Meet Miami's 10 Richest Billionaires

The rich are getting richer — and, apparently, moving to Miami.

There may be nowhere else in the country that has experienced such a mass influx of wealthy people as Miami, which boasts a low tax burden, an open-armed mayor, and a subtropical climate. During the pandemic, while Gov. Ron DeSantis was touting his prioritization of economic growth over COVID-19 restrictions, Libertarian-leaning moguls such as PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel flocked to the South Florida area.

From Citadel hedge fund chief Ken Griffin to Goldman Sachs managing director Douglas Sacks, so many "big-money migrants" have moved here that New York magazine dubbed Miami "Little Manhattan." In fact, during the pandemic, the fastest-growing zip code in Miami-Dade County also happened to be its richest.

When the worst of the pandemic subsided, and the cryptocurrency market to which the city had hitched its economic-growth wagon collapsed, it seemed the inflow of tech moguls and endless bundles of new capital were slowing. But the city managed to retain its status as a new magnet for wealth: In June 2022, Griffin announced he was moving the headquarters of Citadel, one of the biggest hedge funds in the world, to the heart of Miami.

On the Forbes 400 list of America's wealthiest people, many of the nation's richest are reported to be living in the Miami area — some longtime South Florida residents while others like Thiel are pandemic-era arrivals.

It should be noted that the rich are getting so rich that the Miami billionaires who typically make the list are no longer rich enough to make the Forbes 400. While some wealthy Miami-area staples such as Phillip Frost are still billionaires, they're on the poor end of the city's expanding billionaire spectrum, and in 2021, for the first time in years, didn't make the top 400.

No worries; in their place are new billionaires.

New Times' rundown of Miami's richest has seen some shifts since last we tackled the rankings. For one, businessman Orlando Bravo's fortune has skyrocketed, pushing him higher up the list. Others, such as David Och and William Berkley, are not exactly impoverished, but their wealth, as measured by Forbes, has not grown enough to keep them in our top 10.

The second-richest man on the Forbes 400, Jeff Bezos, is actually a Miami boy who graduated from Miami Palmetto Senior High School. Worth more than $160 billion, Bezos recently bought not one but two mansions on Indian Creek, AKA Billionaire Bunker, though it's not yet clear whether the properties will be just another pair of palaces in Bezos' portfolio, or the Amazon founder is making Miami a more permanent home. So we're holding off on popping him to the top of the Miami rankings. (Maybe next year, Bezos.)

Without further ado, listed below in descending order (because the wealthiest always get to be on top) are Miami's ten filthiest-rich billionaires.

Ken Griffin: $35.4 Billion

A Florida native raised in Boca Raton, Ken Griffin started Citadel LLC in 1990 and oversaw its growth into one of the largest and most profitable hedge funds worldwide, with more than $62 billion in assets under management as of December 2022.

Griffin also founded Citadel Securities – dubbed "the Amazon of financial markets" – a market maker that's estimated to have its hands in one out of every five large-exchange stock trades in the U.S.

Citadel LLC earned $16 billion in 2022, which marked the most profitable year ever reported by a hedge fund manager, according to LCH Investments.

The 54-year-old Griffin is moving Citadel's Chicago-born headquarters to Brickell, where he plans to build a towering skyscraper on a vacant lot acquired by Citadel in a $363 million purchase reported to be Miami’s most expensive land deal ever. The company recently separated from the developer initially slated to handle the project, Sterling Bay, with Griffin saying some of the development work will be handled internally. It could take five to six years to build the tower.

In 2022, he paid $109 million for Adrienne Arsht’s waterfront estate in Coconut Grove. It was the most expensive house sale in Miami history.

He's ranked as the 22nd-richest person on the Forbes list.

David Tepper: $20.6 Billion

Considered one of the greatest hedge-fund managers of his generation, David Tepper has managed as much as $20 billion with his firm, Appaloosa Management. He founded Appaloosa back in 1993, after being passed over for a partner position at Goldman Sachs.

