters as models for his daughters and copied the coaching approach their father took. 

Naomi and Mari were both homeschooled online so they could dedicate more time to practicing tennis.

At age 18, Osaka stepped up her game: She began practicing at the Evert Tennis Academy and got her first professional coach.

She and her father would practice at the Evert Tennis Academy for two hours a day. "She had a lot of raw talent and she hit the ball a ton, but she wasn't moving and she was making a lot of errors," retired pro tennis player Chris Evert, who cofounded the academy, told the Journal.

But when she began training with two professional coaches — first David Taylor, then Serena Williams' former hitting partner Sascha Bajin — Osaka's game improved quickly.

In 2016, Osaka was named Newcomer of the Year by the Women's Tennis Association. It was a big year for the 18-year-old.

In January 2016 at the Australian Open, Osaka qualified to enter her first Grand Slam, rolling into the third round. She also reached the third round of the French Open and the US Open.

That same year, she became the first Japanese player since 1995 to reach the finals in the Toray Pan Pacific Open, a WTA event in Tokyo.

Two years later, in March 2018, Osaka became the first Japanese woman to win the Indian Wells Masters in California (USA).

Source: Naomi Osaka Profile

Osaka won two back-to-back Grand Slams at age 20: the 2018 US World Open — a controversial match with Serena Williams — and the 2019 Australian Open.

Osaka catapulted into celebrity following her first Grand Slam title at the 2018 US Open, which was an upset loss for Williams. It was a dramatic match that, as Macaela Mackenzie for Shape puts it, involved accusations of an unfair call against Williams, an entire game erased from Williams' record, and a smashed racket. Williams had to eventually tell fans to support Osaka's win.

Osaka became the first player from Asia to reach No. 1 in the singles rankings.

Source: WTA Tennis

In 2019, Osaka gave up her US citizenship to represent Japan in the Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Japan's Nationality Act mandates that those who hold dual citizenship must choose one before their 22nd birthday, wrote Cindy Boren for The Washington Post.

"It is a special feeling to aim for the Olympics as a representative of Japan," she told Japanese broadcaster NHK. "I think that playing with the pride of the country will make me feel more emotional."

She supported the decision to push back the Olympics until next year amid the pandemic. "Sport will eventually unite us again and be there for us always, but that time is not now," she wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post, as reported by ESPN.

Osaka already had a string of robust endorsement deals, but her Olympics decision made her a hot commodity among Olympic sponsors. It contributed significantly to her earnings last year.

Procter & Gamble, All Nippon Airways, and Japanese ramen company Nissin all signed endorsement deals with Osaka to use her around marketing for the Games, according to Forbes.

"If you're talking about an international sporting event like the Olympics, she's your international star you're going to market it around," Bob Dorfman, a veteran sports marketer, told TIME last year. "She's got American appeal, Caribbean appeal, Japanese appeal. As nationalities continue to mix in this world, that makes her even more desirable."

After a bidding war with Adidas, who Osaka previously partnered with, Nike reportedly paid Osaka more than $10 million last year in an agreement that runs through 2025, per Forbes. Neither Nike nor Osaka's rep has confirmed the financial details of the endorsement agreement.

It plans to launch an Osaka streetwear line in the fourth quarter and gave Osaka a rare exception to its requirement that tennis players only wear Nike gear during a match.

Osaka now has 15 endorsement partners; almost all are worth seven figures annually.

With her endorsement cash, Osaka partnered with several brands last year, including emerging sports drink BodyArmor and sport recovery tech company Hyperice, with significant equity components.

"I'm really interested in seeing a young business grow and adding value to that process," Osaka told Forbes in 2019. "I tasked my team with finding brands that align with my personality and my interests."

People have hailed Osaka as the next Serena Williams.

"Mentally, I feel she's the best female tennis player that I've seen come along since Serena," Rick Macci, a tennis instructor who worked with the Williams sisters when they were young, told the Journal.

Osaka also has one of the fastest serves on record at 125 miles per hour, only slightly slower than Serena's 128 miles per hour serve.

Williams is reportedly Osaka's role model, but Osaka doesn't see herself as the next Serena. "I don't think there is ever going to be another Serena Williams,"she told TIME. "I think I'm going to be me. And I hope people are OK with that."

• In March 2019, Forbes dubbed then 21-year-old Kylie Jenner the world's youngest "self-made" billionaire.
• The magazine had pegged the value of her company, Kylie Cosmetics, at more than $900 million. That plus her personal earnings brought her net worth to more than $1 billion, Forbes said.
• Now, Forbes is reporting that Jenner is not, in fact, a billionaire, and that she has embellished the profitability and size of the company since 2016.
• Forbes pegs Jenner's true net worth at just under $900 million.
• Here's how Jenner has made her millions, from Kylie Cosmetics to TV appearances to product endorsements.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Kylie Jenner made headlines last year when Forbes declared her the world's youngest "self-made" billionaire at age 21, thanks to her makeup company, Kylie Cosmetics.

Now, Forbes is saying that Jenner is not, in fact, a billionaire. In a new investigation, the magazine says that Jenner has exaggerated the size and profitability of her business and misled Forbes and other publications since 2016.

Jenner founded Kylie Cosmetics in 2015 and claimed to have brought in $400 million in revenue in its first 18 months, per Forbes. In November 2019, Jenner signed a deal to sell a majority stake in her cosmetics company to beauty conglomerate Coty Inc. for $600 million, which valued the company at $1.2 billion. 

But Forbes alleges that the company has never made as much money as the Jenners claimed, and also that her business has suffered during the coronavirus pandemic. A representative for Jenner did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Despite her disputed billionaire status, Jenner has amassed a cosmetics empire, starred alongside her family in "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" as well as in her own spin-off show "Life of Kylie," started a clothing line with her sister, and made millions promoting products on Instagram.

Here are all the ways Jenner has made her millions.

SEE ALSO: Every member of the Kardashian-Jenner family, ranked by net worth

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In March 2019, Forbes dubbed Kylie Jenner, then 21, the world's youngest "self-made" billionaire.

At the time, Forbes estimated that Jenner's company, Kylie Cosmetics, was worth $900 million.

That plus her personal earnings from the company brought her net worth to more than $1 billion, Forbes said.

Many criticized Forbes' decision to call Jenner "self-made," saying she was born into wealth and privilege. Jenner responded to the backlash in an interview with Paper magazine, saying, "The self-made thing is true" and adding that her parents "cut her off at the age of 15." 

But a new investigation by Forbes has called Jenner's billionaire status into question.

While Forbes reported that Jenner was still the youngest "self-made" billionaire in the world on April 7, a more recent Forbes report released Friday contends that the 22-year-old is not, in fact, a billionaire. Per Forbes' new investigation, Jenner and her mother and marketing manager, Kris Jenner, have exaggerated the size and profitability of her business and misled Forbes and other publications since 2016.

But Forbes concedes that Jenner is still a multimillionaire, now pegging her true net worth at just under $900 million.

Jenner took to Twitter to slam Forbes' new report once she woke up and saw it. "I thought this was a reputable site... all I see are a number of inaccurate statements and unproven assumptions lol. I've never asked for any title or tried to lie my way there EVER. period,"she tweeted, also questioning Forbes' "proof" of the claim that tax returns "were likely forged."

"I can name a list of 100 things more important right now than fixating on how much money I have,"Jenner tweeted.

Jenner's first job was on reality TV show "Keeping Up With The Kardashians." She was 9 years old when the first episode aired and the show is now airing its 18th season.

Source: Business Insider

People reported in 2017 that the family collectively earns about $30 million per season of the show, according to their most recent contract, but it's unclear exactly how much each family member makes.

Source: Business Insider, People

Jenner also briefly starred in her own spin-off show, "Life of Kylie," in 2017.

Source: Insider

In 2013, when Jenner was 15, she and her sister, Kendall, launched a clothing line called Kendall + Kylie for PacSun.

The brand has since expanded to be sold wholesale to 390 locations in the US, including Nordstrom, Topshop, Amazon, and Bloomingdale's, and 975 worldwide.

Jenner has made the bulk of her fortune through her makeup company, Kylie Cosmetics.

The company originally launched as Kylie Lip Kits, not long after Jenner admitted to getting "temporary lip fillers," in 2015.

The company claimed to have sold more than $630 million worth of makeup in its first two years, including an estimated $330 million in 2017.

Source:Forbes

The manufacturing, packaging, and sales of Kylie Cosmetics products are all outsourced to private companies, including Seed Beauty and Shopify.

Source: Forbes

And the financial and public relations aspects of the brand are handled by Kardashian-Jenner matriarch and Kylie's mother, Kris Jenner, in exchange for a 10% management fee.

Source: Forbes

In 2018, Jenner claimed that Kylie Cosmetics was on track to bring in more than $300 million in revenue, partially thanks to an exclusive distribution detail with beauty retailer Ulta.

Forbes now says that in reality, financial documents show that the company sold closer to $125 million.

In November 2019, Jenner sold a majority stake in Kylie Cosmetics to Coty Inc. for $600 million, giving the company a $1.2 billion valuation.

Jenner announced at the time that Christoph Honnefelder would assume the role of CEO of Kylie Cosmetics and Kylie Skin. Jenner was previously CEO.

Per Coty's press release announcing the deal, Jenner and her team would continue to lead "all creative efforts in terms of product and communications initiatives," while Coty would lead the portfolio's "overall" development.

Much of Jenner's work on Kylie Cosmetics takes place on social media. She frequently promotes the brand on her personal Instagram account.

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"Social media is an amazing platform," Jenner, who has more than 178 million followers on Instagram, told Forbes last year. "I have such easy access to my fans and my customers."

Source: Forbes

Jenner also has lucrative endorsement deals with Puma and other brands.

Source: Forbes

She often endorses products on Instagram from brands including Fashion Nova ...

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... SugarBearHair vitamins ...

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... and Adidas.

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A 2018 report from social media insights firm D'Marie Analytics found that a single Instagram post by Jenner was worth $1 million in advertising.

Source: Insider

Although she has since shut it down, Jenner previously made money from her personal app, which launched in 2015 and made $105,170 on its first day.

The app offered "an exclusive mix of free and premium paid content from Kylie's world, bringing you closer to her than ever before," according to its description.

But at the end of 2018, Jenner announced she would stop posting to the app in 2019.

Despite agreeing to sell the majority of the company last year, Jenner told Forbes back in 2018 that she envisioned herself working there "forever."

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She told the magazine she would perhaps pass the business on to her daughter, Stormi, one day.

• Kim Kardashian West is likely not a billionaire, despite numerous headlines making that claim after a new investment in KKW Beauty valued the company at $1 billion.
• The billion-dollar figure is based on a sole transaction and is likely inflated by the brand's strong social media presence.
• Forbes estimates that Kardashian West's current net worth is more like $900 million.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Kim Kardashian West's beauty brand now has a $1 billion valuation after a $200 million investment from Coty, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the reality television star is a member of the three comma club.

Media outlets from Vanity Fair to The Daily Mail have started calling Kardashian West a billionaire following the deal, but the reality is likely much more complex. Forbes estimates Kardashian West's net worth to be more like $900 million, saying that the company's "sky-high" valuation likely has more to do with its social media presence than actual revenues.

KKW Beauty's new $1 billion valuation means only that the company is projected to be worth $1 billion based solely on the price of Coty's new investment, not that it currently has or has ever made $1 billion. As a result, such valuations are routinely written down when used to calculate the company owner's net worth. Forbes, for instance, says it prefers to "lop off" at least 10% of private assets like that when estimating a person's net worth.

Furthermore, Forbes doesn't think Kardashian West is KKW Beauty's sole owner. The magazine estimates that Kardashian West's mother Kris Jenner owns 8% of the business, though neither responded to Forbes' request for comment regarding their stakes in the beauty brand.

Kanye West lobbied hard for his recognition in the three comma club, but Kardashian West probably isn't there yet

An analysis of Kardashian West and her husband Kanye West's finances during the latter's bid to be added to Forbes' Billionaire List earlier this year showed that the couple owns $35 million in stocks, $21 million in real estate, $3,845,162 worth of vehicles, and $297,050 of livestock, but it is unclear how these assets are divided between them or if they are divided at all. (Forbes did say that West and Kardashian West share $53 million in debt, however.)

