14 universities with the most billionaires (2026 edition)

Bill Gates. Elon Musk. Jeff Bezos. Billionaires who built global empires and changed industries. 

Now, thanks to the AI explosion, booming markets, and favorable fiscal policies, the number has gone up. In fact, in total, more than 3,400 people made this year’s list, and they’re richer than ever — worth a record total of over US$20 trillion. 

And these billionaires had to start somewhere. And for many of them, university was fertile ground to begin their illustrious, ambitious careers. Arguably, though, some universities may be better than others when it comes to producing brilliant moguls. A 2026 study back this up: nearly half of all billionaires worldwide graduated from just 100 universities. Which ones? Quantitatively, we can try to find out by looking at the universities with the most billionaires. 

But some of the richest men in the world have famously dropped out of school. Look at Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who has a net worth of over US$104.1 billion as of June 2026. 

Before you cite him as an example of why you should drop out of school, know this: Gates dropped out of Harvard University, one of the most prestigious universities in the world.

It’s a difficult university to get into; the class of 2028 will have better luck than their seniors, with the highest acceptance rate the university has seen in four years at 3.59%. Meanwhile, the class of 2027 has a rate of 3.41%, and the class of 2026 is at a record low of 3.19%.

Another famous dropout would be Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook. He founded the social networking website right from his college dorm room at Harvard University, choosing to then drop out in his sophomore year.

Now, Facebook – known as Meta Platforms in 2026 – is valued at a staggering US$1593.27billion. Zuckerberg himself holds a net worth of US$203.8 billion. 

Some billionaires who didn’t complete or even step foot into university or college: 

Billionaire	Role	Net worth
Richard Branson	Co-founder of Virgin Group	US$2.8 billion
Lee Shin Cheng	Former CEO of the IOI Group	US$5.4 billion
Michael S. Dell	CEO of Dell	US$231.2 billion
Amancio Ortega	Founder and former chairman of the Inditex fashion group	US$144.7 billion
Mukesh Ambani	Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)	US$89.7 billion

So what does this tell us? Perhaps the traditional academic journey is not the only pathway to being a billionaire.

Jack Ma, one of the richest men in China and the co-founder of Alibaba Group, said, “It is not necessary to study for an MBA. Most MBA graduates are not useful… Unless they come back from their MBA studies and forget what they’ve learned at school, then they will be useful. Because schools teach knowledge, while starting businesses requires wisdom. Wisdom is acquired through experience. Knowledge can be acquired through hard work.”

Perhaps it can be said that education is still a necessary stepping stone. It will teach you the fundamentals of the great work you do that gets you paid.

But there is some truth that what actually earns you more money in the long run is experience and a desire to learn beyond the bounds of traditional educational institutions. After all, practical intelligence and upskilling will undoubtedly get you further in life.

Wondering which universities provided great bases for these billionaires to earn their wealth? Take a look below.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

QS World University Rankings 2026: #1

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is not only the #1 university in the world, but it also stands out as one of the universities with the most billionaires

With over 28 billionaire alumni, big names include:

• Charles Koch, co-CEO and chairman of Koch Industries
• Drew Houston, co-founder and CEO of Dropbox
• Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX

Stanford University

QS World University Rankings 2026: #3

Stanford University, known as California’s Silicon Valley school, has produced over 94 billionaires since its inception, easily making it one of the universities with the most billionaires.

Tech billionaires in particular are a dime a dozen. They include:

• DoorDash co-founders Andy Fang and Stanley Tang
• Snapchat co-founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy
• Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo!

Harvard University

QS World University Rankings 2026: #5

Harvard University’s reputation precedes it. Due to its academic excellence, Harvard has produced many top tycoons, remaining strongly connected to some of America’s richest individuals. Over 114 billionaires have attended Harvard, and even more millionaires are following suit.