Tepper, who grew up in Pittsburgh, moved to Florida from New Jersey in 2015, but then moved back to New Jersey in 2020.

He then purchased a Palm Beach mansion for $68.4 million in February 2021. He also owned a $10 million Miami Beach condo near Appaloosa's office in South Beach.

Tepper bought the Carolina Panthers football team in 2018. Now worth $4.1 billion, according to Forbes, the team has reportedly gained substantial value since he bought it.

He's ranked as the 35th-richest in the U.S.

Orlando Bravo: $8.7 Billion

Bravo was born in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, and according to Forbes became the first Puerto Rico-born billionaire in 2019. His father and grandfather worked with tuna-fish factory ships in the Port of Mayaguez. Bravo attended Brown University and Stanford, earning a law degree and a master's in business administration at the latter.

In 2008, he created Thoma Bravo, a leading private equity firm in the tech and software sectors, where he is the managing partner. In October of 2020, the firm reported that it was managing more than $70 billion in equity, with offices in Miami, Chicago, and San Francisco.

After Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, Bravo raised $25 million to help the island and organized regular airlifts and shipments of food, water, and other supplies. He donated another $100 million to the Bravo Family Foundation's Rising Entrepreneurship Project in Puerto Rico.

In January 2021, Bravo and his wife, Katy, purchased Phil Collins' former bayfront residence in Miami Beach for nearly $40 million. They submitted plans to demolish the property and build an entirely new residence, detached staff quarters, and a third structure for home offices and guest suites.

Bravo is ranked as the 99th-richest person in the nation.

Micky Arison: $6.9 Billion

Arguably the University of Miami's (UM) most successful dropout, Micky Arison is the son of Ted Arison, who founded Carnival Cruises in 1972. The family immigrated to the United States from Tel Aviv when Micky was a kid.

After dropping out of UM, Arison started out as a sales rep at Carnival before becoming CEO. He's credited with growing Carnival's fleet from two ships to more than 100 before stepping down as chief executive in 2013.

In 1995, Arison purchased the Miami Heat basketball team.

He's ranked as the 147th-richest billionaire in the U.S.

Carl Icahn: $6.9 Billion

Activist shareholder and hedge fund guru Carl Icahn has a home on Indian Creek, AKA Billionaire Bunker, a guarded island in Biscayne Bay that's home to Tom Brady and Ivanka Trump, among a laundry list of wealthy residents.

In 2020, the New York investor reportedly moved offices of his publicly traded conglomerate, Icahn Enterprises, to Sunny Isles, near North Miami Beach, cementing his presence in South Florida.

Icahn pioneered activist investing and amassed a wide-ranging investment portfolio with holdings that ballooned in value through the 1980s. The New York Times reported that in 1989, he sold his shares in oil company Texaco for $2 billion, which the Times classified as the largest-ever New York Stock Exchange trade at the time.

Icahn briefly served as a regulatory advisor to then-president Donald Trump before stepping down in August 2017.

The corporate raider faced a steep stock drop in Icahn Enterprises in early May after short-selling firm Hindenburg Report released an article alleging the company had inflated asset values, claims which Icahn called "misleading and self-serving." The company's market capitalization shrank by billions of dollars in less than a month, significantly impacting Icahn's Forbes net worth estimate.

He's currently tied for 147th-richest on the Forbes list.

Peter Thiel: $5.9 Billion

Thiel, a German-American venture capitalist who cofounded PayPal and is credited with being the first major outside investor in Facebook, moved to Miami in late 2020 along with other wealthy tech entrepreneurs who flocked to the Sunshine State during the pandemic. He purchased a pair of multimillion-dollar waterfront mansions in Miami Beach.

Thiel was born in Frankfurt, Germany, but was raised in the U.S. and South Africa. He attended Stanford University, where he cofounded the Stanford Review, a student-run newspaper with a libertarian leaning.