Kardashian West also owns shapewear brand Skims and earns money from sponsored social media posts and appearing on her family's reality television show "Keeping Up with the Kardashians." In order for her to officially be added to the three comma club, all of her assets would have to total more than $1 billion with her debts subtracted from that total. There's no indication that this is the case for Kardashian West yet, so it is likely premature to call her a billionaire based on the new valuation of KKW Beauty alone.

Kardashian West's youngest sister Kylie Jenner was in a similar situation in March 2019 when Coty, the same company that just invested in KKW Beauty, bought a majority stake in Jenner's company Kylie Cosmetics, which raised its valuation to $1 billion as well. Forbes declared Jenner the world's youngest self-made billionaire, only to revoke the title in May, saying that Jenner had spun a "web of lies" to exaggerate her company's profits for years. Jenner has denied ever misleading the magazine about her finances.

SEE ALSO: Kanye West has been insisting he's a billionaire for years. Forbes finally agreed with him.

DON'T MISS: Forbes just revoked Kylie Jenner's billionaire status, saying she's exaggerated her company's success for years. Take a look at how Jenner built her empire.

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• Elon Musk became the fifth-richest person in the world on Monday, according to Forbes. His net worth is valued at over $74 billion.
• The majority of Musk's wealth is tied to shares in his companies, Tesla and SpaceX.
• Despite factory closures due to COVID-19, Tesla's value has increased by $200 billion since March, vaulting Musk up various indexes of the world's most wealthy individuals.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Elon Musk's net worth skyrocketed past the $74 billion mark on Monday afternoon, making him the fifth richest person in the world, according to Forbes. 

In mid-March, Musk was worth almost $25 billion and was ranked the 31st-richest person by Forbes. Since then, his net worth has nearly tripled, and he has vaulted up the list, passing Warren Buffet, Phil Knight, and Michael Bloomberg on the way.  

The majority of Musk's wealth is tied to shares in his companies, Tesla and SpaceX. Tesla's value has increased by $200 billion since March, frequently hitting record highs after delivering stronger-than-expected vehicle delivery numbers. 

A smaller fraction of his wealth — about $100 million — is tied up in real estate. But that's likely to change. In May, Musk announced that he planned to sell all of his worldly possessions, and listed nearly $40 million of property.

Like many automakers, Tesla has had a tumultuous few months as Americans increasingly stayed inside during shelter-in-place guidelines. Since March, the company's only US car factory faced shutdowns due to the coronavirus. Musk said that stopping production at the factory, based in Fremont, California, posed a "serious risk" to business, and went on to sue the local county over its shelter-in-place orders and reopen in spite of them.

Despite these hurdles, Tesla went on to deliver 90,650 vehicles to customers in Q2, topping Wall Street predictions by 20,000 vehicles.

In addition, Tesla's stock has been boosted by speculation that the company could be added to the S&P 500 after Wednesday's Q2 earnings report. Tesla also announced that it will be presenting new battery technology at a "Battery Day" in September.

Still, Tesla's meteoric stock price has perplexed analysts — and even Musk himself, who sent the stock tumbling after tweeting out that he felt it was overvalued.

Tesla's car output pales in comparison to its peers like Ford, GM, and Fiat-Chrysler, yet its market cap still dominates the legacy automakers. Tesla is now worth nearly $300 billion compared to Ford's $26 billion, General Motors' $38 billion, and Fiat-Chrysler's $16 billion.

Enthusiasm from young investors and day traders have made it a popular stock. Tesla is the 8th-most traded stock on Robinhood, according to trade-tracking website Robintrack. On some days, Tesla trading can be frenzied. Last week, 40,000 Robinhood users added Tesla shares during a four hour period, according to a Bloomberg analysis of Robintrack data.

Another of Musk's ventures, SpaceX, has also enjoyed positive publicity following the launch of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, which made Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley the first NASA astronauts to fly on a commercial rocket to the International Space Station. The space technology company is worth nearly $36 billion, according to Pitchbook data.

Despite recent gains, Musk's wealth is still dwarfed by four men: Jeff Bezos, Bernald Arnault of LVMH, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg. 

Yet, Tesla's fortunes, as well as Musk's, may change soon. Its second-quarter earnings report is scheduled for Wednesday after the market close. The earnings could propel the stock — and Musk's net worth — even higher, or reverse the big gains from recent weeks.

SEE ALSO: The future of Tesla's $200 billion winning streak hinges on this week's earnings report

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NOW WATCH: 7 secrets about Washington, DC landmarks you probably didn't know

• Forbes has determined the wealthiest individual in each US state.
• The most-represented industry is finance, but technology has proven to be the most lucrative, with four billionaires from that sector holding the lion's share of the wealth. 
• Most of the women on the list inherited their fortunes, while the Mars candy family notably takes the top spot in three different states. 
• Jeff Bezos once again outranks Bill Gates in Washington State — Bezos and Gates are the first and second richest men in the entire world, respectively.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

In April, Forbes determined the richest person in each state by net worth. There are billionaires and centimillionaires on the list, with some of the wealthiest hailing from the technology sector.

Several siblings appear on the list, including the heirs of the Mars candy and Walmart fortunes, proving the endurance of American dynastic wealth. The siblings within these ultrawealthy families live in different states, thereby earning multiple spots on the list.

Most of the millionaires and billionaires on the list earned their fortunes in finance, real estate, tech, and retail.

Some notable billionaires — including Bill Gates— are absent from the list. Gates made the cut in previous years, but Jeff Bezos has long since surpassed him as the wealthiest person in the state of Washington — and the world. Michael Bloomberg also returns to the list, taking the top spot in New York City, after previously losing his spot to David Koch, who died last year.

Keep reading to see who the richest person is in each US State.

Note: All net worths are estimates by Forbes using the most current available data.

Matthew Michaels contributed to an earlier version of this report. 

SEE ALSO: The billionaire who dished out $34 million to pay off student loans for an entire college class says America's student loan system is a 'catastrophe'

DON'T MISS: Harvard has produced more ultra-wealthy people than any other college in the world — but only 7% are women. Here are the top 20 US colleges with the highest proportions of female millionaires among their rich alumni.

Alabama: Jimmy Rane

Net worth: $900 million

Industry: Lumber

Source of wealth: Founder and CEO of Great Southern Wood Preserving

Residence: Abbeville, Alabama

Source: USA Today

Alaska: Leonard Hyde, Jonathan Rubini, and families

Net worth: $300 million each

Industry: Real estate

Source of wealth: Cofounded and co-own JL Properties

Residence: Anchorage, Alaska

Source: USA Today

Arizona: Ernest Garcia II

Net worth: $13.3 billion 

Industry: Used cars

Source of wealth: Largest shareholder of Carvana, which is an online platform used to sell cars and provide auto loans. The company was founded by his son, Ernest Garcia III. He is also the owner of DriveTime Automotive. 

Residence: Tempe, Arizona

Source: Forbes

Arkansas: Jim Walton

Net worth: $64.2 billion

Industry: Retail

Source of wealth: Heir to part of the Walmart fortune and holds an estimated 44% stake in Arvest Bank

Residence: Bentonville, Arkansas

Source: Forbes

California: Mark Zuckerberg

Net worth: $107.6 billion

Industry: Technology

Source of wealth: Founded Facebook

Residence: Palo Alto, California

Source: Forbes

Colorado: Philip Anschutz

Net worth: $10.1 billion

Industry: Investments

Source of wealth: Made money in oil, real estate, telecom, railroads and owns an entertainment group

Residence: Denver, Colorado

Source: Forbes

Connecticut: Ray Dalio

Net worth: $16.9 billion

Industry: Financial

Source of wealth: Founded Bridgewater Associates

Residence: Greenwich, Connecticut

Source: Forbes

Delaware: Robert Gore and Elizabeth Snyder

Net worth: $885 million each

Industry: Manufacturing

Source of wealth: Brother and sister who inherited W.L. Gore & Associates, founded by their parents; Robert created Gore-Tex

Residence: Newark and Wilmington, Delaware

Source: Forbes, Forbes

Florida: Thomas Peterffy

Net worth: $18.3 billion 

Industry: Financial

Source of wealth: Founded Interactive Brokers

Residence: Palm Beach, Florida

Source: Forbes

Georgia: Jim Kennedy

Net worth: $8.2 billion

Industry: Media

Source of wealth: Inherited and serves as chair for Cox Enterprises

Residence: Atlanta, Georgia

Source: Forbes

Hawaii: Pierre Omidyar

Net worth: $19.5 billion

Industry: Technology

Source of wealth: Founded eBay and develops real estate

Residence: Honolulu, Hawaii

Source: Forbes

Idaho: Frank VanderSloot

Net worth: $3.5 billion

Industry: Nutrition and wellness

Source of wealth: Founded and operates Melaleuca

Residence: Idaho Falls, Idaho

Source: Forbes

Illinois: Ken Griffin

Net worth: $15 billion

Industry: Financial

Source of wealth: Founded and runs Citadel, a large hedge fund

Residence: Chicago, Illinois

Source: Forbes

Indiana: Carl Cook

Net worth: $10.5 billion

Industry: Medical devices

Source of wealth: Inherited and became CEO of Cook Group

Residence: Bloomington, Indiana

Source: Forbes

Iowa: Harry Stine

Net worth: $5.4 billion

Industry: Agriculture

Source of wealth: Licensed genetics to multinational corporations

Residence: Adel, Iowa

Source: Forbes

Kansas: Charles Koch

Net worth: $44.9 billion

Industry: Conglomerate

Source of wealth: Inherited Koch Industries and serves as CEO

Residence: Wichita, Kansas

Source: Forbes

Kentucky: Tamara Gustavson

Net worth: $5 billion

Industry: Self storage

Source of wealth: Gustavson is the largest shareholder in Public Storage, the company founded by her father B. Wayne Hughes in 1972

Residence: Lexington, Kentucky

Source: Forbes

Louisiana: Gayle Benson

Net worth: $3.3 billion

Industry: Professional sports

Source of wealth: Inherited NFL's New Orleans Saints, NBA's New Orleans Pelicans, and an outdoor entertainment venue

Residence: New Orleans, Louisiana

Source: Forbes

Maine: Susan Alfond

Net worth: $1.8 billion

Industry: Shoes

Source of wealth: Inherited stock of Berkshire Hathaway her father had gotten in exchange for selling his shoemaker, Dexter Shoe Company, to the conglomerate

Residence: Scarborough, Maine

Source: Forbes

Maryland: Ted Lerner & family

Net worth: $4.8 billion

Industry: Real estate

Source of wealth: Sold 22,000 houses and owns 20 million square feet of space

Residence: Chevy Chase, Maryland

Source: Forbes

Massachusetts: Abigail Johnson

Net worth: $15 billion

Industry: Money management 

Source of wealth: Inherited part of Fidelity Investments and serves as CEO and president

Residence: Milton, Massachusetts

Source: Forbes

Michigan: Dan Glibert

Net worth: $57.5 billion

Industry: Mortgage lender

Source of wealth: Founder of Quicken Loans, the country's largest online mortgage lender

Residence: Franklin, Michigan

Source: Forbes

Minnesota: Glen Taylor

Net worth: $2.5 billion

Industry: Printing

Source of wealth: Bought the company that became Taylor Corp. and owns sports teams

Residence: Mankato, Minnesota

Source: Forbes

Mississippi: James and Thomas Duff

Net worth: $1.4 billion each

Industry: Tires

Source of wealth: Founded and co-own Duff Capital Investors and inherited a commercial tire dealer

Residence: Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Source: Forbes, Forbes

Missouri: Pauline MacMillan Keinath

Net worth: $4.9 billion

Industry: Agriculture

Source of wealth: Believed to hold the most shares of Cargill, the largest food company in the world

Residence: St. Louis, Missouri

Source: Forbes

Montana: Dennis Washington

Net worth: $6.1 billion

Industry: Construction and mining

Source of wealth: Created a diversified group of businesses under the Washington Company

Residence: Missoula, Montana

Source: Forbes

Nebraska: Warren Buffett

Net worth: $82.5 billion

Industry: Financial

Source of wealth: Founder and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway

Residence: Omaha, Nebraska

Source: Forbes

Nevada: Sheldon Adelson

Net worth: $32.8 billion

Industry: Casinos

Source of wealth: Chairman and CEO of casino company Las Vegas Sands

Residence: Las Vegas, Nevada

Source: Forbes

New Hampshire: Andrea Reimann-Ciardelli

Net worth: $720 million

Industry: Consumer goods 

Source of wealth: Heir to the Reimann family fortune; sold her shares in the family's Luxembourg-based investment firm, JAB Holding Company, to relatives in 2003. JAB holds stakes in companies including Panera Bread, Coty, Krispy Kreme, and Peet's Coffee.

