On July 18, Forbes published its annual list of immigrant billionaires in the United States with a record figure: 144 foreign-born entrepreneurs from 45 countries hold a combined fortune of $2.2 trillion, El Financiero reported. Seven are from Latin America, and among them appears, for the first time, a Mexican: Pablo Legorreta, founder and CEO of Royalty Pharma, ranked 50th on the list.
The list, which Forbes updates annually, reflects the economic weight of the immigrant business community in the world's largest economy. The 144 members represent roughly 15% of all U.S. billionaires and approximately one quarter of that group's total wealth. The figure surpasses the 125 recorded the previous year. India leads for the second consecutive year in country of origin, with 19 representatives, according to El Diario NY.
For the Latino community in North America, the presence of seven entrepreneurs from the region (two of them Mexican) is concrete evidence of economic mobility and business leadership built by immigrants.
The Latin American members of the list and their ranking positions are:
- Abel Avellán (Venezuela, rank 41): $5.7 billion, founder of AST SpaceMobile, a satellite telecommunications company.
- Pablo Legorreta (Mexico, rank 50): $5 billion, founder and CEO of Royalty Pharma, an investment firm specializing in pharmaceutical intellectual property.
- Daniel Lubetzky (Mexico, rank 91): $2.7 billion, creator of KIND Snacks, a healthy food company.
- Marcelo Claure (Bolivia, rank 95): $2.5 billion, founder of Brightstar, a wireless services firm.
- Jorge Pérez (Argentina, rank 96): $2.4 billion, chairman of The Related Group, a real estate developer.
- Guillermo Rauch (Argentina, rank 98): $2.3 billion, founder of Vercel, a web development platform.
- Alberto Nahmad (Panama, rank 128): $1.6 billion, president of Watsco, an air conditioning equipment distributor.
The overall top three are Elon Musk (South Africa, $927 billion, Tesla and SpaceX), Sergey Brin (Russia, $272 billion, Google), and Jensen Huang (Taiwan, $176 billion, Nvidia), who together account for more than 60% of the total wealth of all 144 members.
The inclusion of two Mexicans on the list (Legorreta and Lubetzky) marks a milestone for Mexico-born entrepreneurs building from the United States. Forbes notes that for several members, settling permanently in the U.S. was not always part of the original plan, which underscores the element of unforeseen opportunity that defines these trajectories.
This article was written with artificial intelligence assistance from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.