Forbes 250: America's Greatest Innovators!

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2026/02/11/forbes-250-americas-greatest-innovators/

 

NAME	AGE	BIO
#1	Elon Musk	54	Tesla. SpaceX. Neuralink. xAI. The Boring Company. Musk is the only person in history to have founded (or grown from nearly nothing) five companies, each with multibillion-dollar valuations, each in a different industry.
#2	Jeff Bezos	61	Completely upended America’s $7.4 trillion retail industry, then pioneered cloud computing with Amazon Web Services. Now he’s helping NASA return to the moon at Blue Origin and building AI manufacturing systems at Prometheus.
#3	Bill Gates	70	Not content with kickstarting the personal computing revolution and making Microsoft the dominant player in workplace software (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), at age 50 Gates reinvented himself as a generous—and data-driven—philanthropist who helped eradicate polio from India.
#4	George Lucas	81	One of the founding fathers of the modern blockbuster, Lucas also revolutionized movie merchandising, unleashing a never-ending tsunami of Star Wars action figures and Indiana Jones lunch boxes. Through his special effects house Industrial Light & Magic and THX sound outfit, he sold his tools to other moviemakers.
#5	Jensen Huang	62	For years, Nvidia built graphics chips that made computer games pretty and fast. Huang transformed that niche business into the $187 billion (trailing 12-month revenue) beating heart of the AI economy thanks to an early bet on parallel computing.
#6	Sam Altman	40	Read our exclusive profile.
#7	Phil Knight	87	The Nike cofounder revolutionized the design and production of running shoes, but more importantly, he built the world’s best marketing machine, powered by the planet’s best athletes.
#8	Martine Rothblatt	71	The creator of SiriusXM satellite radio. Rothblatt’s biotech-focused second act is even more impressive: United Therapeutics, which she founded in 1996, made medicines that helped save her daughter’s life, and is now developing genetically modified pig organs for human transplant.
#9	Ted Turner	87	In the 1980s, Turner built cable’s first “superstation,” Atlanta’s TBS, on a foundation of Braves baseball and pro wrestling. Then he invented the 24-hour news cycle with CNN before making classic movies cool again with TCM.
#10	Vinod Khosla	70	Sun Microsystems, which Khosla cofounded, was an early pioneer in network computing. He then became a legendary venture capitalist with early bets on risky, complicated tech that produced giants such as Square, DoorDash and OpenAI.
#11	Larry Page	52	Google’s founding CEO co-wrote the search algorithm that changed everything.
#12	Sergey Brin	52	The other Google cofounder’s now back at Alphabet, driving the company’s AI strategy.
#13	Reed Hastings	65	Haven’t seen a video store recently? Thank Netflix.
#14	Marc Andreessen	54	The Netscape cofounder went on to build Silicon Valley’s biggest VC firm.
#15	Larry Ellison	81	Oracle’s empire of databases, a Hawaiian island and now financing his son’s media megalomania.
#16	Judy Faulkner	82	Hand-coded what grew into the dominant electronic health records system.
#17	Jim Sinegal	90	Pioneered warehouse club retail (and cheap hot dogs) at Costco.
#18	Michael Bloomberg	83	Transformed Wall Street data into essential terminals for traders and later a media empire.
#19	Michael Milken	79	Developed the market for high-yield “junk” bonds, powering the 1980s LBO craze.
#20	Diane Greene	70	Her company built virtual computers, paving the path to the cloud.
#21	Andrew Viterbi	90	Qualcomm cofounder wrote the algorithm that makes your phone work.
#22	Brian Chesky	44	Upended the $270 billion American hotel industry with Airbnb.
#23	Judy Estrin	71	Bridged different network types, putting the “inter” in internet.
#24	Thomas Peterffy	81	Computerized Wall Street with automated trades.
#25	Fred Moll	73	The father of the robotic surgery industry.
#26	Henry Samueli	71	The Broadcom founder invented the chips that enabled fast broadband internet.