Residence: Hanover, New Hampshire

Source: Forbes, JAB Holding Company

New Jersey: John Overdeck

Net worth: $6.5 billion

Industry: Financial

Source of wealth: Cofounded Two Sigma Investments

Residence: Millburn, New Jersey

Source: Forbes

New Mexico: Mack C. Chase

Net worth: $700 million

Industry: Oil and natural gas

Source of wealth: Cofounded Marbob Energy and invested assets in Mack Energy Corporation

Residence: Artesia, New Mexico

Source: Forbes

New York: Michael Bloomberg

Net worth: $54.9 billion

Industry: Finance and media

Source of wealth: Bloomberg cofounded the financial and media company Bloomberg LP, which he holds an 88% ownership stake in

Residence: New York, New York

Source: Forbes

North Carolina: James Goodnight

Net worth: $6.5 billion

Industry: Technology

Source of wealth: Cofounded software firm SAS

Residence: Cary, North Carolina

Source: Forbes

North Dakota: Gary Tharaldson

Net worth: $1 billion

Industry: Hotels

Source of wealth: Purchasing hotel properties and developing land

Residence: Fargo, North Dakota

Source: Forbes

Ohio: Les Wexner and family

Net worth: $4.9 billion

Industry: Retail

Source of wealth: Founded L Brands, a company that owns retailers including Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works

Residence: New Albany, Ohio

Source: Forbes

Oklahoma: David Green and family

Net worth: $7.6 billion

Industry: Superstore

Source of wealth: Founder of the arts and craft store Hobby Lobby 

Residence: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Source: Forbes

Oregon: Phil Knight and family

Net worth: $43.5 billion

Industry: Retail

Source of wealth: Founded Nike

Residence: Hillsboro, Oregon

Source: Forbes

Pennsylvania: Victoria Mars

Net worth: $7.2 billion

Industry: Food

Source of wealth: Inherited Mars Incorporated, a company that manufactures food, candy, and pet food

Residence: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Source: Forbes

Rhode Island: Jonathan Nelson

Net worth: $2 billion

Industry: Financial

Source of wealth: Founded Providence Equity Partners and serves as CEO

Residence: Providence, Rhode Island

Source: Forbes

South Carolina: Anita Zucker

Net worth: $1.9 billion

Industry: Chemicals

Source of wealth: Inherited InterTech Group upon the death of her husband and currently serves as CEO of the company

Residence: Charleston, South Carolina

Source: Forbes

South Dakota: T. Denny Sanford

Net worth: $1.6 billion

Industry: Financial

Source of wealth: Owns First Premier Bank

Residence: Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Source: Forbes

Tennessee: Thomas Frist Jr. and family

Net worth: $12.4 billion

Industry: Health care

Source of wealth: Cofounded Hospital Corporation of America

Residence: Nashville, Tennessee

Source: Forbes

Texas: Alice Walton

Net worth: $64.6 billion

Industry: Retail

Source of wealth: Inherited part of the Walmart fortune

Residence: Fort Worth, Texas

Source: Forbes

Utah: Gail Miller

Net worth: $1.9 billion

Industry: Automobile

Source of wealth: Created Larry H. Miller Group and bought the basketball team Utah Jazz,with her late husband, Larry

Residence: Salt Lake City, Utah

Source: Forbes

Vermont: John Abele

Net worth: $640 million

Industry: Health care

Source of wealth: Cofounded medical device developer Boston Scientific

Residence: Shelburne, Vermont

Source: Forbes

Virginia: Jacqueline Mars

Net worth: $28.9 billion

Industry: Food

Source of wealth: Inherited Mars Incorporated, a company that manufactures food, candy, and pet food

Residence: The Plains, Virginia

Source: Forbes

Washington: Jeff Bezos

Net worth: $203.8 billion

Industry: Technology

Source of wealth: Founded Amazon

Residence: Seattle, Washington

Source: Forbes

West Virginia: Jim Justice II

Net worth: $1.2 billion

Industry: Coal

Source of wealth: Inherited coal business; current Governor of West Virginia

Residence: Lewisburg, West Virginia

Source: Forbes

Wisconsin: John Menard Jr.

Net worth: $14.2 billion

Industry: Retail

Source of wealth: Founded home improvement chain Menards

Residence: Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Source: Forbes

Wyoming: John Mars

Net worth: $28.9 billion

Industry: Food

Source of wealth: Inherited Mars Incorporated, a company that manufactures food, candy, and pet food

Residence: Jackson, Wyoming

Source: Forbes

SEE ALSO: There are 614 billionaires in the United States, and only 7 of them are Black

On September 1, Forbes added a new name to its list of Hollywood billionaires: Tyler Perry. With an estimated net worth of $1 billion, Perry joined the six-figure net worth ranks of Oprah Winfrey, George Lucas, John de Mol, and Steven Spielberg.

Source: Forbes

Forbes broke down his empire into five key areas, among which are his cash and investments, his stake in the video-on-demand service BET+, and his sprawling Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, Georgia.

Source: Forbes

Perry, 50, was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. He shared a close relationship with his mother, who died in 2009. He is estranged from his father.

Source: Forbes, Seattle Times

Perry and his long-term partner, the model and activist Gelila Bekele, have one son, Aman. He is based in Atlanta.

Source: AJC

Perry had got his start in theater. His first play — I Know I've Been Changed — opened to a mostly empty theatre. Thirteen years and many other plays later, he released his first film, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, in 2005, jumpstarting his Madea franchise. The movie made $22.7 million in its opening weekend.

Source: Tyler Perry, Fox 

One of Perry's best-known projects is the movie franchise Madea, in which Perry himself dresses as an elderly Black woman and plays the titular role. In an appearance on the Today show, Perry said that him playing the role happened by accident.

Source: Today

Perry made 11 Madea movies over the course of 15 years. The final installment — A Madea Family Funeral — made $27 million in its March 2019 opening weekend. Perry made the highest-grossing Madea movie, Madea Goes to Jail, exactly a decade prior to that. It brought in $90 million in total box office earnings in 2009.

Source: Variety, Forbes

All of Perry's Madea movies were distributed by studio giant Lionsgate. The films collectively brought in over $1 billion in ticket sales while the production cost of each was approximately $20 million. It is unclear how much Perry has personally made from the franchise.

Source: Variety, New York Times

Perry and Lionsgate had a "first look" deal for eight years from 2008 to 2014. In a first-look deal, the creator owns the copyright to his material.

Source: Variety, Kennington Groff

Since parting ways with Lionsgate, Perry has had a number of much-talked-about partnerships with Viacom, BET's parent company, and the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Source: THR

Forbes estimates that approximately $60 million of his billion-dollar net worth comes from his stake in BET+.

Source: Forbes

In 2017, Perry signed a contract with Viacom, BET's parent company, to produce exclusive original content for BET. The deal is slated to run through 2024 and didn't start until 2019, after Perry's contract with OWN ended.

Source: CNN, NYT

This multi-year partnership grew into a creating a video-on-demand subscription service in 2019 known as BET Plus, Variety reported. It will feature Perry's extensive library of work as well as BET programming.

Source: Variety

In 2015, Perry forked out $30 million to buy over 300 acres of a former US Army base in Atlanta. Tyler Perry Studios sits on that plot. Forbes estimates the studio is worth $280 million.

Source: Curbed Atlanta,Forbes

IndieWire noted that the land used to be a base for the Confederate Army, a point Perry has acknowledged. In a 2019 BET awards speech, he said, "while you're fighting for a seat at the table, I'll be down in Atlanta building my own."

Source: IndieWire, BET

Marvel megahit "Black Panther" was one of the first movies shot at the studio's new stages, AJC reported. Perry took Architectural Digest on a tour of the property in 2019, which gave viewers an inside look at the studio, which comes with neighborhoods, mansions, and even a replica of the White House.

Source: AJC, Architectural Digest

Perry has built an impressive real estate portfolio over the years that consists of several multimillion-dollar properties in Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Wyoming.

Source: Forbes

Perry bought a 34,000-square-foot house in Atlanta in 2007 for $9 million. It has seven bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, a helipad, an infinity pool, and a tennis court.

Source: Architectural Digest

He sold the home to David Turner, an entrepreneur and evangelist, nine years later in 2016 for $17.5 million. Steve Harvey bought the house for $15 million in June 2020.

Source: Architectural Digest, Variety

Perry owns a mansion worth $18 million in the swanky Beverly Hills neighborhood. The eight-bedroom and 12-bathroom villa played host to The Duke and Duchess of Sussex earlier this year. It is unclear if they rented the property or stayed there as guests. The couple's representatives declined to comment to Insider at the time.

Source: Business Insider, Insider, Daily Mail

Architectural Digest reported in November 2019 that Perry also owns a log cabin in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and a "previously uninhabited island in the Bahamas" although it's unclear how much they are each worth. Perry told Ellen DeGeneres that he once saw a grizzly bear in the backyard of his Jackson Hole cabin.

Source: Architectural Digest, The Ellen Show

Real estate isn't his only major investment. Perry owns a $150 million private jet that he used to fly water and other necessities to the Bahamas in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian in September 2019.

Source: CNN

Perry is also known to be generous with his wealth. In July 2020, he gifted approximately $50,000 in grocery store gift cards to those to needed help. He's also run The Perry Foundation since 2006. The foundation works on helping those at an economic disadvantage and has a focus on areas like education, human rights, and health.

Source: Today, The Perry Foundation

A Twitter post from Kanye West has been removed after West tweeted out the phone number belonging to a top magazine editor.

The act of publishing someone else's private information without permission — known as doxxing — is considered a violation of Twitter's policies. The tweet was public for nearly 30 minutes Wednesday afternoon before it was removed for violating Twitter rules.

Before the tweet was removed, a Twitter spokesperson told Business Insider the tweet has been "escalated" to the company's moderation team for "review."

The tweet in question appears to show the phone number for Forbes' chief content officer. West encourages his fans to "call a white supremacist," and provides the iPhone contact information belonging to a "Randall Forbes."

The tweet garnered more than 17,000 retweets before it was taken down just before 2 p.m. 

When reached for comment, Forbes' communications chief Matthew Hutchison told Business Insider the company has "a lot of empathy" for West, and is hoping he's able to get "all the help he deserves."

Under Twitter's private information policy, users who violate this rule the first time are required to remove the offensive tweet, and will be "temporarily" unable to tweet from their account. After the first offense, Twitter says it will permanently suspend the rule-breaking user.

Offline, West has been busy staging his longshot bid to become President of the US, a campaign that has cost him nearly $6 million of his own money in just the first month. Twitter's actions against West makes the rapper the second-ever US presidential candidate — behind Donald Trump — to have a social media post removed for rule violations, as noted by political reporter Ben Jacobs on Twitter.

Yet this tweet from West is only one of dozens he posted online Wednesday afternoon. West also shared photos of pages from his recording contract with a major music label, as well as a video appearing to show someone urinating on a Grammy music award.

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12. Michael Dell

Net worth:$36.8 billion

Age: 55

Source of wealth: Self-made; Dell

Net worth year-over-year change: Up by $5.96 billion in the last year.

