Richest man in LA — Peter Thiel now tops the list, and his rise has been something
Peter Andreas Thiel is the richest person in Los Angeles — and it isn't particularly close. Thiel has risen from LA County's 24th wealthiest person in 2020 to first place in 2025, with his wealth growing from about $2 billion to almost $24 billion over that period. That's a staggering climb — built on Palantir, Founders Fund, and a string of legendary early-stage bets — and it leaves every other LA billionaire well in his wake.
Source: UGC
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Key takeaways
- Richest man in LA: Inside LA's list of wealthiest men
- 10. Bobby Murphy (~$4.2 billion)
- 9. Evan Spiegel (~$4.5 billion)
- 8. Rick Caruso (~$5.3 billion)
- 7. George Lucas (~$5.2 billion)
- 6. Don Hankey (~$7.2 billion)
- 5. Stewart & Lynda Resnick (~$9 billion)
- 4. David Geffen (~$9 billion)
- 3. Steven Spielberg (~$11.5 billion)
- 2. Patrick Soon-Shiong (~$10–12 billion)
- 1. Peter Thiel (~$24 billion)
- FAQs
Key takeaways
- Peter Thiel tops the 2025 LA rich list with a net worth of ~$24 billion — a more than tenfold increase since 2020
- The runner-up, Patrick Soon-Shiong, is worth an estimated $10–12 billion, built on cancer drug breakthroughs and biotech empires
- The list spans from ~$4 billion (Bobby Murphy) to ~$24 billion (Thiel) — a $20 billion gap between #10 and #1
- Of the 100 California residents on the 2025 Forbes 400, 23 were LA County residents — the highest concentration in any of the state's counties — with a combined wealth of $193 billion
- The wealthiest woman on this list is Lynda Resnick, who co-built The Wonderful Company alongside her husband Stewart
Richest man in LA: Inside LA's list of wealthiest men
Our rankings are based on data from Forbes, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Celebrity Net Worth, and the LA Almanac's Wealthiest Persons list, cross-referenced against net worth figures as of late 2025. We use the most up-to-date verified figures available at the time of publishing. Where sources differ, we use the figure most consistently reported across multiple outlets.
Rank | Name | Net Worth (2025) | Primary Source of Wealth | Nationality |
1 | Peter Thiel | ~$24B | Palantir, Founders Fund, PayPal | German-American |
2 | Patrick Soon-Shiong | ~$10–12B | Biotech / Pharma | South African-American |
3 | Steven Spielberg | ~$11.5B | Film / Entertainment | American |
4 | David Geffen | ~$9B | Music / Film / Investments | American |
5 | Stewart & Lynda Resnick | ~$9B | Agriculture / Consumer Brands | American |
6 | Don Hankey | ~$7.2B | Auto Loans / Finance | American |
7 | George Lucas | ~$5.2B | Star Wars / Lucasfilm | American |
8 | Rick Caruso | ~$5.3B | Real Estate | American |
9 | Evan Spiegel | ~$4.5B | Snap Inc. | American |
10 | Bobby Murphy | ~$4.2B | Snap Inc. | American |
10. Bobby Murphy (~$4.2 billion)
Source: Getty Images
- Full name: Bobby Murphy
- Date of birth: January 14, 1988
- Age: 37 (as of 2025)
- Nationality: American
- Profession: Co-founder & CTO, Snap Inc.
- Net worth: ~$4.2 billion
Bobby Murphy is the quieter half of the Snap Inc. founding duo. A Stanford computer science graduate, he met Evan Spiegel while they were both members of the Kappa Sigma fraternity at Stanford, and the two built Snapchat into one of the world's most recognisable social media platforms.
As Chief Technology Officer, Murphy is the engineering brain behind Snap's product architecture, keeping a far lower public profile than his co-founder.
His fortune is tied almost entirely to his stake in Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP), making his net worth closely sensitive to the company's stock price. Murphy and Spiegel both live in Los Angeles, where Snap is headquartered in Santa Monica, cementing the city's place as a genuine rival to Silicon Valley for tech wealth creation.