#27	Bob Metcalfe	79	Invented ethernet and founded 3Com to commercialize it.
#28	Marc Benioff	61	Pioneered “software-as-a-service” at Salesforce.
#29	Steven Spielberg	79	Jaws. E.T. Saving Private Ryan. Jurassic Park. DreamWorks.
#30	Howard Schultz	72	Created modern coffeehouse culture with Starbucks.
#31	Henry Kravis	82	LBO king unsettled clubby Wall Street; infamous for 1988 RJR Nabisco megadeal.
#32	Noubar Afeyan	63	His factory for life science startups has launched more than 100 companies, including Moderna.
#33	Palmer Luckey	33	Commercialized virtual reality with Oculus, then pivoted to military AI.
#34	Harry Stine	84	If you’re eating soy, it’s probably from one of his seeds.
#35	Warren Buffett	95	The guru of value investing.
#36	Rupert Murdoch	94	Sports, tabloids, political polarization, power.
#37	Mark Zuckerberg	41	Arguably, his biggest innovation isn’t Facebook—it’s growth hacking.
#38	George Roberts	82	The “R” in LBO pioneer KKR also helped create venture philanthropy.
#39	Robert Langer	77	Scientific cofounder of more than 40 biotechs, including Covid vaccine maker Moderna.
#40	Ken Griffin	57	His tech-powered firm Citadel executes 25% of U.S. stock trades.
#41	Leroy Hood	87	Turned biology into data science by inventing automated DNA sequencing.
#42	Charles Schwab	88	Discount brokerage prophet who democratized retail investing.
#43	Ed Catmull	80	Pixar cofounder who built the tech—and philosophy—that made Toy Story possible.
#44	Rodney Brooks	71	Inspired by ants, he made the Roomba.
#45	Carl June	72	Discovered how to reprogram immune cells to kill cancer.
#46	Rich Fairbank	75	Data-driven custom credit.
#47	Jim Clark	81	3D graphics, Netscape’s adult in the room and WebMD.
#48	Phillip Sharp	81	Biogen cofounder’s “cut-and-paste” genes enabled modern medicines.
#49	Peter Thiel	58	Silicon Valley’s philosopher king was Facebook’s first outside investor and cofounded PayPal, Palantir, Founder’s Fund; rewards the brightest for skipping college.
#50	Steve Wozniak	75	Apple’s other Steve, his engineering genius underpinned the company’s early success

#51	Paul Mockapetris	77	Wrote the software that made “.com” possible.
#52	Dennis Slamon	77	Fought industry skepticism to develop the first targeted cancer drug.
#53	Hamdi Ulukaya	53	His Chobani brand industrialized Greek yogurt.
#54	Arthur Blank	83	Home improvement marries a depot retail warehouse.
#55	Tom Mueller	64	Invented SpaceX’s engines; his own startup is aiming for the moon.
#56	H. Michael Shepard	76	Bioengineered treatments for multiple cancers and autoimmune disorders.
#57	Martin Cooper	97	Invented cellphones, smart antennas and the wireless business model.
#58	David Shaw	74	High frequency trader brought supercomputing to Wall Street and then Big Pharma.
#59	Michael Dell	60	Cut out the middleman in PC sales.
#60	Leonard Kleinrock	91	His “packet-switching” math makes the internet possible.
#61	Craig Venter	79	Beat big government at sequencing the human genome.
#62	Lewis Ranieri	79	Transformed how housing is financed with mortgage-backed securities.
#63	JB Straubel	50	Built batteries that made EVs practical; now recycles them.
#64	Jeff Yass	67	Created a Wall Street trading giant with game theory and poker winnings.
#65	Robert Weinberg	83	Redefined cancer medicine by proving its genetic origin.
#66	Dean Kamen	74	Prolific inventor: wearable chemotherapy pumps, prosthetic arms, the Segway.
#67	Marvin Caruthers	85	Amgen cofounder launched the biotech industry with DNA synthesis invention.
#68	Reid Hoffman	58	Try finding a job without a LinkedIn profile.
