Meet Miami's 13 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 touted 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 would move 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 live in the Miami area — some longtime South Florida residents, while others, like Bezos, are post-pandemic 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.

Without further ado, listed below in descending order are Miami's 13 filthiest-rich billionaires (because the wealthiest always get to be on top).

Jeff Bezos: $197 Billion

The second-richest man on the Forbes 400 is Miami Palmetto Senior High School graduate and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Bezos was the valedictorian of his 1982 high school class and even worked as a cook at a local McDonalds.

As we are abundantly aware of how Bezos made his billions, (guessing you have Amazon open in another tab), the billionaire announced in November 2024 that he depart from Seattle to return to his old stomping grounds with his fiancée Lauren Sanchez.

He eventually purchased three mansions on the island of Indian Creek, AKA, Billionaire Bunker. He is supposedly tearing down the neighboring mansions to build a new megamansion while he lives in a $90 million temporary mansion.
The three transactions totaled $273 million, pocket change for Bezos.

Ken Griffin: $43 Billion

A Florida native raised in Boca Raton, Ken Griffin started Citadel LLC in 1990, overseeing 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 who'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, marking 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. The tower could take five to six years to build.

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

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

Orlando Bravo: $9.8 Billion

Bravo was born in Mayagüez, 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 Mayagüez. Bravo attended Brown University then Stanford, where he earned a law degree and a master's in business administration.

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 2020, the firm reported it had upward of $70 billion of assets under management, 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 tied for the 103rd-richest person in the nation.

Josh Harris: $9.3 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 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 comes in at 112 on the Forbes list.

Micky Arison: $8.3 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 just a kid.

After dropping out of UM, Arison began 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 tied as the 137th-richest billionaire in the U.S.

Sami Mnaymneh: $6.4 Billion

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

Before 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 2023 for $25 million.

He's tied as the country's 200th-richest billionaire.

Rakesh Gangwal: $6.3 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 chairman and CEO of US Airways Group.

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

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

He is tied as the 204th-richest billionaire in the country.
Carl Icahn: $5.9 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 the 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, amassing 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 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 the 222nd-richest on the Forbes list.
Herbert Wertheim: $5.8 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 while growing 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 the 225th-richest billionaire on the Forbes list.

William Berkley: $5.1 Billion

Coconut Grove billionaire William Berkley founded the insurance firm W.R. Berkeley Corporation in 1967.

The company went public in 1973 and has become one of the largest commercial lines property and casualty insurers in the U.S., insuring properties in mining, design, medical, aviation, transportation, oil, and gas.

These days, Berkley's son serves as CEO while the 78-year-old, who stepped down as CEO in 2015, remains chairman. The company's annual revenue in 2023 was $12.1 billion.

Berkley is also the chair emeritus of the New York University Board of Trustees.

He is tied at 56 on the Forbes list.

Daniel Och: $3.9 Billion

Daniel Och is the founder of the asset management firm Och-Ziff Capital Management, now known as Sculptor Capital Management. He now also runs his family office Willoughby Capital, another investment firm.

Och and his wife Jane moved to Miami Beach from New York in 2019. In July 2023, the couple paid 125,611 Miami-Dade residents' outstanding medical bills through their family foundation — a debt totaling a whopping $264 million.

He is tied as the 338th-richest person in the country.

Leonid Radvinsky: $3.8 Billion

Given Miami is the OnlyFans capital of the U.S., it is only right that its owner lives in the Magic City. He is a new addition to Forbes' annual list.

Born in Odesa, Ukraine, Radvinsky emigrated to Chicago with his family as a child. He founded Cybertania, a website referral business, at the ripe age of 17. As Forbes first reported, the company operated a number of websites that marketed access to "illegal" and "hacked" passwords to porn sites, subsequently making millions.

Following his graduation from Northwestern University, Radvinsky created an adult the adult webcam site MyFreeCams, which sex industry publication XBIZ dubbed "One of the world's largest adult webcam communities."

But, the porn entrepreneur made a splash when he took over the subscription social platform OnlyFans, founded by Tim and Guy Stokely, in 2018. As of last September, Radinsky had made $1.3 billion in dividends since 2021 as the platform's popularity exploded.

He comes in at 347 on the billionaires list.

Norman Braman: $3.3 Billion

When you think of Miami, you think of Norman Braman.

Aside from owning one of the largest car dealerships in Florida, Braman helped bring Art Basel to Miami Beach. Long before he was an art collector, philanthropist, and successful businessman, he lived in Philadelphia as the son of two Jewish immigrants from Europe.

Growing up, Braman was a waterboy for the Philadelphia Eagles football team during training camp. (He later bought the team in 1985 before selling it to current owner Jeffrey Lurie in 1994 for $185 million.)

Braman initially made his millions through his pharmaceuticals and cosmetic company. After selling his stake in the business, he moved to South Florida and purchased a Cadillac dealership. He quickly grew Braman Motorcars, transforming it into the mega dealership it is today offering luxury vehicles from Bentleys to Rolls-Royces.

Braman and his wife Irma funded the construction of the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Miami, in the Design District. The couple lives in the billionaire bunker of Indian Creek in true billionaire fashion.

Braman comes in at 399 on the Forbes list.