9. Evan Spiegel (~$4.5 billion)
Source: Getty Images
- Full name: Evan Thomas Spiegel
- Date of birth: June 4, 1990
- Age: 35 (as of 2025)
- Nationality: American
- Profession: Co-founder & CEO, Snap Inc.
- Net worth: ~$4.5 billion
- Instagram: @evanspiegel
Evan Spiegel became one of the youngest self-made billionaires in history when Snap went public in 2017. As CEO, he has steered the company through intense competition from Instagram and TikTok, championing ephemeral content and augmented reality as Snap's long-term moats. He is married to Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr and the couple are regulars in Los Angeles society.
Spiegel's wealth is primarily in Snap stock. The company reported $1.37 billion in revenue in Q1 2025, and Spiegel continues to hold a dual-class share structure that ensures he retains decisive voting control over the company.
His position on this list has fluctuated in recent years as Snap's share price has swung sharply, but his LA residency and ongoing stake keep him firmly in the top ten.
8. Rick Caruso (~$5.3 billion)
- Full name: Rick Joseph Caruso
- Date of birth: January 7, 1959
- Age: 66 (as of 2025)
- Nationality: American
- Profession: Founder & CEO, Caruso
- Net worth: ~$5.3 billion
- Instagram: @rickcaruso
Rick Caruso built one of the most powerful privately-held real estate empires in Southern California, with a portfolio of high-end open-air shopping and lifestyle centres including The Grove in Los Angeles and the Americana at Brand in Glendale.
His developments are known for their highly curated, pedestrian-friendly designs — a deliberate contrast to the enclosed mall model that has struggled across the US.
Caruso ran for Mayor of Los Angeles in 2022, narrowly losing to Karen Bass in a closely contested race. He remains one of the city's most prominent civic figures, and his real estate company continues to operate some of the highest-grossing retail properties in the western United States. His deep ties to LA — both financial and political — make him one of the city's defining billionaires.
7. George Lucas (~$5.2 billion)
Source: Getty Images
- Full name: George Walton Lucas Jr.
- Date of birth: May 14, 1944
- Age: 81 (as of 2025)
- Nationality: American
- Profession: Filmmaker, Founder of Lucasfilm
- Net worth: ~$5.2 billion
George Lucas, known for creating the Star Wars franchise, has largely retired from filmmaking since he sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 for $4.1 billion in stock and cash. He founded Lucasfilm in 1971 and built his fortune through his movies and their merchandise.
Ranking closely behind Steven Spielberg in Forbes' 2025 celebrity rich list at $5.1 billion, Lucas's Disney and Lucasfilm IPs garnered him approximately $4 billion in cash and stock when he sold Star Wars in 2012.
While he splits his time between his Marin County ranch and his Los Angeles properties, Lucas remains a fixture of the broader LA entertainment and philanthropic ecosystem. He has pledged the majority of his fortune to educational philanthropy through his foundation.
6. Don Hankey (~$7.2 billion)
Source: Getty Images
- Full name: Don Hankey
- Nationality: American
- Profession: Chairman, Hankey Group
- Net worth: ~$7.2 billion
Don Hankey is the low-profile LA billionaire who built a multibillion-dollar empire in the unglamorous business of subprime auto lending. His Hankey Group is a Los Angeles-based holding company with interests in auto finance, real estate, insurance, and car dealerships.
His flagship company, Westlake Financial, is one of the largest privately held auto finance companies in the United States.
Hankey rarely seeks the spotlight — a rarity on an LA rich list often dominated by Hollywood figures and tech personalities.
His wealth has proved remarkably durable, growing steadily as demand for subprime auto loans remained strong despite economic turbulence. He also made headlines in 2023 when he provided a $175 million bond for Donald Trump during the New York civil fraud case, briefly drawing unusual public attention to the otherwise publicity-shy billionaire.