Harvard Business School’s business education section has produced very rich, intelligent alumni, including six US president. Some billionaires are:

• Citadel’s Ken Griffin
• Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk
• Michael Bloomberg

And, of course, other than famous and rich graduates, there are also famous and rich dropouts.

Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg were Harvard alumni, even if they technically didn’t finish their education there. However, they clearly did not forget their roots — Zuckerberg and his wife, whom he met during his time at Harvard, pledged US$519 million to the university to launch and operate the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence, named after Zuckerberg’s mother.

University of Pennsylvania

QS World University Rankings 2026: #15

Famously known as America’s first university, the University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a private, Ivy League research institution in Philadelphia. It is home to four schools, with its business unit, Wharton School. The university is famous for producing numerous billionaires — 56, to be exact.

Top graduates include:

• Tesla’s Elon Musk
• Donald Trump
• Apollo co-founders Marc Rowan and Josh Harris
• Leonard Lauder, William Lauder, Aerin Lauder, and Ronald Lauder — heirs to the Estée Lauder fortune

Of course, business is not the only thriving school.

Tory Burch, American businesswoman and fashion designer, obtained her art history degree from Penn, while film producer Dick Wolf pursued an English degree.

 University of California, Berkeley 

QS World University Rankings 2026: #17 

UC Berkeley is the top-ranked public university in the QS 2026 rankings globally. Its proximity to Silicon Valley has made it a powerhouse for tech entrepreneurship across decades. The Haas School of Business and College of Engineering have produced generations of founders and investors, and Berkeley’s alumni include 51 billionaires. 

Some of its most prominent billionaire alumni include: 

• Charles Simonyi, the Microsoft architect behind Word and Excel 
• Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google 
• Don Fisher, co-founder of Gap Inc 

Cornell University

QS World University Rankings 2026: #16

Cornell University has produced 24 billionaires, some of whom are the top executives and entrepreneurs in both the technology and business industries. In fact, its business school was named after the founder of S. C. Johnson & Son, who donated US$20 million in 1984 to support the graduate school’s establishment.

The school went on to produce numerous billionaires, such as:

• PeopleSoft and Workday founder David Duffield
• Sequoia Capital partner Douglas Leone
• Sanford “Sandy” Weill, the former CEO and Chairman of Citigroup

Yale University

QS World University Rankings 2025: #21

Yale University has churned out many incredible entrepreneurs and nearly 25 billionaires to date, making it one of the universities with the most billionaires.

The idea of FedEx started right in its classrooms, with its founder, Fred Smith, creating the basis for the transportation, e-commerce, and business services company for an economics paper.

Other notable billionaire Yale alumni include:

• Pinterest co-founders Ben Silbermann and Paul Sciarra
• The Bass family oil tycoons
• Blackstone chairman and CEO Stephen Schwarzman

Princeton University

QS World University Rankings 2026: #25

The alma mater of perhaps the world’s richest man, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos himself. Princeton University is home to 12 billionaires, although it can be said that Bezos’s fortune outweighs them all.

In fact, Bezos and his billionaire ex-wife Mackenzie Scott are both Princeton graduates. They only met after graduating and working at hedge fund D.E. Shaw, but together, they made an extremely powerful, rich couple.

Billionaires from Princeton include: 

• Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon
• Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman
• Cerberus Capital CEO Stephen Feinberg
• Crypto investment firm Galaxy Digital founder Michael Novogratz
• Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

Columbia University

QS World University Rankings 2026: #38

Of course, this Ivy League school is one of the universities with the most billionaires. This private research university in New York is known for quite a number of alumni. Billionaires it has produced includes:

• Legendary investor Warren Buffett
• Leon Cooperman, chairman and CEO of Omega Advisors
• Robert Kraft, Founder and Chairman of the Kraft Group
• Len Blavatnik, Founder of Access Industries

University of Maryland

QS World University Rankings 2026: #207

This one might seem a little surprising. The University of Maryland, College Park is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C.

Indeed, this university is one of the universities with the most billionaires, a factor that has helped the institution rank among the top universities globally for per capita alumni wealth.