11. Ma Huateng

Net worth:$52.9 billion

Age: 48

Source of wealth: Self-made; Tencent Holdings

Net worth year-over-year change: Up by $14.3 billion in the last year. 

10. Jack Ma

Net worth:$57.1 billion

Age: 56

Source of wealth: Self-made; Ali Baba 

Net worth year-over-year change: Up by $10.4 billion in the last year.

9. Mackenzie Scott

Net worth:$57.8 billion

Age: 50

Source of wealth: Self-made; Amazon

Net worth year-over-year change: Up by $20.7 billion in the last year.

8. Sergey Brin

Net worth:$69.2 billion

Age: 47

Source of wealth: Self-made; Google

Net worth year-over-year change: Up by $6.55 billion in the last year.

7. Larry Ellison

Net worth:$70.8 billion

Age: 76

Source of wealth: Self-made; Oracle

Net worth year-over-year change: Up by $12 billion in the last year.

6. Larry Page

Net worth:$71.4 billion

Age: 47

Source of wealth: Self-made; Google 

Net worth year-over-year change: Up by $6.82 billion in the last year.

.

5. Steve Ballmer

Net worth:$73.3 billion

Age: 64

Source of wealth: Self-made; Microsoft

Net worth year-over-year change: Up by $15.2 billion in the last year. 

4. Mark Zuckerberg

Net worth:$96.7 billion

Age: 36

Source of wealth: Self-made; Facebook

Net worth year-over-year change: Up by $18.3 billion in the last year.

3. Elon Musk

Net worth:$103 million

Age: 49

Source of wealth: Self-made; Tesla

Net worth year-over-year change: Up by $75.1 billion in the last year.

2. Bill Gates

Net worth:$123 billion

Age: 64

Source of wealth: Self-made; Cash, Microsoft

Net worth year-over-year change: Up by $9.76 billion in the last year.

1. Jeff Bezos

Net worth:$178 billion

Age: 56

Source of wealth: Self-made; Amazon

Net worth year-over-year change: Up by $63.4 billion in the last year.

SEE ALSO: Meet the 15 richest people in Asia, who are collectively worth more than $500 billion

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20. Mark Cuban: $4.2 billion, per Forbes

Mark Cuban has made his fortune through business deals in tech, sports, and Shark Tank investments, Business Insider previously reported.

Cuban co-founded a video portal, Broadcast.com in 1995. Four years later, he sold the company to Yahoo for $5.7 billion.

Today, Cuban owns the Dallas Mavericks. He purchased the NBA team for $285 million in 2000. Cuban has donated millions to charities related to healthcare, disaster relief, and domestic violence.

After a Sports Illustrated report said the Mavericks franchise was a hostile work environment for women, Cuban donated $10 million to domestic violence awareness in 2018 as part of the NBA's investigation into workplace conditions.

In 2017, he lent a private jet to two of his players bring supplies to Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria.

In 2020, Cuban and athletes Luka Dončić and Dwight Powell partnered up to donate $500,000 to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Parkland Hospital. 

19. Martha Ingram: $4.4 billion, per Forbes

Martha Ingram inherited her wealth.

Her family owns Ingram Industries, a firm with subsidiaries in bookmaking and distributing. Ingram's husband Bronson founded the company in 1978, and Ingram began running the business when he died in 1995.

She stepped down from her role as chairman in 2008, and her sons replaced her.

18. Friede Springer: $4.8 billion, per Forbes

Friede Springer's main source of wealth is inherited.

When her husband, Axel, died in 1985, Springer acquired Axel Springer, a major publishing company he founded in 1946. 

Axel Springer bought Business Insider in 2015.

17. Charles Dolan: $4.84 billion

Charles Dolan made his fortune by starting, building, and then ultimately, selling his cable company. He founded Cablevision Systems, a cable operator, in 1973, and sold it to Altice, a telecommunications company, for $17.7 billion in 2016.

Today, Dolan and his family own significant stakes in AMC Networks and Madison Square Garden's entertainment and sports companies. He served as chairman of AMC before stepping down in September 2020.

16. Isaac Perlmutter: $4.65 billion

The majority of Isaac Perlmutter's billion-dollar net worth comes from Marvel. He has served as chairman of the studio since 1998.

Perlmutter moved to Brooklyn, New York, from Israel in 1967. He is credited with transforming Marvel from a bankrupt comic company to a successful media business, complete with films, video games, and action figures, Business Insider previously reported. To achieve this, Perlmutter oversaw Marvel's shift in focus to character licensing, or ownership over the characters that allowed the company to make movies, shows, games, and toys about them.

Perlmutter donated about $60 million to NYU Langone Medical Center's cancer research between 2014 and 2015. 

15. Clive Calder: $5.08 billion

Clive Calder co-founded the record company Zomba Music Group in 1975. He joined the three comma net worth club when he sold it for $2.7 billion in 2002. The company included Jive Records, a label that has signed big names like Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, and NSync.

Calder lives in the Cayman Islands with his wife.

T14. Margaretta Taylor: $5.68 billion

Margaretta Taylor's wealth comes from her inheritance of about 17% of Cox Enterprises, her family's media and automotive company that provides cable, internet, telecommunications, advertising, and vehicle auction and services. She inherited the stakes from her mother, Anne Cox Chambers, who died in January 2020. Taylor's grandfather, James Cox, founded the company in 1968.

Taylor donated $5 million to the Bronx Zoo and had a sea lion named after her in 2010.

T14. Katharine Rayner: $5.68 billion

Taylor's sister Katherine Rayner also inherited 17% of Cox Enterprises, which made about $21.2 billion in 2019.

T14. James Cox Chambers: $5.68 billion

Rayner and Taylor's brother, James Cox Chambers, inherited 17% of Cox Enterprises. Chambers, his sisters, and his mom have never played an active role in the company.

11. David Thomson: $6.43 billion

David Thomson inherited his wealth from his grandfather's media company, now known as Thomson Reuters.

Thomson serves as co-chairman of the Canada-based business that covers international news. His family owns 320 million shares of the business that his grandfather started in the 1930s, per the company's website.

10. Rupert Murdoch: $6.88 billion

Rupert Murdoch made his fortune by founding, buying, and selling newspapers and media company stakes, Business Insider previously reported.

Today, Murdoch serves as chairman of Fox Corp. and News Corp., the publisher that owns The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, and The Sun.

Murdoch is from Australia, where he inherited a newspaper publication from his father at 22. He founded The Australian, the country's first nationwide paper, in 1964. About 20 years later, he purchased the New York Post and New York Magazine. Also in the 1980s, Murdoch bought more than half of the stocks in 20th Century Fox.

9. George Lucas: $7.13 billion

George Lucas founded Lucasfilm, the company behind the mega-successful Star Wars and Indiana Jones movie franchises, in 1971. The franchises have made a combined $12 billion in global ticket sales since 1977.

Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 for $4.1 billion. He and his wife Mellody Hobson funded the creation of The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which is currently under construction in Los Angeles and will showcase a variety of artworks and other archival materials, including rare items from the Separate Cinema Archive, a collection of artifacts from Black films between 1904 and 2019.

8. John Malone: $7.49 billion

John Malone became CEO of a nearly-bankrupt cable company, Tele-Communications, Inc., in 1973, and turned it into the biggest cable company of its time by 1990, Business Insider previously reported.

Today, Malone serves as chairman of Liberty Global, a TV and internet company that made $11.4 billion in 2019. Malone also has stakes in Discovery Communications and Formula One.

Malone owns more than a million acres of woodlands in Maine and New Hampshire. He's the largest private landowner in the US.

T7. Blair Parry-Okeden: $8.6 billion

Blair Parry-Okeden's wealth comes from her grandfather's company. Cousin to Taylor, Rayner, and Chambers, Parry-Okeden inherited 25% of Cox Enterprises when her mother died in 2007. Their grandfather, James Cox, founded the company in 1898.

T7. Jim Kennedy: $8.6 billion

Parry-Okeden's brother, Jim Kennedy, inherited 25% of the company when his mother died. Additionally, Kennedy serves as chairman of Cox Enterprises.

5. Tim Sweeney: $9.4 billion

Tim Sweeney made his fortune in the video game industry. In 1991, Sweeney co-founded Epic Games, the video game developer behind Gears of War and Fortnite. The company made $1.8 billion in 2019.

Sweeney has donated millions to preserve North Carolina lands, Business Insider previously reported. In 2017, he bought 193 acres of Alamance County for $1.97 million to preserve it.

4. David Geffen: $10 billion

David Geffen made his fortune founding media companies. In 1980, he started a record label, Geffen Records, which he sold for $550 million in 1990. Four years later, he co-founded the movie studio DreamWorks SKG alongside Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg.

Geffen has a $590 million superyacht, Rising Sun, where he hosts notable figures like Jeff Bezos, Tom Hanks, and the Obamas, Business Insider previously reported. Back in March when the coronavirus began to spread across the US, he received backlash for an Instagram post about self-isolating on his yacht, per The Guardian. Geffen deleted his Instagram shortly after.

3. Charlie Ergen: $10.2 billion

Charlie Ergen co-founded Dish Network, a satellite TV provider, in 1996. Today, he serves as chairman of the company. In 2008, Ergen split the provider's satellite communications into a separate sister company called Echostar, where he also serves as chairman. The spin-off split Dish Network's shares into two publically shared companies. Dish Network made $12.8 billion in 2019.

2. Donald Newhouse: $16.3 billion

In 1979, Donald Newhouse inherited his wealth from his father, Sam Newhouse, who founded Advance Publications in 1922. The media company publishes Vanity Fair and The New Yorker through Conde Nast.

1. Michael Bloomberg: $54.9 billion, per Forbes

Michael Bloomberg co-founded the media company, Bloomberg LP, in 1981. Today, he owns 88% of the business.

Bloomberg served as mayor of New York City for three terms beginning in 2002, Business Insider previously reported. He ran for president in 2020 but dropped out in March.

Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella thinks it's time to rethink the way capitalism works.

On Wednesday, he called for "referendum on capitalism," urging businesses to grade themselves on the wider economic benefits they bring to society, rather than just their profits.

Microsoft and others should measure their success by the jobs they create, the revenue they generate for their suppliers, and the money their employees spend elsewhere, he said.

"It's fair, in today in 2020, in the midst of this pandemic, to essentially have a referendum on capitalism," Nadella said at the Forbes JUST 100 virtual summit.

"We all have to recognize what is that social core purpose of a corporation."

Read more:Leaked Microsoft slides show that the company has generated at least $61.7 million in revenue this quarter by selling to the smallest businesses and educational institutions

Nadella, who has served as CEO since 2013, gave the example of shareholders supporting Microsoft's pledge to become carbon neutral by 2030.

His comments come amid a wider demand for "stakeholder capitalism," where companies focus on the needs of all stakeholders, including wider society.

This was the theme for this year's World Economic Forum event in Davos, where leaders credited the movement in part to the "Greta Thunberg effect", and the increasing urgency of addressing climate change.

In August 2019, nearly 200 CEOs of large companies, including Amazon and JPMorgan Chase, signed Business Roundtable guidelines that described how organizations should "promote an economy that serves all Americans." 

Nadella also discussed Microsoft's commitment to democracy.

"As an American company — and tech company — our standing in the world, and in the United States, comes because of the vibrancy of the American democracy," he said.

"So therefore any standing of any business, including ours, depends on us building on that strong institution of democracy here and everywhere else," he added.

SEE ALSO: Satya Nadella said the TikTok-Oracle deal is unrecognizable from the one Microsoft bid on

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In the wake of Wednesday's attempted coup, Forbes — the American business magazine — has issued a warning to companies hoping to hire former officials from President Donald Trump's administration.

Businesses that choose to hire Trump administration alumni will, the editor said, be held to account.

"Forbes will assume that everything your company or firm talks about is a lie," the magazine's editor Randall Lane wrote.  "We're going to scrutinize, double-check, investigate with the same skepticism we'd approach a Trump tweet," Lane added.