5. Stewart & Lynda Resnick (~$9 billion)
Source: Getty Images
- Full names: Stewart Alan Resnick & Lynda Rae Resnick
- Nationality: American
- Profession: Founders & Co-owners, The Wonderful Company
- Net worth: ~$9 billion
The Resnicks' fortune flows from their agricultural holding company — if you've ever purchased a Halos mandarin orange, a POM Wonderful, or Fiji Water, you've contributed directly to their billions.
The Wonderful Company is one of the largest privately held agricultural companies in the world, with holdings spanning almonds, pistachios, pomegranates, citrus, and bottled water across California's Central Valley and beyond.
Lynda Resnick is the creative and marketing force behind the brand empire, having transformed POM Wonderful and Fiji Water into globally recognised consumer brands. She is also the wealthiest woman on this list.
Stewart handles the agricultural operations side. Together, they are among the most powerful — and occasionally controversial — figures in California's water politics, given the extraordinary scale of their farming operations in a drought-prone state.
4. David Geffen (~$9 billion)
Source: Getty Images
- Full name: David Lawrence Geffen
- Date of birth: February 21, 1943
- Age: 82 (as of 2025)
- Nationality: American
- Profession: Entertainment mogul, investor
- Net worth: ~$9 billion
Geffen's first step toward billionaire status came in 1970 when he co-created Asylum Records. Ten years later he formed Geffen Records, and a further ten years after that launched DGC Records. In 1994, he co-founded DreamWorks SKG alongside Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, marking his transition from simply a music maker to a key Hollywood player.
Geffen is as famous for his art collection and philanthropy as his entertainment empire. He pledged $150 million to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and in 2001 the medical school at UCLA was renamed the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA after a reported $200 million donation.
He lives aboard one of the world's largest private yachts and maintains a legendary Malibu estate, making him one of the most quintessentially LA billionaires on this list.
3. Steven Spielberg (~$11.5 billion)
Source: Getty Images
- Full name: Steven Allan Spielberg
- Date of birth: December 18, 1946
- Age: 78 (as of 2025)
- Nationality: American
- Profession: Film director, producer, screenwriter
- Net worth: ~$11.5 billion
- Instagram: @stevenspielberg
Steven Spielberg is one of the most influential filmmakers in history, known for shaping modern cinema and redefining the Hollywood blockbuster. His career began with short films and television in the late 1960s, but his breakthrough came in 1975 with the release of Jaws, which was a massive commercial and critical success, pioneering the summer blockbuster model.
Spielberg became a household name after directing films like Jaws and Jurassic Park, and has since earned three Academy Awards for films that have grossed more than $10 billion worldwide.
Unusually for a director, he also earns 2% of ticket sales at Universal theme parks in perpetuity — a royalty that continues to compound as theme park attendance grows globally. His net worth makes him one of the wealthiest creative figures in Hollywood history.
2. Patrick Soon-Shiong (~$10–12 billion)
Source: Getty Images
- Full name: Patrick Soon-Shiong
- Date of birth: July 29, 1952
- Age: 73 (as of 2025)
- Nationality: South African-American
- Profession: Physician, biotech entrepreneur, media owner
- Net worth: ~$10–12 billion (Forbes/Bloomberg 2025)
- Instagram: N/A (no verified public profile)
Patrick Soon-Shiong was born on July 29, 1952, in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, the son of Chinese immigrants. He studied medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand before completing a fellowship in surgery at the University of British Columbia. He arrived in Los Angeles in the 1980s to join the faculty at UCLA Medical Center as a transplant surgeon and has remained in the city ever since.
Medical doctor Patrick Soon-Shiong invented the cancer drug Abraxane, which became a blockbuster thanks to its efficacy against pancreatic cancer. He sold his drug companies Abraxis in 2010 and American Pharmaceutical Partners in 2008 for a combined $9.1 billion.
Beyond pharma, his media interests are anchored by his ownership of the Los Angeles Times, which he acquired in 2018 for $500 million from Tribune Publishing. He also holds a minority stake in the Los Angeles Lakers, the NBA franchise he invested in as part of a group that includes the Buss family. He is generally considered the richest doctor in the world.