Sergey Brin is one of the University of Maryland’s most famous billionaire alumni. He graduated in 1993 with a degree in mathematics and computer science, then co-founded Google.

Other billionaire alumni include:

• Brendan Iribe, the co-founder of Oculus VR and Scaleform
• Kevin Plank, The founder and former CEO of Under Armour

University of Southern California (USC) 

QS World University Rankings 2026: #146 

Located in Los Angeles, USC has produced over 23 billionaire alumni, many of whom made their fortunes in media, entertainment, and real estate. 

The university is especially known for its School of Cinematic Arts, one of the top film schools in the US, while the Marshall School of Business is highly respected for business education. With close ties to Hollywood and access to Silicon Valley, USC offers strong opportunities for students interested in entrepreneurship and creative industries. 

Notable billionaire alumni include: 

• George Lucas, creator of Star Wars 
• Marc Benioff, founder and CEO of Salesforce 
• Rick Caruso and Edward Roski Jr., two of the US’s most prominent real estate billionaires 

New York University (NYU) 

QS World University Rankings 2026: #55 

NYU’s Stern School of Business has long served as a pipeline into Wall Street and global finance. Situated in Manhattan, the university’s proximity to financial markets gives graduates a competitive edge in banking, real estate, and investment.  

At the same time, NYU is home to the renowned Tisch School of the Arts, making it one of the few universities with a strong presence in both finance and entertainment. The university has produced 22 billionaire alumni across these industries.  

Billionaires from NYU include: 

• Kenneth Langone, co-founder of Home Depot 
• Stephen Ross, founder of Related Companies 

University of Michigan 

QS World University Rankings 2026: #45 

The University of Michigan–Ann Arbor is one of the world’s leading public universities and is often compared with top private institutions for the success of its graduates.  

Its Ross School of Business and College of Engineering are among the most respected in the country. So far, the university has produced nine billionaire alumni. 

Notable billionaire alumni include: 

• Larry Page, co-founder of Google and board member of Alphabet 
• Sam Zell, founder of Equity Group Investments 

Dartmouth College 

QS World University Rankings 2026: #247 

The smallest of the Ivy League schools by undergraduate enrolment — around 4,000+ students — Dartmouth punches well above its size. Its Tuck School of Business is consistently ranked among the world’s top MBA programmes, making it a great spot for private equity and finance titans.  

Six Dartmouth alumni are currently listed on the Forbes billionaires list, a remarkable figure given its scale: 

• Leon Black, co-founder of Apollo Global Management 
• Stephen Mandel Jr., founder of hedge fund Lone Pine Capital 
• James Coulter, co-founder of private equity giant TPG Capital 

So, do you need a degree to be a billionaire? 

Well, not really. But it’s not that simple.

Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard. Mark Zuckerberg did too. Richard Branson never went to university.

These are the stories that fuel countless “why I quit school” YouTube videos — and technically, they’re all true.

But they’re also outliers in a very specific way. As mentioned, Gates and Zuckerberg didn’t just drop out of any university — they dropped out of Harvard. The networks, the credibility, and the exposure they gained before leaving still shaped what came next.

For most billionaires, a degree was very much part of the journey. Jeff Bezos graduated from Princeton. Elon Musk holds degrees from UPenn in economics and physics. Warren Buffett earned his master’s from Columbia.

The data shows that the majority of the world’s wealthiest individuals did complete higher education. But just because you study at the universities with the most billionaires, doesn’t mean you will be a billionaire.

What a degree offers isn’t a guaranteed path to wealth. It’s more about the foundation of knowledge, exposure to ambitious peers, and the kind of early credibility that opens doors.

What do billionaires study?

We now know the universities with the most billionaires. But what did they study?

If there’s a billionaire syllabus, it leans heavily on three subjects: business, technology, and economics.

Business and commerce degrees are the most common thread, particularly MBAs from schools like Harvard Business School and Wharton at UPenn.

