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The Universities Producing the Most Billionaires

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The Universities Producing the Most Billionaires

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Key Takeaways

  • American universities like Harvard, Stanford, and Penn lead in producing billionaire alumni.
  • Most wealth comes from technology startups and entrepreneurial ventures (e.g., Microsoft, Google, DoorDash, Baidu).

This visualization ranks institutions by billionaire alumni, highlighting U.S. dominance and the growing role of Asian universities. The data comes from Salas Díaz & Young (2024). The study was published in September 2024, but the underlying data was collected in March 2021.

Harvard: Billionaire Central

Harvard has produced 125 billionaires in total, with a combined estimated wealth of almost $600 billion. The university tops our list, even without counting names like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, who studied there but never completed their degrees.

School Name Number of Billionaires Country Billionaire Alumni Source of Wealth
Harvard University 104 USA Steve Ballmer, Michael Bloomberg Microsoft, Microsoft, Bloomberg L.P.
Stanford University 69 USA Jerry Yang, Andy Fang Yahoo, DoorDash
University of Pennsylvania 38 USA Elon Musk Tesla
Columbia University 32 USA Warren Buffett Berkshire Hathaway
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 28 USA Charles Koch Koch Industries
Yale University 24 USA Stephen A. Schwarzman Blackstone Group
Cornell University 22 USA Robert F. Smith Vista Equity Partners
University of Mumbai 22 India Mukesh Ambani Reliance Industries
Tsinghua University 19 China Sun Hongbin Sunac China Holdings
New York University 18 USA John Paulson Paulson & Co. (hedge fund)
University of Southern California 17 USA George Lucas Lucasfilm (Star Wars franchise)
University of California, Berkeley 15 USA Tony Xu DoorDash
University of Michigan 15 USA Larry Page Google
Peking University 14 China Robin Li Baidu
Moscow State University 13 Russia Andrey Melnichenko EuroChem
Princeton University 13 USA Jeff Bezos Amazon
University of California, Los Angeles 12 USA Larry Fink BlackRock
University of Chicago 12 USA Joe Mansueto Morningstar, Inc. i
Fudan University 12 China Bruno Wu Sun Media / Entertainment
Seoul National University 12 South Korea Kim Beom-soo Kakao
Zhejiang University 12 China Colin Huang (Huang Zheng) Pinduoduo

Stanford University, with its deep ties to Silicon Valley, counts Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang and DoorDash co-founder Andy Fang among its billionaire alumni. The University of Pennsylvania produced Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Columbia University lists Warren Buffett, the legendary investor behind Berkshire Hathaway, among its most notable graduates, while the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has shaped both tech and industrial leaders, including Charles Koch of Koch Industries.

U.S. vs Asia: Power Shift Underway

While U.S. schools still dominate the top slots, the Salas Díaz & Young data shows how universities in Asia are rising fast.

Institutions such as the University of Mumbai, Tsinghua, Peking University, and Seoul National University now appear in the top 20 for billionaire alumni. The shift coincides with Asia’s broader economic expansion, higher rates of entrepreneurship, and strengthening of domestic capital markets.

For example, Peking University, one of China’s most prestigious schools, counts Baidu co-founder Robin Li among its billionaire alumni. Similarly, Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries and India’s richest man, studied chemical engineering at the University of Mumbai.

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Source
Asia