Read more: Secret Service experts are speculating in group chats about how Trump might be hauled out of the White House if he won't budge on Inauguration Day

In the article titled 'A Truth Reckoning: Why We're Holding Those Who Lied For Trump Accountable,' Lane reflected on the lies that spurred rioters to ransack the US Capitol building.

The easiest way for American democracy to recover from the insurrection, he wrote, is to "create repercussions for those who don't follow the civic norms."

In the Forbes article, Lane name-called Trump's press secretaries and a former senior counselor to the president — Sean Spicer, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Stephanie Grisham, Kayleigh McEnany, and Kellyanne Conway — and referred to the group as "Trump's fellow fabulists."

This ultimatum follows the news that some White House staff are worried about securing their next job, according to Politico.

Administration officials told the media outlet that they fear Wednesday's events will damage their reputations, finances, and future careers.

Lower-level Trump staffers are also "trying to save face for future employment," a source told Politico.

In recent days, several high-profile Trump officials have resigned to distance themselves from the president.

On Thursday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos resigned as did Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.

On Wednesday, Melania Trump's chief of staff, Stephanie Grisham, Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews, and Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger all resigned.

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About a fifth of Shopify sellers evaluated by Fakespot deserve a "caution" or "warning" sign for activities like selling fraudulent products or not delivering items. 

Fakespot, an internet extension that helps protect consumers from fraudulent sellers, analyzed 124,044 of Shopify's online stores and found that 25,788 have fraudulent practices. The Fakespot data was originally reported by the Financial Times in December.

Shopify, based in Ottowa, Canada, is an online retailer that allows merchants to set up their own "stores" and sell products to consumers. It now hosts more than one million merchants, according to its website. 

"While the ease of setting up an eCommerce business was great for reputable companies, it also opened the floodgates to scammers and con-artists," a Fakespot spokesman said in an emailed statement to Insider.

Read more:A 21-year-old is 'dripping in dropshipping money,' selling $1.7 million in products on Shopify. He shares his biggest tips for making e-commerce profit.

In the statement, Fakespot said Shopify scammers often sell counterfeit products or knock off popular products from Amazon, Shopify, or Kickstarter, and then promote those items to consumers using perks such as discounts or free shipping. 

Sellers adopt different methods to scam customers, Fakespot said: shipping items that are clearly knock-offs, sending different items entirely, or not sending any products at all, but still keeping the payments from unassuming shoppers. If a consumer receives an unwanted item, it's his or her responsibility to pay for return shipping outside the US, which is often more expensive than the item itself. 

Shopify scammers can easily set up a store on the site without a background check, Fakespot said. Then these scammers "spend heavily" on Google and Facebook ads because of negligible inventory costs and little investment needed to run a Shopify store. 

A Shopify spokesperson told Insider in an emailed statement that it has closed thousands of stores, and it regularly implements new measures to address fraud or other violations. But there will still be those few that abuse the service. "We take this matter seriously," Shopify said. 

"We do not condone the behavior of bad actors, and we employ multiple teams who handle potential violations of Shopify's Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), notices of alleged copyright and trademark infringement, as well as fraud complaints," Shopify said in a statement. "Our AUP clearly outlines the activities that are not permitted on our platform, and we take action when stores are found in violation. We also encourage consumers to report potential unacceptable behaviour here and to contact their credit card companies to file a dispute."

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Forbes is canceling a 75-person "bubble" in Bermuda for its 30-Under-30 honorees after facing backlash online. 

The event was slated as a month-long residency beginning on March 1 where guests could "work all day, and then network, engage in live programming and have incredible fun on nights and weekends." Attendees would be required to be in a bubble where they only interacted with each other, and Forbes said in an FAQ that was viewed by Insider that it would implement "state-of-the-art testing, quarantine, and bubble protocols that rival anything in the world." 

"In a time of global chaos, when things feel so monotonous and gloomy, Forbes has decided to undertake something unprecedented, something amazing, something magical for our 30 Under 30 nominees," the online application to join the trip reads.

But on Monday, one day after the trip was revealed on Twitter by BuzzFeed creative director Rachel Zarrell, Forbes said it won't be moving forward with the residency. 

"We wanted to find a way, with the help of the government of Bermuda, to create a protocol that could allow us to come together and build a community in a safe way that also serves as a model for the world," Forbes' Chief Communications Officer Matthew Hutchison told Insider in a statement. "We're not proceeding with this initiative but we are committed to tapping into the brainpower of our global community, partnering with others and demonstrating a path forward."

Additional questions regarding why the trip was canceled went unanswered. A spokesperson for the Bermuda tourism department did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. 

Read more:Wealthy executives are ditching commercial travel for the 'country club' experience of private jets, and luxury destinations are pivoting to meet demand

According to Zarrell, the trip was announced in a Slack channel for Forbes' 30 Under 30 honorees. Those who wished to attend were required to submit an application online to ensure "the exact right mix and balance of enthusiastic participants," the FAQ reads.

Though Forbes wasn't charging guests to be a part of the bubble, it did require attendees to pay for their own room at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess hotel and encouraged guests to stay with a roommate.

A month-long stay at the Hamilton Princess typically costs nearly $20,000, Forbes said, but 30-Under-30 guests could stay for $4,500 per one-bed room. Double rooms would have cost $2,400 per person, while double rooms with a third, portable bed would have cost $1,800 per person.

The price included access to a private dining area, coworking space, indoor and outdoor bar, and private beach club. Food and drink was not included in the trip, though Forbes planned to host a mandatory weeknight dinner for $40 per person. No events were planned during East Coast working hours so attendees could continue working remotely from the island. 

According to a report from The Guardian's Archie Bland, the invitation to the residency received an enthusiastic response in the Slack channel. One recipient said they were "so incredibly stoked" for the opportunity, while another posted, "See you in Bermuda!"

Zarrell also tweeted that the trip had received a very positive response in the Slack channel, but called into question the wisdom of hosting a large gathering, regardless of the planned testing protocols.

"You can test your little heart out but you're living in a fantasy if you think 75+ affluent young people are going to quarantine," she wrote.

Commenters online had mixed reactions. Many felt that such a large group trip was too risky, or that the mandatory five-day quarantine ahead of the trip wasn't enough time to ensure no one would bring the virus to Bermuda. 

But others felt that the trip would bring much-needed tourism to the island, and that a long-term trip would be safer than tourists flying in for a quick visit. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently classifies traveling to Bermuda as a level-4 risk for contracting COVID-19, its highest tier, and recommends avoiding all travel to Bermuda. 

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Following is a transcript of the video.

Zack O'Malley Greenburg: Just goes to show how you can leverage your fame beyond just the music.

About a decade ago The Economist interviewed the director of the company that makes Cristal Champagne, one of the most expensive champagnes in the world favored by Russian tsars over history, he was asked, what did he think about all these rappers drinking Cristal Champagne and he basically said, "Well, we can't forbid "people from buying it." Not exactly a ringing endorsement of a new customer base. He thought that rappers didn't read The Economist but he was wrong. Jay-Z heard about his comments, he removed it from his 40/40 Club, and more importantly, he started issuing this sort of, directive to his fans, not to drink it either.

And instead of rapping about Cristal, he put his money where is mouth was, he ended up investing in, and eventually taking over French champagne brand called Armand de Brignac, AKA Ace of Spades. You see this in his videos, the gold bottles, he raps about it all the time, and this has now become one of his most valuable assets in his entire portfolio.

Diddy does not have his own champagne, however he has something just as or perhaps even more valuable, which is his deal with Diageo's Ciroc vodka. He started out with them in the late 2000s, and at that point, Ciroc was just a middling vodka brand being shilled by no-name former NFL players. They decided to take a chance on Diddy, and they didn't really have anything to lose, because Ciroc wasn't doing very well. It was about the fiftieth ranked vodka in the world and so Diddy came on and he applied his typical marketing panache and his shock and awe salesmanship, this was around the time that Barack Obama was running for president. He started calling himself Ciroc Obama, giving that free product placement, within only a few years, Ciroc was number two in the premium vodka category, to only Grey Goose doin' about two million cases a year.

There's a really fascinating connection between Diddy and Jay-Z in the spirits world. Between the two of them, I mean you think, you know same job description, hip hop mogul, two very different guys, two very different approaches. But born a month apart, in the same city, both named Shawn and they both use the same cheap grape as the base of two of their most important products, that's the Trebbiano grape, which is considered by wine officials to be, you know sort of a, a nothing grape, it's a filler, it's table wine.

Jay-Z has a Cognac called D'Usse, which is a joint venture with Bacardi. Of course, if you're making Cognac, it doesn't really matter because they're grapes that you have to include in order to be officially called Cognac. As far as Diddy's Ciroc vodka goes, using grapes is rather unorthodox, vodka is typically made out of potatoes or grains or something like that. So that was kind of his first philosophy with Ciroc is to center on the sexiness of the grape.

Diddy: One-and-a-half ounces of Ciroc vodka, you can only make it with Ciroc vodka, other vodkas don't work.

Greenburg: One thing that gets kind of lost in all of the promotion of Ciroc and such, is that Trebbiano is actually a very cheap grape and not some super-fancy thing.

At the end of the day, Jay-Z and Diddy are both excellent, savvy businessmen. Of course, they're not gonna get the most expensive grape because in order to do well on a product, you have to have a low cost, and you have to have a high price. They've grasped that better than anybody and the success that they've had with Ciroc and D'Usse certainly go to prove that as well.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This video was originally published in March 2018. In February 2021, LVMH announced it would acquire half of Armand de Brignac, Jay-Z's bubbly brand. 

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Former President Donald Trump dropped 298 spots in Forbes' Billionaires list, which was released Tuesday.

Trump sat at the No. 1,001 spot in 2020 and now holds the 1,299th place in the publication's annual list, which ranks the world's billionaires. As Forbes notes, Trump has actually grown richer since this time last year, but others on the list saw their fortunes expand even more. He is worth $2.4 billion by Forbes' estimates.

The pandemic — as well as the controversy surrounding impeachments against him and other political snafus — have marred his commercial real estate business, a market that has taken a hit during the health crisis-driven shutdowns. About 75% of his income comes from his commercial real estate assets, including revenue from resorts and golf clubs, according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index.

Read more: The Manhattan DA's office picked up the pace of its investigation into Trump's finances once it hired a prosecutor who used to pursue mob bosses, a cooperating witness says

His Manhattan properties, in particular, rake in a large chunk of revenue for him, a stream of income that has been interrupted by an upended New York real estate market.

Over the four years that Trump was president, his net worth plummeted by $700 million from $3 billion to $2.3 billion, as Insider's Grace Kay and Grace Dean reported. He was the first billionaire in history to serve as president of the United States.

Last year, Trump also fell 77 spots in Forbes' ranking of the 400 richest Americans— his net worth took a $600 million hit between September 2019 and September 2020. Fellow billionaire investor Warren Buffett also met rough times during the pandemic and saw his net worth plummet $7.3 billion.

The individuals included in Forbes' 2021 Billionaire's List are collectively word $13.1 trillion, with most residing in the US. Despite the setbacks, Forbes reported that a new billionaire emerged every 14 hours on average over the course of the last year. 

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Some Republican senators who slammed "woke" corporate America over companies' responses to Georgia's restrictive voting laws have now said that they'll continue to take money from political action committees (PACs), according to a report by Forbes.

These include Florida Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, and Texas Sen. John Cornyn, Forbes reported.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a sweeping voting bill in March, which restricted the use of ballot drop boxes and mandated ID for absentee voting. Civil rights groups and Democrat officials, including President Joe Biden, have denounced the law as suppressing voters, particularly the state's Black voters, Insider's Grace Panetta reported.

Georgia-based companies including Coca-Cola and Delta have blasted the law, while other companies like Amazon, BlackRock, and Bank of America signed a blanket statement opposing voting-restriction laws. The MLB pulled the all-star game from Georgia.

Read more: These 10 high-profile Republicans who dumped Trump are mostly wary to back Biden's re-election. At least for now.

Some Republicans, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, have since said they would boycott corporate donations, egged on by former President Donald Trump. 

But others who criticized these companies appear happy to accept corporate money.