Engineering and computer science follow closely behind, especially among tech billionaires. Stanford’s outsized presence on the list — 94 billionaires and counting — is largely tied to its proximity to Silicon Valley and its strength in technical disciplines.

Economics is another recurring major, perhaps because it trains people to think about systems, incentives, and markets — the exact lens through which many successful founders and investors view the world.

There are outliers, of course. Tory Burch studied art history at Penn. FedEx founder Fred Smith’s famous logistics idea was sketched out in a Yale economics paper that reportedly received a mediocre grade. The subject matters less than most people assume. What seems to matter more is curiosity, a tolerance for risk, and the willingness to take what you learned and do something genuinely new with it.

At a glance: 14 universities that produced the most billionaires 

University	Estimated billionaire alumni
Harvard University	114+
Stanford University	94+
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	28+
University of Pennsylvania	56
Cornell University	24
Yale University	25
Princeton University	12
Columbia University	41
University of Maryland	Unknown
University of Southern California	23+
New York University	22
University of Michigan	9
University of California, Berkeley	51
Dartmouth College	6

Frequently asked questions (FAQ) 

Which university has the most billionaire alumni?

Harvard University has produced the most billionaires in the world, consistently ranking first across global alumni’s wealth studies. It is followed by Stanford University, which is known for its strong link to Silicon Valley founders, and University of Pennsylvania, largely driven by its Wharton School producing many finance and business leaders.

Which subjects produce the most billionaires?

Business and Economics, including Business Administration and Finance, produce the most billionaires, accounting for 35.11% of the ultra-wealthy.

Engineering ranks second at 13.63%, with mechanical, electrical, and civil engineering emerging as the most common specialisations.

Natural Sciences (6.09%) and Humanities (6.03%) rank closely behind, followed by Law (4.81%) and Computer Science (4.30%).

Where do billionaires send their children to university?

Ivy League schools are a popular choice among billionaires, alongside leading institutions such as Stanford University and MIT. Jeff Bezos’ eldest son, Preston Bezos, reportedly attended Princeton University, the alma mater of both his parents. Bezos’ stepson, Evan Whitesell, enrolled at the University of Miami Herbert Business School in 2025 to study business.

Bill Gates’ eldest child, Jennifer Gates, studied Human Biology at Stanford University before earning a public health master’s degree from Columbia University and later a medical degree from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Rory Gates, his son, completed a double major and master’s degree at the University of Chicago. Phoebe Gates, the youngest of the Gates children, graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Human Biology.

Which universities have the richest students?

Harvard University ranks among the elite universities with the wealthiest students. Just 3% of students take out federal loans, while 16% receive Pell Grants. Graduates finish with a median debt of US$14,000.

Princeton University is next, with only 3% of students relying on federal loans and 20% receiving Pell Grants. It also boasts one of the lowest median graduate debt levels at US$10,320.

Only 4% of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) students receive federal loans, 18% receive Pell Grants, and graduates leave with a median debt of US$14,770.

Why is Trinity College in the UK so rich?

Much of Trinity College’s wealth stems from centuries-old land holdings gifted by the Crown, which have evolved into some of Britain’s most valuable real estate.

Today, its assets include the Port of Felixstowe, Cambridge Science Park, London’s O2 Arena, and Dunsfold Park. It also owns half of Tesco, one of the UK’s biggest supermarket retailers. Altogether, Trinity’s land assets alone are estimated to be worth about 2 billion pounds (US$2.6 billion).

Does going to a top university make you a billionaire?

No. Going to a top university can increase your access to strong networks, funding opportunities, and high-paying career paths, but it does not make someone a billionaire.

Can international students get into universities that produce billionaires?

Yes. International students can get into those leading universities. However, do take note that admission is highly competitive and based on academic performance, achievements, and overall profile, not nationality. 

Disclaimer: This article was last updated on July 14, 2026.