#69	Chuck Hull	86	Invented 3D printing and brought it to market.
#70	Therese Tucker	64	Built BlackLine, the industry standard for automating corporate accounting.
#71	Vlad Tenev	38	Robinhood’s no minimum, no-fee trading brought trading to the masses– and created meme stocks.
#72	Fred Luddy	71	Built the default platform for automating IT processes with ServiceNow.
#73	Paul Graham	61	Y Combinator industrialized Silicon Valley seed funding.
#74	Min Kao	77	Garmin cofounder created the consumer GPS ecosystem.
#75	George Church	71	Harvard professor and biotech pioneer cofounded 50-plus companies spanning gene therapy to de-extinction.
#76	Alexander Karp	58	Big data for big brother.
#77	Max Levchin	50	PayPal and Affirm changed how we pay for things online.
#78	Feng Zhang	44	Gene-editing pioneer making new medicines and rapid diagnostic tools.
#79	James Goodnight	82	His SAS standardized data science—before it even existed.
#80	Jan Koum	49	WhatsApp cofounder revolutionized phone messaging.
#81	Larry Fink	73	Built Blackrock into world’s largest investment firm by automating risk management.
#82	David Geffen	82	Without him, there’s no Nirvana, Eagles or Shrek.
#83	Peggy Cherng	78	Her engineering skills made Panda Express a fast-food powerhouse.
#84	Jennifer Doudna	61	Won the Nobel Prize for Crispr gene editing and cofounded nearly a dozen biotechs.
#85	Charles Ergen	72	Satellite television for everyone with Dish; now pivoting to 5G.
#86	Tom Monaghan	88	Domino’s made 30-minute dinner delivery realistic for the majority of Americans.
#87	Sandy Lerner	70	Made today’s internet possible by commercializing the first router.
#88	David Baker	63	Transformed biotechnology from art to engineering with programmable proteins.
#89	George Kurtz	55	CrowdStrike overturned the traditional antivirus software to become industry standard cybersecurity.
#90	Leonard Adleman	80	RSA secured online payments; now he’s building computers with DNA.
#91	Fei-Fei Li	49	Gave AI machine vision.
#92	Robert Johnson	78	Cofounded (and sold) Black Entertainment Television; now commands a vast multi-industry operation.
#93	Jack Dorsey	49	Reimagined social media with Twitter and e-commerce with Square.
#94	Stephen Schwarzman	78	Blackstone transformed the global economy by industrializing private equity.
#95	John Mackey	72	Took organic food out of the farmer’s market with Whole Foods.
#96	Oprah Winfrey	71	Built her media empire on a foundation of self-improvement.
#97	Dario Amodei	43	Architect of safety-focused AI for enterprise customers at Anthropic.
#98	Kevin Systrom	42	Instagram founder did it for the ’gram.
#99	Eric Swanson	65	Invented the retina scanning technology used by modern eye doctors.
#100	Madonna Ciccone	67	Pop culture’s ultimate reinventor also defined ’90s sound with Maverick Records.