Sen. Marco Rubio

In an op-ed for The New York Post on April 25, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio slammed corporate America for being "woke."

He said that "corporate America routinely flexes its power to humiliate politicians if they dare support traditional values at all."

He criticized "cowardly sports leagues [that] pull events out of states that dare pass legislation they don't like," and said that companies like Delta Airlines "parrot woke talking points."

"Corporate America eagerly dumps woke, toxic nonsense into our culture, and it's only gotten more destructive with time," he added.

But he told Forbes he would continue to take money from corporate PAC.

"If they want to support us, that's great," he told the publication. He added that he wouldn't reject money from Coca Cola, Delta, and MLB, all of which Trump had urged his followers to boycott.

"I don't think anyone's contribution guarantees I'm supportive of them," Rubio said.

Sen. Rick Scott.

In an open letter to "woke corporate America" for Fox Business on April 19, Florida Sen. Rick Scott said that companies were "virtue signaling" and had tried to hurt Georgia's economy.

He said that the Republican Party would "make corporate welfare a thing of the past," which he said was "long overdue.

"There will be no number of well-connected lobbyists you can hire to save you. There will be no amount of donations you can make that will save you. There will be nowhere for you to hide."

Scott added that the GOP would take back the Senate and the House in November 2022, which he said would be "a day of reckoning" for corporate America.

But Scott told Forbes that "elections cost money," and said that "we'll take the money" from PACs.

He also said that the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which he chaired, would continue to raise money from PACs.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn

Texas Sen. John Cornyn said on Twitter that MLB's decision to relocate the All-Star game away from Georgia "hurt the Georgia economy, for no good reason."

In a statement on his website, Cornyn added that MLB fans needed voter ID to collect pre-paid tickets for its games.

He told Forbes that he "respects" Cruz's decision to stop accepting corporate PACs, but that he is "always happy to get support from people who agree with me on policy matters."

Melinda Gates is the fifth most powerful woman in the world, and the second American — after Vice President Kamala Harris — to make Forbes' The World's 100 Most Powerful Women list.

She and her husband, Bill, announced on May 3 plans to divorce after being married 27 years. Though they don't have a prenuptial agreement, if they split their $146 billion fortune equally, Melinda would be worth around $73 billion.

Gates has become one of the most prolific philanthropists in the world as co-chair of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which she helmed virtually on her own for the first six years of operation. She is now co-chair of the foundation with Bill, positions they said they will maintain even after the divorce.

She said in a statement posted to Twitter that she and Bill continue to believe in the mission of the foundation and will continue their work there.

Read more: Agritech startup Enko just raised $45 million in a funding round led by the Gates Foundation

In addition to the foundation's education and healthcare initiatives, Gates takes a personal interest in women's issues around the world. At the forefront of her agenda is expanding the availability of contraception and bringing awareness to the concept of time poverty— the notion that hours of daily unpaid work like household chores end up "robbing women of their potential."

In 2016, Gates was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the US, by President Obama.

Keep scrolling to learn more about her life and how she became one of the world's richest and most powerful women.

Additional reporting from Tanza Loudenback.

SEE ALSO: Inside the daily routine of billionaire Bill Gates, who loves cheeseburgers, tours missile silos, and washes the dishes every night

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Melinda Gates (neè French) grew up in Dallas, Texas, with her parents — a stay-at-home mother and an aerospace-engineer father — and her three siblings. The family belonged to the local Roman Catholic parish.

Source: Telegraph

The Frenches were intent on sending all four of their children to college, so Melinda's father started a side business for rental properties. "We would help him run the business and keep the books," she said. "We saw money coming in and money going out."

Source: Photo by Mark Madeo/Future via Getty Images

Gates was valedictorian and head of the drill team at her high school, Ursuline Academy of Dallas. In 2007, the Gates Foundation donated $7 million to Ursuline for the construction of The French Family Science, Math, and Technology Center — a 70,000 sq. ft. LEED Gold certified laboratory and classroom building.

Source: Ursuline Dallas, Marie Claire

She went on to earn a double bachelor's degree in computer science and economics from Duke University and an MBA from Duke's Fuqua School of Business in just five years.

Source: Duke Today

But Gates' dedication to her school work did not deter her from a social life. She was a member of Duke's Beta Rho chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority. In a 1995 interview, a sorority sister remembered her as a serial monogamist and a reserved dresser.

Source: Heritage, Seattle Times

Gates has been generous to her alma mater. Her gifts include The French Family Science Center, the University Scholars Program, and the DukeEngage Program. She also served as a Duke trustee from 1996 to 2004.

Source: Duke Today

Shortly after graduation, Gates was recruited by Microsoft just after the company went public and its stock began to soar. During her time at the company, she served as project manager of Microsoft Bob, Microsoft Encarta, and Expedia.

Source: Seattle Times

At a company picnic, Gates' soon to be ex-husband, Bill, asked if she'd like to join him on a date in two weeks. She turned him down because he wasn't spontaneous enough. Within an hour, he asked to take her out that night and she agreed. The pair kept a low profile at work and asked colleagues and family members to respect their privacy.

Source: Business Insider, Seattle Times

Gates called the couple's first trip to Africa in 1993 the turning point. During a walk on the beach in Zanzibar, they decided to do something about the devastation they'd seen. Thus, the Gates Foundation was born.

Source: TED.com

In 1994, after seven years of dating, Bill and Melinda married in a secret ceremony on the 17th hole of a Hawaiian golf course after a pre-wedding fireworks display and a performance by Willie Nelson. The wedding tab was reportedly $1 million. The two were married for 27 years before filing for divorce.

Source: People Magazine

Gates gave birth to their three children in 1996, 1999, and 2002. Though they won't be poor, the Gates children will not inherit their parents' billions, most of which will go to the foundation. "We want to strike a balance where they have the freedom to do anything but not a lot of money showered on them so they could go out and do nothing," Bill said in 2014.

Source: TED.com

The Gates children have all been to Africa a number of times for philanthropic work. In 2014, Gates and her eldest daughter traveled to Tanzania to do a homestay for the first time. In a TED talk, Gates said, "As they get older, they so know that our family belief is about responsibility, that we are in an unbelievable situation just to live in the United States and have a great education, and we have a responsibility to give back to the world."

Source: TED.com

U2 frontman Bono once said of Melinda: "Lots of people like him [Bill] — and I include myself — are enraged, and we sweep ourselves into a fury at the wanton loss of lives. What we need is a much slower pulse to help us be rational. Melinda is that pulse."

Source: Fortune

In 2006, Warren Buffett agreed to give 80% of his multi-billion dollar fortunate to the Gates Foundation. Buffett, a close friend of the family, told Fortune that Bill is "smart as hell, obviously ... but in terms of seeing the whole picture, [Melinda's] smarter."

Source: Fortune

In 2014, Gates joined Bill for a speech during Stanford's commencement. She gave advice to students and families about hands-on charity: "Let your heart break. It will change what you do with your optimism."

Source: Stanford

In 1995, a Seattle Times article predicted that perhaps Gates would one day head up a Gates foundation. For the last 15 years, she has been the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a private, global foundation with a $40 billion endowment.

Source: Seattle Times, Gates Foundation

Gates is taking a number of domestic and world issues head-on. Despite her Catholic faith, she has worked to expand the availability of contraception for women, writing in a Fortune article that birth control is "too important to let it be a politicized issue."

Source: Huffington Post, Fortune

She's recently begun a new initiative to transform the 21st century workplace into one of inclusivity, specifically when it comes to the gender gap.

Source: LinkedIn

In November 2016, Gates was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by then-President Obama, the highest civilian award in the US, for her work in health and poverty in America and abroad.

Gates describes the legacy she hopes to leave: "On the day I die, I want people to think that I was a great mom and a great family member and a great friend. I care about that more than I care about anything else."

Source: Fortune

The media world is in a period of consolidation, from small companies to giants like WarnerMedia and Discovery. 

The digital-publishing space has been no exception, with BuzzFeed announcing last month that it would acquire Complex Networks and go public via a special-purpose acquisition company.

While CEOs, bankers, and advisors are typically the the most high-profile dealmakers in the digital-publishing space, some of these companies also employ corporate development specialists who evaluate potential acquisitions.

Insider has identified 13 of the key behind-the-scenes employees working on M&A for some of the most active digital publishers. They're likely to have a busy second half of the year.

This list is ordered alphabetically by company.

Alex Mather, CEO of The Athletic

Yes, Mather is a CEO, but media insiders say he has been the key figure leading the company's recent corporate development efforts.

The Athletic has been the subject of plenty of reporting about potential M&A activity, reportedly speaking to Axios and The New York Times about tie-ups — though both conversations reportedly broke down, according to the Information and the Wall Street Journal.

An Athletic spokesperson would not comment but said that the company has not yet hired a banker.

Mather cofounded the paid subscription sports site in 2016. Prior to that, he was vice president of product management and product design at Strava, a social network for athletes. 

Gabriel Brotman, senior vice president of investments, and Lars Kahl, senior vice president of investments and business development at Axel Springer

Brotman and Kahl are Axel Springer's duo in the US working on digital media investments as the German publishing giant — which owns Insider — expands its footprint. 

Brotman was previously a cofounder of Politico Europe, a joint venture between Politico and Axel Springer. He worked in corporate development at Politico's parent company on acquisitions like European Voice and Capital New York. 

Kahl joined Axel Springer's accelerator in Berlin in 2016 before moving to its digital unit. Since 2019, he has worked out of New York on international investments.

"Apart from the well-reported consolidation trends, we're seeing a lot of successful entrepreneurs and startup teams looking for bigger platforms to fuel growth, diversification and geographic expansion. That's where we see our sweet spot," Brotman and Kahl said in an email to Insider.

Roy Schwartz, cofounder and president of Axios

Schwartz cofounded Axios with CEO Jim VandeHei and newsletter writer Mike Allen. The three branched off in 2017 after working at Politico, where Schwartz served as chief revenue officer. 

Along with VandeHei, Schwartz works on Axios' M&A strategy. Last year, the company bought Charlotte Agenda as it readied a push into local news. Schwartz told Insider that Axios is geared toward a readership of smart business professionals. "Our consolidation philosophy is driven by our desire to continue to grow and support that audience," he said. 

Axios has itself been a target of deal chatter in recent weeks. The Wall Street Journal reported that the company spoke with The Athletic, but that those talks halted. The Information reported in May that the company was in talks to be acquired by Axel Springer.

Spokespeople for Axios and Axel Springer declined to comment.

Sharmi Gandhi, senior vice president of corporate development at Bustle Digital Group

Bustle Digital Group has been known as one of the main bargain hunters in digital media, grabbing up properties like Nylon, Elite Daily, and Gawker's intellectual property for a forthcoming relaunch. Gandhi now oversees M&A activity after joining in March.

She previously worked at Endeavor Streaming, launching consumer OTT video services. She was also executive vice president of strategy and development at Mic, which Bustle Digital Group acquired in 2019. 

"The media industry is incredibly active right now, and we're going to see several deals happen over the next year," Gandhi told Insider. "I'm focused on finding media brands with passionate audiences that would benefit from leveraging BDG's shared sales, tech, and support infrastructure."

Felicia DellaFortuna, chief financial officer at BuzzFeed

Spurred by CEO Jonah Peretti's long-held goal to roll up more digital media companies, BuzzFeed announced last month that it will go public via a special-purpose acquisition company and acquire style and sports publisher Complex Networks for $300 million. Earlier this year, BuzzFeed closed its acquisition of HuffPost.

Now the company is on the hunt for more acquisitions. At the press conference announcing the SPAC, Peretti was joined by DellaFortuna, BuzzFeed's chief financial officer. While Peretti is BuzzFeed's key deal maker, DellaFortuna works behind the scenes on the company's acquisitions.

DellaFortuna joined in 2015 as a senior director of finance, and previously worked at adtech company and Myspace owner Viant.

Peter Lattman, managing director at Emerson Collective

Lattman looks after media investments for Emerson Collective, the investment vehicle of Laurene Powell Jobs, who has spent the last few years increasing her footprint in media.

