Iowa
Iowa has just one billionaire. How did the richest Iowa’s net worth change?
Harry Stine: What you need to know about Iowa’s richest person
Harry Stine has been repeatedly listed as the richest Iowan by Forbes magazine.
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Iowa is home to one lone billionaire and he lives in a town of 6,000 people.
Every year, Forbes releases a list of the richest people in the world. Iowa only has one person representing the state on the list and he is from Adel.
Who is the richest person in Iowa in 2025?
Harry Stine is the richest person in Iowa and the state’s only billionaire, according to Forbes.
Stine started farming at 5 years old. He still owns a small home down the road from his business headquarters in Adel, according to Forbes. Stine is dyslexic and moderately autistic. He is 83 years old and is married with four children.
How did Harry Stine become the richest person in Iowa?
Stine owns Stine Seeds and thousands of acres of land in Iowa, according to a Forbes article in 2014. He built his agriculture empire by licensing corn and soybean genetics to Monsanto and Syngenta, according to Forbes.
In the 1990s, Stine “struck highly lucrative licensing deals with large multinational corporations across the globe, which form the backbone of his empire,” Forbes said.
What is the richest person in Iowa’s net worth?
Stine’s net worth reached new highs in 2025, surpassing $10 billion. His wealth has continually been on the rise since 2020, according to Forbes. In 2024, Forbes recorded his net worth at $9.7 billion.
How does Stine compare to other billionaires?
In 2025, Stine ranked in 264th place among more than 3,000 billionaires in the world tracked by Forbes. This is a drop from 2024 when he was ranked No. 237. Tesla CEO Elon Musk topped the Forbes global billionaire chart with a net worth of $342 billion.
Are there any other billionaires with Iowa ties?
While Stine is the only billionaire to reside in Iowa, he isn’t the only Iowan to become a billionaire.
Julia Koch is an Iowa native and she has a net worth $74.2 billion. Julia Koch and her three children inherited a stake in Koch Inc. after the death of her husband, David Koch. Julia Koch moved to New York in the 1980s to work as an assistant to fashion designer Adolfo.
Kate Kealey is a general assignment reporter for the Register. Reach her at kkealey@registermedia.com or follow her on Twitter at @Kkealey17.