1. Peter Thiel (~$24 billion)
Source: Getty Images
- Full name: Peter Andreas Thiel
- Date of birth: October 11, 1967
- Age: 57 (as of 2025)
- Nationality: German-American
- Profession: Venture capitalist, entrepreneur, author
- Affiliations: Founders Fund, Palantir Technologies, Thiel Capital
- Net worth: ~$24 billion (LA Almanac / Forbes 2025)
- Twitter/X: @peterthiel
Peter Andreas Thiel (born October 11, 1967, in Frankfurt am Main, West Germany) is a German-American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and business executive who helped found PayPal and Palantir Technologies. After earning degrees in philosophy and law from Stanford University, Thiel briefly worked in law and finance before co-founding Confinity in 1998.
Confinity merged with Elon Musk's X.com to become PayPal, which was sold to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion. Thiel walked away with $60 million and used that windfall to build what became one of Silicon Valley's most powerful investment networks.
Thiel was the first outside investor in Facebook, initially loaning $500,000 to Mark Zuckerberg in June 2004. Growth in the digital sphere also boosted his stake in Palantir Technologies, a company he co-founded in 2004 with Alexander Karp. In late 2024, his Palantir shares were valued at $5.3 billion. By mid-2025, their value had more than doubled, soaring to roughly $11 billion amid a broader rally in AI and defense-tech stocks.
Founders Fund is an American venture capital fund founded in 2005 in San Francisco by Peter Thiel, Ken Howery, and Luke Nosek, with roughly $17 billion in total assets under management as of 2025.
Founders Fund closed a $6 billion growth fund on May 1, 2026 — its largest ever — with $1.5 billion coming from the firm's own partners and employees, including Thiel. Thiel moved to Los Angeles from San Francisco in early 2018 after calling Silicon Valley a "one-party state." Forbes included him on its 2025 "Midas List: Top Tech Investors" at number three.
FAQs
Who is the richest man in Los Angeles?
Peter Thiel is the richest person in Los Angeles. He has risen from LA County's 24th wealthiest person in 2020 to first place in 2025, with his wealth growing from about $2 billion to almost $24 billion. His Palantir stake, Founders Fund, and early tech investments drove this extraordinary climb.
Who is the richest woman in Los Angeles?
Lynda Resnick is the wealthiest woman on the LA rich list. She and her husband Stewart Resnick co-own The Wonderful Company, a privately held agribusiness empire behind brands including POM Wonderful, Fiji Water, and Halos. Their combined fortune is estimated at approximately $9 billion.
How many billionaires are in Los Angeles?
Of the 100 California residents on the 2025 Forbes 400, 23 were LA County residents — the highest concentration in any county in the state — with a combined wealth of $193 billion. Counting billionaires below the Forbes 400 threshold, the true number of billionaires in greater LA is significantly higher.
Is Patrick Soon-Shiong still the richest person in LA?
No. Patrick Soon-Shiong was previously considered LA's wealthiest resident, but Peter Thiel has risen from LA County's 24th wealthiest person in 2020 to first place in 2025, with his wealth surging from about $2 billion to almost $24 billion.
Soon-Shiong remains a formidable #2, with an estimated fortune of $10–12 billion from his biotech and media holdings.
Who is the richest celebrity in Los Angeles?
Steven Spielberg leads Forbes' 2025 list of richest celebrity billionaires with a net worth of $5.3 billion, built on a wide range of cinematic successes from Jaws to E.T. to Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park. However, Celebrity Net Worth estimates his fortune at $11.5 billion when all assets are included — making him the wealthiest entertainment figure based in LA by a considerable margin.
Legit.ng also highlighted facts about the richest people in Texas for 2025, revealing a significant financial landscape dominated by billionaires like Elon Musk, Michael Dell, and Alice Walton.
The staggering net worth of Elon Musk, nearing $997 billion, showcases a remarkable disparity, as his wealth exceeds that of the next two richest Texans combined, illustrating the vast economic differences among the state's elite.
Source: Legit.ng