He is the vice chairman of The Atlantic, which Emerson took control of in 2017. He also sits on the board of Anonymous Content, the studio behind "Mr. Robot," in which Emerson holds a controlling stake. 

"Quality and commercial value are not mutually exclusive. That's a core belief," Lattman told Insider about Emerson's investment philosophy.

Before joining in 2016, Lattman worked as a journalist for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. 

Taha Ahmed, vice president of corporate development and strategy at Forbes

Ahmed leads M&A and investments at Forbes, which has itself been the subject of takeover rumors. Reuters reported in May that the business publisher is in talks to be acquired by an investor group for $650 million. A Forbes spokesperson did not immediately comment.

Forbes is currently owned by Hong Kong-based Integrated Whale Investments, which bought 95% of the company in 2014. 

Ahmed has plenty of digital-media M&A experience. As an executive at Group Nine Media, he was involved in the 2016 roll-up of Thrillist, NowThis, The Dodo, and other properties into one digital media entity. He began his career as an analyst at Goldman Sachs.

Sean Macnew, chief financial officer at Group Nine Media

Sean Macnew joined Group Nine via an acquisition — he was the chief financial and operating officer for Popsugar, which Group Nine took over in 2019.

Now the company is preparing for an even bigger deal. Group Nine became the first large digital publisher to embrace the SPAC trend earlier this year. The Group Nine SPAC, where Macnew also serves as CFO, plans to eventually acquire Group Nine along with another media company. 

"Our inorganic growth strategy continues to focus on expanding our reach through new categories, deepening our audience connection in existing categories, and adding new capabilities to make us even more nimble," Macnew told Insider.

He previously worked at Symantec and holds an MBA from Stanford. 

Brandon Sokol, senior vice president of corporate development and strategy at News Corp

Sokol joined News Corp in 2017 and focuses on M&A activity, including the company's recent purchase of Investors Business Daily and book publisher Houghton Mifflin. He also works on divestitures, like News Corp's sale of its adtech unit Unruly to Tremor International last year. 

A graduate of DePauw University, where he edited the college newspaper, Sokol previously worked in corporate development roles at Mediaocean and Tribune Media.

He began his career as a tech, media, and telecom analyst at J.P. Morgan, and has an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. 

William Bardeen, chief strategy officer at the New York Times

Bardeen oversees all business development and M&A at The New York Times, which he joined in 2004. He was named chief strategy officer in November 2018. 

The newspaper is sitting on a large cash position that could fuel more acquisitions in the future. Recently, the Times has been making moves in audio, acquiring Serial Productions for $25 million, as well as subscription audio app Audm, last year.

Bardeen previously worked as a managemnt consultant. According to a 2007 wedding announcement, his paternal grandfather was John Bardeen, a two-time winner of the Nobel Prize in physics.

Hozefa Lokhandwala, chief strategy officer at Vice

Lokhandwala leads Vice's corporate strategy when it comes to business development and M&A. He joined the company after serving as a managing director focusing on media investments at JPMorgan.

Lokhandwala, who holds a JD from Brooklyn Law School and an MBA from Columbia, might have a busy few months. Many in the digital-media world are wondering what comes next for Vice, whose CEO Nancy Dubuc has signaled it might be the next digital media company to pursue a SPAC. 

The company has also made recent acquisitions, like its 2019 purchase of Refinery29.

Shyra Smart, senior vice president for business development and corporate development at Vox Media

Smart joined Vox Media through its 2019 merger with New York Magazine's parent company, where she ran business development and worked on partnerships, distribution, and syndication. Smart, who went to the University of Pennsylvania and has an MBA. from NYU, previously worked at the Daily Beast, Viacom, HBO, and Fox Searchlight Pictures. 

Smart told Insider that she expects to see a lot of consolidation in media in the near-term as companies continue to attempt to diversify revenue streams. "We're starting to see a landscape in which only the strongest operators in the space will be left standing," she said. 

"Our approach to M&A is extremely methodical, we're not out here looking to gobble up distressed assets at a discount, or use severe cost cutting strategies to integrate. We're looking for assets that will complement and continue to scale our business," Smart added. 

As deals grow more complex, Wall Street competition gets fiercer, and developments like meme stocks and SPACs upend conventional wisdom, business journalism has become even more vital.  

While some companies use platforms like Twitter to deliver news directly to consumers, journalism still sets the agenda for investors and markets.

But keeping track of journalists and what they report on can be challenging for investors, financial public-relations pros, and other stakeholders, given how quickly coverage areas change.

Insider identified 30 of today's most influential business journalists through our reporting and talking to financial PR pros.

They come from established news organizations like Forbes, Bloomberg, and The New York Times as well as startups like Axios and Substack. They're known for their deal scoops, access to key players, and shaping of the stories of business coverage today.

This list by no means includes every top business journalist out there. We stayed away from journalists who are predominantly editors or commentators, and we didn't include Insider's own business stars like Dakin Campbell, Meghan Morris, and Vicky Ge Huang.

Read the list, in alphabetical order by last name, along with a description of their coverage areas and examples of their work and awards.

Ortenca Aliaj, mergers and acquisitions correspondent, Financial Times

Aliaj is a lead contributor to Due Diligence, the widely read FT newsletter that looks under the hood at deals and the people behind them. Since joining FT in 2019 to cover M&A deals, her beat has expanded to special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, and hedge funds. 

Aliaj covered the GameStop meme-stock saga in depth, helping chronicle its winners (Mudrick Capital Management) and losers (Melvin Capital). She also closely followed the implosion of Bill Hwang's Archegos Capital Management, reporting on the US Justice Department's investigations and its disastrous effects for hedge-fund investors in SPACs.

"My work with PR varies, but usually we work with them on exclusives or to arrange interviews with key figures, like CEOs or fund managers," Aliaj told Insider.

Bill Alpert, senior writer, Barron's

Alpert has been a senior writer at Barron's since 1984 and is admired by journalists and PR pros alike for his tenacity and fearlessness.

"I don't know of anyone else at almost any other business/financial publication with that kind of longevity at one outlet," one PR pro said. "And one of the smartest investigative journalists out there." 

Over the years, Alpert's reporting has led to stock-fraud prosecutions and reforms in such areas as "back-door" stock-exchange listings, which he first exposed with Leslie Norton in 2010. Likewise, his reporting inspired changes in how for-profit colleges are regulated.  

Alpert made news this year when a federal court threw out a defamation lawsuit brought by a securities attorney linked to "pump-and-dump" schemes Alpert reported on in 2018.

Sonali Basak, Wall Street reporter, Bloomberg

Basak's biggest scoop was breaking the news on WeWork's sinking valuation. She was also first to connect the dots between WeWork and JPMorgan. When Uber and Slack went public, Basak led Bloomberg's coverage. As a contributor to Bloomberg Television, she ran with stories on IPOs for Airbnb and DoorDash.

Most recently, Basak landed an exclusive interview with Joe Baratta, Blackstone's global head of private equity, who revealed that Blackstone was set to ramp up to billions of dollars per investment. 

Since joining Bloomberg in 2014, Basak's had a footprint in nearly all of the company's media products, including Bloomberg Businessweek and Bloomberg Markets magazines.  She welcomes tips; her email address is in her LinkedIn profile.

Steven Bertoni, vice president and senior editor, Forbes

As an editor, writer, and executive, Bertoni oversees some of the most visible platforms at Forbes. Along with 14 cover stories in 13 years, Bertoni edits The Just 100, Forbes' new list that recognizes "responsible capitalism."  

In his role leading the Forbes CEO franchise, he's also gained rarefied access to leaders like Target's Brian Cornell, Merck's Ken Frazier, and even Pharrell Williams, who attended a Forbes CEO summit.  

Bertoni still maintains multiple beats, covering technology, entrepreneurs, billionaires, and investing. Among his exclusives: Breaking news that the Duty Free Shoppers cofounder and former billionaire Chuck Feeney had reached his goal of giving away almost all of his wealth.

Eliot Brown, reporter, The Wall Street Journal

San Francisco-based Brown covers startups and VC for The Journal. The travails of SoftBank and WeWork have been a focus, along with the money behind electric-vehicle startups and West Coast ventures like DoorDash.  

With his Journal colleague Maureen Farrell, Brown just published "The Cult of We," a deep dive into "WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion," as the cover puts it. Publisher's Weekly called it"drama-filled."  

In February, Brown and Farrell broke the news of the WeWork founder Neumann's extra $50 million settlement with SoftBank. Brown also coreported on conflicts with the Securities and Exchange Commission before WeWork's aborted IPO.

Michael J. de la Merced, reporter, The New York Times

De la Merced is a deeply sourced journalist at The Times, where he reports on M&A, bankruptcies, and private equity.

Often part of a DealBook reporting team that breaks stories or dives deep into deals, de la Merced scores scoops on his own. In April, he delivered the news that Kim Kardashian West's Skims brand had reached a $1.6 billion valuation.  

De la Merced also one of the DealBook journalists who makes regular appearances on The Times' daily live briefings on business headlines, giving him a high-profile platform.

Jessica DiNapoli, corporate governance and boards correspondent, Reuters

In her seven years at Reuters, DiNapoli has peered through boardroom walls to deliver scoops on issues like succession and executive pay.  

Her most recent exclusives include the identity of Salesforce's CEO in waiting, Blackstone's demands that its companies report on sustainability and ESG, and investor criticism over executive pay raises at Johnson & Johnson, despite the opioid crisis. DiNapoli also coreported first how executives at Novavax stood to gain from coronavirus vaccine-development efforts, even if their programs failed. 

When it comes to PR people, "we equally benefit from a collaborative relationship," DiNapoli said.

David Faber, "Squawk on the Street" anchor, CNBC

With his hugely influential anchor position and a raft of awards for documentaries on companies like eBay and Walmart, Faber has become a kind of senior statesman among business journalists. While he breaks less news these days, the daily takes he shares on "Squawk" and on social platforms carry major weight.

Faber's access lands him interviews with titans like Liberty Media CEO John Malone and ExxonMobil chairman and CEO Darren Woods.

"I have relationships primarily with senior people at the big outside financial PR firms because some of us go back 25 years," Faber said. "Sometimes I'll work with PR people just to arrange CEO meetings or report on CEO changes. But I usually have my own relationships with senior executives themselves." 

Maureen Farrell, reporter, The Wall Street Journal

The word "exclusive" frequently appears with Farrell's byline. In June, she reported that the Jeffrey Katzenberg-backed digital-security firm Aura had reached a $1 billion valuation.  

Just a week earlier, Farrell broke the news that the investor William Ackman's SPAC was nearing a $40 billion deal for Universal Music. And in May, she got the exclusive on the mortgage startup Better's plan to go public by merging with a SPAC.

With the Journal's Eliot Brown, Farrell coauthored "The Cult of We," a new book on WeWork's "Great Startup Delusion." Farrell, who joined The Journal in 2013, has reported for CNN Money, Forbes, and Debtwire.

John Sinclair Foley, US editor, Reuters' Breakingviews

Foley calls Breakingviews the "fast financial opinion" section of Reuters — a kind of reported commentary. "Our columns often include detail and insight on M&A situations that other outlets don't get, because we report the hell out of the stories we cover," he told Insider. 

Whether it's taking on Bitcoin ("worst of all financial worlds"), corporate opacity ("Goldman diversity double-speak gets investor slap"), or PR puffery ("Dimon's mega-missive has more spin than substance"), Foley doesn't fear contrarianism. "The best endorsement is when a CEO says, 'I don't always like what you write, but I always read it,'" he said.

Foley said he and his team work with PR people often "both to gather facts and background and to make sure the companies we're writing on have a right to reply."

James Fontanella-Khan, US corporate finance and deals editor, Financial Times

FT's Due Diligence newsletter has become a first-read for many C-suite players. As an editor and cocreator, Fontanella-Khan sets its agenda. 

A 16-year FT veteran, he reported from Brussels, New Delhi, and Mumbai before landing in New York in 2014. Among the deep dives he's recently coreported: The fall of the Teneo honcho Declan Kelly; Blackstone Group's $6 billion push into housing; and the talent exodus at Credit Suisse.