#151 John Tu 84 Co-invented modern RAM computer memory and still runs Kingston from a cubicle.       #152 David Sun 74 Co-invented modern RAM and still walks Kingston’s factory floor.       #153 Barry Diller 83 Invented made-for-TV movies. Created Fox network. Runs Expedia.       #154 Xiaowei Zhuang 53 Commercialized visualization tools used to map and cure disease.       #155 Neha Narkhede 41 Built data infrastructure for an AI-enabled internet.       #156 Carl Icahn 89 Shook up complacent companies with hostile takeovers and shareholder activism.       #157 Bill Franke 88 Made flying affordable by unbundling airfare from comforts like leg room.       #158 Mitchell Hashimoto 36 Developed the standard tools programmers use on the cloud.       #159 Timothy Springer 77 Discovered immune “keys” to fight disease and cofounded Moderna.       #160 Daphne Koller 57 Founded education giant Coursera and AI drug discoverer Insitro.       #161 Sangeeta Bhatia 57 Brought microchip tech to biology for safer drug discovery.       #162 Mitch Kapor 75 Designed Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet software, then made early bets on Uber and Asana.       #163 Sheila Johnson 76 Cofounded Black Entertainment Television, built its programming strategy, then pivoted to hotels.       #164 Yann LeCun 65 Gave computers “eyes” and, with his new venture, common sense.       #165 Andrew Ng 49 Built unsupervised machine learning at Google, democratized education with Coursera.       #166 Zach Perret 38 Laid the plumbing connecting fintechs to traditional banks with Plaid.       #167 Nina Vaca 54 Pinnacle transformed IT staffing with custom tech and a global reach.       #168 Drew Weissman 66 Nobel for mRNA vaccines; now tackling autoimmune disorders.       #169 Katalin Karikó 71 Nobel for mRNA vaccines; now applying them to heart disease and more.       #170 Jay Adelson 55 Built data center giant Equinix after pioneering social media at Digg.       #171 Len Bosack 73 The Cisco cofounder is now focused on next-generation networking.       #172 Jeff Hawkins 68 Without Hawkins there’s no Palm Pilot, Blackberry or iPhone.       #173 Lonnie Johnson 76 NASA engineer turned Super Soaker inventor turned green energy pioneer.       #174 Jed McCaleb 51 Created the first bitcoin exchange. Now he’s building space stations.       #175 Andrew Weinreich 57 Patented the first social network; then made self-improvement apps.       #176 Whitney Wolfe Herd 36 Revolutionized dating apps twice with Tinder and then Bumble.       #177 Aman Narang 43 Reinvented the restaurant check with Toast.       #178 Fred Ramsdell 65 Discovered genetic “switch” that cures certain autoimmune disorders.       #179 Thomas Südhof 70 His Nobel-winning brain discoveries underpin several multibillion-dollar biotechs including Reata Pharmaceuticals.       #180 Adam Foroughi 45 Designed AppLovin, the AI-powered adtech giant behind the app economy.       #181 Brian Kobilka 70 His cellular maps enable drugs to be designed, not discovered.       #182 David Walt 72 Built the scientific foundation of $23 billion sequencing giant Illumina.       #183 Baiju Bhatt 41 Robinhood cofounder is now working on space-based solar power.       #184 Steve Cohen 69 New York Mets owner and data-driven, multi-manager hedge fund pioneer.       #185 Howard Marks 79 Transformed risky debt investing into a market-stabilizing—and lucrative—proposition.       #186 Brian Acton 53 At WhatsApp, then Signal, he brought secure messaging to everyone.       #187 Yet-Ming Chiang 67 MIT prof making heavy industry greener—from energy to cement.       #188 Peter Diamandis 64 The commercial space pioneer is catalyzing innovation with XPrize.       #189 Ray Ozzie 70 Pioneered digital collaboration. Built Microsoft’s cloud. Leads IoT utility Blues.       #190 Shonda Rhimes 56 TV queen behind Scandal, Bridgerton and Grey’s Anatomy turned her hits into a multiplatform production powerhouse.       #191 James Park 49 Revolutionized exercise with Fitbit.       #192 Ralph Lauren 86 A fashion empire of aspirational, patriotic branding.       #193 Lewis Cantley 76 Fights cancer by starving tumors.       #194 Kate Ryder 42 Founded Maven Clinic, the telehealth giant dedicated to women’s health.       #195 David Booth 80 Turned the efficient market hypothesis into a practical investing tool.       #196 Edwin Chen 38 Bootstrapped Surge AI, which recruits human experts to train AI models.       #197 Kevin Plank 53 The Under Armour founder changed the fabric of athletic wear.       #198 RJ Scaringe 43 With Rivian, he added the rugged adventure category for EVs.       #199 Sara Blakely 54 Invented Spanx and made it a household name.       #200 Alexandr Wang 29 Built machine learning infrastructure at Scale; now leads Meta’s AI.