Show Me the Money: One-Third of Millennial Billionaires Are Tech Moguls (2024)

According to Forbes, there are 2,755 billionaires in the world right now. But what did they do to make all that money? Businessfinancing.co.uk broke down the ultra-wealthy by generation and sector to find out how billionaires have accumulated their piles of cash over the years.

Looking at billionaires from the Silent Generation—think Warren Buffet and Rupert Murdoch—15.5% made their money from finance and investments, and 12.4% got rich from fashion and retail businesses. New York City is this generation's most popular residence.

These billionaires are worth an average of $5.56 billion, making them the wealthiest generation in the world. It should also be noted that just 65.7% of them are self-made billionaires, so many of them inherited their wealth.

Baby boomer billionaires—such as Oprah Winfrey and Richard Branson—have more diverse sources of wealth than their predecessors, with 14.2% from finance and investments, 12.9% from manufacturing, and 10.6% from fashion and retail. This generation also prefers New York to other places of residence.

Boomer billionaires have an average of $4.61 billion in net worth, which is notably lower than their predecessors. Still, it should be noted that 71% of them are self-made billionaires, so they weren't inheriting their wealth as often as the generation before.

Things start to change with Gen X, as 24.2% of those billionaires—like Elon Musk and Larry Page—started making their money from tech. Still, 13.4% got rich from manufacturing and 11.6% from finance and investments. In a big move that changes the concentration of wealth in the world, this generation of billionaire's residence of choice moves from New York to Beijing, China.

On average, Gen X billionaires are worth $4.46 billion, which is actually the lowest net worth of any generation. However, 80.7% of them are self-made, with very little wealth being inherited. This makes them the biggest generation of self-starters.

Then we get to the millennial billionaire—Mark Zuckerberg and Zhang Yiming, to name a couple—who dominate the tech world. One-third (31%) of millennial billionaires got rich from the tech industry, while another 12.9% come from finance and investments. In true tech-startup fashion, their favorite place to live is San Francisco, California.

On average, this generation of billionaires is worth $5.12 billion. While this is still lower than the Silent Generation, their relative youth indicates they could one day surpass their richer forebears. It should be noted, though, that only 66.4% of Gen X billionaires are self-made, so perhaps we're backsliding into an era of inherited wealth.