Bonus: Fontanella-Khan is an adjunct lecturer on European politics at the City University of New York.

Emily Glazer, reporter, The Wall Street Journal

In a decade at The Journal, Glazer has broken news across beats, from Joe Biden's entering the presidential race to Facebook's record $5 billion Federal Trade Commission settlement. Her 2021 scoops include ones on the Jeffrey Epstein backstory in Bill and Melinda Gates's divorce and a blockbuster on the employee affair that led to Gates' resignation from Microsoft's board.  

In April, Glazer landed the exclusive on Credit Suisse's $20 billion exposure to the doomed investment company Archegos Capital Management. And her reporting on Wells Fargo's ills led to an appearance and consulting role in an episode Netflix's "Dirty Money."

"I'm open to pitches that are relevant to my beat, and I'm frequently in touch with PR people about trend stories and CEO interviews," Glazer said.

Miriam Gottfried, reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Gottfried frequently publishes exclusives in The Journal, where she's covered private equity since 2017. 

Recent scoops include Medline's hiring Goldman to explore a sale in what would be a blockbuster IPO and the follow-up on Medline's $34 billion sale to a private-equity consortium, including Blackstone. On the enterprise front, Gottfried cowrote a deeply reported, widely read story about the reclusive Texas billionaire behind a record tax-fraud case.

"Something I want to share with PR people: I'm a reporter who loves nuance and strives to view every story with a fresh eye, but leaving aside preconceived notions, political beliefs and other value judgments. The truth isn't always sexy, and I'm OK with that," she said.  

A onetime Barron's writer, Gottfried joined The Journal in 2012 as a Heard on the Street reporter.

Peter Grant, deputy editor/real estate and reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Grant has delivered consistent exclusives on big real-estate deals and the people behind them in a closely watched but often secretive category.

His scoops include transactions like Northwoods Investors' $325 million Soho acquisitions in May and leadership news like Katie Keenan's appointment as CEO of Blackstone REIT.  

"He's incredibly well-sourced and breaks a ton of most relevant real estate news in NYC and the country," one PR pro said. 

Grant is a 22-year Journal veteran. In the '90s, he worked at the New York Daily News.

Ed Hammond, senior deals reporter, Bloomberg

This year, Hammond broke the AT&T-Discovery deal, a huge scoop. "It took me past $1 trillion of deals broken in my career," he told Insider.

A former Financial Times reporter, Hammond also helped launch Bloomberg TV's CEO sit-downs, giving him one of the more valuable perches in business media. As far as PR relationships, "exclusivity helps," Hammond said. "I'm not fussed whether someone is the CEO or an intern as long as they're a source of good information."

Lauren Hirsch, reporter, The New York Times

A former CNBC reporter, Hirsch has consistently cranked out exclusives since joining The New York Times' DealBook in August. Among her highest-profile scoops: Inspire Brands' acquisition of Dunkin; Goldman's requiring employees to disclose COVID-19 vaccination status; and Apollo's deal to acquire the crafts retailer Michaels.

"She's one of the most trusted and well-sourced reporters, with a primary focus on consumer product and retail, among other areas. … She single-handedly has helped the NYT regain its position as a leading source of trusted and well-sourced M&A news," one financial PR pro said.

Sujeet Indap, US Lex editor, Financial Times

As US editor of the daily Lex opinion column since 2013, Indap occupies one of the most influential perches in financial journalism. A former analyst and onetime VP of an investment-advisory firm, Indap brings an insider's perspective to coverage of the industry and its players along with deals and transactions.

In March, Indap published "The Caesars Palace Coup: How a Billionaire Brawl Over the Famous Casino Exposed the Power and Greed of Wall Street," an account of 2015's brutal bankruptcy brawl over the casino giant Caesars Entertainment. "FT Lex is a phenomenal analytical column, and he is also an author of high-profile deals," one PR pro said.

Kate Kelly, reporter, The New York Times

After six years on the air at CNBC, Kelly joined The Times in 2017 to cover Wall Street.

Her high-profile stories include a widely read account of Tidjane Thiam's brief tenure as Credit Suisse CEO and Wall Street's only Black chief executive; and coreporting then-Georgia Sen. David Perdue's highly active stock-market trades in his one term, including companies within his Senate committees' oversight.

Before her CNBC tenure, Kelly worked at The Wall Street Journal for nearly a decade, covering the intersection of investment banking and Hollywood.

Julia La Roche, correspondent, Yahoo Finance

CEO interviews are La Roche's specialty, and she's corralled an A-list of exclusive one-on-ones for her Yahoo Finance Presents series. Google's Sundar Pichai, Salesforce's Marc Benioff, Starbucks' Kevin Johnson, Walmart's Doug McMillon, and others have all landed in La Roche's hot seat.

She also reports on a wide variety of news at publicly traded companies, from Walmart's June launch of private-label insulin to Uber's post-pandemic recovery. Her access means she often gets responses from the C-suite rather than a press release.

Matt Levine, opinion columnist, Bloomberg

A New York Times profile in October was an unusual accolade for a rival financial columnist.  But Levine's an unusual writer — a former Goldman Sachs investment banker, M&A lawyer, and clerk for the US Court of Appeals.  

As admired for his prose as his insights, Levine's Money Stuff newsletter "has become a must-read among Wall Street traders," one financial PR pro said. "His work is some of the most sophisticated analysis of what is really happening on Wall Street," the billionaire investor Bill Ackman told The Times.  

Levine, who excels at explaining complex financial situations and products, predicted negative prices for oil at the start of the pandemic. "Remarkably, Mr. Levine's piece was written more than an hour before the market went haywire," The Times wrote.  

Cara Lombardo, reporter, The Wall Street Journal

A former CPA, Lombardo has coreported a string of heavyweight exclusives since joining The Journal in 2017. She helped break United Technologies' $86 billion merger with Raytheon and also scooped AbbVie's $63 billion purchase of Allergan.

Most recently, she was first with Broadcom's talks to buy the software maker SAS Institute and revealed that financier Carl Icahn holds a 1% stake in Allstate and backed cost-cutting moves there.

In her first journalism job, as a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel intern, Lombardo's exclusive on a prison inmate's death led to criminal convictions.

Eric Newcomer, writer, Newcomer

Less than a year into the launch of his self-titled Substack newsletter, Newcomer has built a reputation as a VC scoop machine. Most recently, he broke news on funding rounds on Faire, Sourcegraph, and Figma, along with Andreessen Horowitz and Accel's funding of the photo-sharing app BeReal — and the fact that Andreessen Horowitz's crypto fund had ballooned to $2 billion.  

Before launching the newsletter in October, Newcomer spent six years covering technology for Bloomberg. In 2013, after six months at the Washington Examiner, he became the first hire at the tech news hub The Information.

"I don't really write about funding rounds unless I'm breaking the news," Newcomer told Insider. "I'm always happy to talk to PR people who have smart things to say and who can dish out news. But I do tend to text with many of their clients directly."

Leslie Picker, reporter, CNBC

Picker's beat encompasses hedge funds, private equity and asset management. A veteran of The New York Times and Bloomberg, she consistently scores top-level interviews with players like Citadel's Ken Griffin, Greenlight Capital's David Einhorn, and Pershing Square's Bill Ackman.

Picker also broke news on Oatly's IPO and reported on Melvin Capital's rebound in February after a bruising January amid the GameStop short squeeze. Picker also spearheads CNBC's new Delivering Alpha investment newsletter. 

"The best PR people are the ones who help me become better at my job — the ones who share informative background, alert me to newsworthy details that may have flown under the radar, and introduce me to new sources," Picker said.

Dan Primack, business editor, Axios

Primack writes Axios' daily deals newsletter and hosts a popular daily podcast. He covers deals and dealmakers across venture capital, private equity, and mergers and acquisitions.

Known as one of the best-sourced reporters on his beat, Primack has produced scoops including Sweetgreen's IPO and the billion-dollar valuation of the blockchain-gaming platform Forte. And those are just in the past month.

"I want to tell a reader something they don't know yet. I want to make them feel smart," Primack told Vox in 2019. Before joining Axios as one of its first hires, Primack was an editor at Fortune and Thomson Reuters. 

Matt Scuffham, financial services correspondent, Reuters

A 15-year Thomson Reuters veteran, Scuffham worked in London and Toronto before landing in New York in 2019 covering Wall Street banks and international banks with US operations.  

Scoops are a regular feature of his reporting. 

One recent exclusive he coreported revealed the use of so-called "bear put spreads" among Wall Street traders to bet against the meme stock AMC while trying to limit losses. Another reported that Credit Suisse would stop executing transactions in shares of US cannabis companies or hold them on behalf of clients. And in January, Scuffham reported first that Goldman Sachs was considering acquisitions to jumpstart Marcus, its consumer-banking unit.

Lucinda Shen, editor, Term Sheet Newsletter, Fortune

Since March 2020, Shen has written Term Sheet, Fortune's daily newsletter "on the biggest deals and dealmakers." Along with clear-eyed reporting on headline-making companies and CEOs, Shen has delivered several exclusives, mostly around diversity. 

She broke the news of PayPal's investing another $50 million in a Black and Latinx-led VC fund and got the scoop on the first Black female partner at GV, formerly Google Ventures. 

Shen also was first with February's news that the corporate governance software maker Diligent had acquired the Canadian compliance-software maker Galvanize for an estimated $1 billion.  

Shen, a former Business Insider intern, joined Fortune in 2016.

Andrew Ross Sorkin, columnist and DealBook editor at large, The New York Times; anchor of "Squawk Box," CNBC

Sorkin's profile has crossed from financial journalism into the mainstream. Along with his highly visible positions at two powerful media outlets, he reached another level of influence last year as cocreator of Showtime's hit series "Billions."

A popular lecturer on college campuses, Sorkin has also become a favored talking head on Wall Street and corporate issues, with appearances on "Today,""Charlie Rose," NPR, and "PBS NewsHour."  His 2009 book "Too Big to Fail" won multiple awards.

"His power comes from his ability to get people to talk — key buy-side investors, bankers, and major regulators," one PR pro said. 

Sorkin famously started writing for The Times in 1995, before graduating from high school.

Brian Sozzi, anchor, editor at large, Yahoo Finance

Sozzi, who started his career as a Wall Street analyst, has built a following for straightforward reporting on complex situations. He also lands big-fish CEO interviews as an anchor for Yahoo Finance Live and hosts C-level interviews for Yahoo's annual All Markets Summit, a virtual and in-person event.  

Sozzi's recent gets include Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins, DocuSign CEO Dan Springer, and Peloton CEO and cofounder John Foley. Sozzi "is a go-to interviewer for major corporate initiatives like mergers and earnings," one PR pro said.

Bonus: In June, Sozzi auditioned to become a ballperson at the tennis US Open, reporting on the experience.

Gillian Tan, senior reporter, Bloomberg

A qualified chartered accountant, Tan brings an eye for exhaustive detail to reports on M&A, SPACs, real estate, and deals. She's often first to report on plans for IPOs — like Republic Airways and Mexico's VivaAerobús last month alone — and has coreported scoops like Carbon Health's plans to fundraise from investors like Blackstone. Tan also revealed details on BuzzFeed's IPO more than three months before it happened.

"She basically has her finger on the pulse of everything that is going and is a veritable scoop machine," one PR pro told Insider.

Tan took an unconventional break from reporting in 2019, when the lifelong tennis fan became a social-media content producer for the Australian Open.

Crystal Tse, US deals reporter, Bloomberg

On Twitter, Tse calls herself "preemptively skeptical." It's a useful perspective for the wild world of SPACs and M&A deals, where she's often serving up scoops. 

Among her recent dispatches: The $3.6 billion deal for Singapore's electric-vehicle battery maker SES to go public via SPAC; Thrive Market's considered IPO valued at $2 billion; and Bowlero's SPAC-enabled IPO.

Tse rose quickly at Bloomberg, where she started as a Hong Kong intern in 2016 before moving to New York three years later.