After working as a securities lawyer, Thiel teamed up with software engineer Max Levchin to start the venture that would eventually become PayPal and merge with Elon Musk's online financial service company. PayPal was bought out by eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002.

Much of his fortune stemmed from his sale of Facebook stock for more than a billion dollars.

Though his venture capital firm Founders Fund maintains its headquarters in San Francisco, Thiel's Miami move brought with it the tech mogul's sway in the realm of startup tech funding. A diehard fan of J.R.R. Tolkien, Thiel's ventures sometimes bear names drawn from the Lord of Rings series.

Since the 2000s, Thiel has donated millions of dollars to right-wing and Republican causes — roughly $40 million to GOP candidates since 2018 — and has consistently backed candidates who focus on the nation’s economy. He recently announced that he wouldn't be funding any presidential candidates for the upcoming 2024 election.

Josh Harris: $5.7 Billion

Josh Harris is a cofounder of alternative investment and private equity firm Apollo Global Management alongside Leon Black and Marc Rowan. The University of Pennsylvania alum led the group that purchased the Philadelphia 76ers in 2011, the New Jersey Devils, and the Prudential Center in 2013.

More recently, he spearheaded a buyout of the Washington Commanders football team and FedEx Field property.

Since stepping down from his day-to-day operations role at Apollo in 2022, he has turned his attention to his sports and property management company Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (HBSE), which he cofounded with Blackstone senior executive and his co-manager partner of the Devils and 76ers David Blitzer.

In 2021, Harris purchased a more than 9,110-square-foot mansion in Miami Beach for $32 million.

He's tied on the Forbes list for 147th richest.

Sami Mnaymneh: $5.1 Billion

Back in 1993, Sami Mnaymneh cofounded H.I.G. Capital, which is headquartered in Miami. The private equity firm manages $58 billion and maintains offices in multiple cities in the U.S., Europe, and South America.

Prior to H.I.G., Mnaymneh was managing director at Blackstone and vice president of mergers and acquisitions at Morgan Stanley.

He appears to keep a low profile and little is known about the 61-year-old's personal life. Something of a wunderkind, he graduated first in his class at Columbia University in 1981 and later earned an MBA and a law degree from Harvard.

An established Miami Beach resident, Mnaymneh bought a luxury property in the community in June for $25 million.

He's ranked as the country's 215th-richest billionaire.

Rakesh Gangwal: $4.6 Billion

Rakesh Gangwal has been working in the airline industry for 37 years, beginning his career at United Airlines and working his way up to becoming chairman and CEO of US Airways Group.

In 2006, he cofounded the Delhi-based budget airline IndiGo, which is now India's largest airline by passengers and fleet size. He's co-owner of IndiGo's parent company, InterGlobe Aviation. Gangwal and his family reportedly own nearly one-third of the company.

In 2015, he and his wife, Shoba Gangwal, purchased a $30 million waterfront home on Indian Creek Drive in Miami Beach.

He ranks as the 249th-richest billionaire in the country.

Herbert Wertheim: $4.6 Billion

In a profile of Wertheim published in 2019, Forbes called the now-82-year-old self-made billionaire "the greatest investor you've never heard of."

The son of Jewish immigrants who fled Nazi Germany, Wertheim struggled in school with dyslexia and truancy. He grew up in the apartment above his parents' bakery in Hollywood, Florida. He became an optometrist and an inventor, holding a handful of copyrights and patents, including an eyeglass tint for plastic lenses that would filter out and absorb dangerous UV rays.

He generated most of his wealth by investing in stocks like Apple and Microsoft during their IPOs decades ago — and holding on to them.

Wertheim has vowed to donate at least half of his wealth as a signee of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett's Giving Pledge. He has given $50 million to Florida International University and committed another $50 million to the University of Florida.

Wertheim and his wife, Nicole Wertheim, have been longtime residents of Coral Gables.

He is tied for 249th-richest billionaire on the Forbes list.