Many with Minnesota ties make Forbes list of world’s richest people

• While Elon Musk topped Forbes’ list of world’s richest people for 2026, several people with ties to Minnesota are also on the list.
• They include Glen Taylor, founder of Taylor Corp., and T. Denny Sanford, owner of First Premier Bank.
• 21 heirs of Cargill founder W.W. Cargill are also on the list of the world’s billionaires.

Several people with Minnesota ties are on Forbes’ latest listing of the world’s wealthiest people.

South African-born businessman and tech mogul Elon Musk is once again the richest man in the world, according to the magazine, which released its annual list of the world’s billionaires March 10.

Glen Taylor, of Mankato, Minnesota, is at No. 1285 on the list with assets totaling $3.3 billion, Forbes said. Taylor, 84, grew up on a farm in southern Minnesota, went to Minnesota State University, and in 1975 bought a wedding service he had worked in during college for $2 million, according to the magazine. That wedding service became Taylor Corp., a printing service with current annual sales of more than $2 billion. He owns stakes in the NBA’s Timberwolves and WNBA’s Lynx as well as the Minnesota Star Tribune newspaper.

T. Denny Sanford, who grew up in the Twin Cities, went to the University of Minnesota and now lives in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was at No. 1712 on the list with assets totaling $2.4 billion. Sanford, 90, owns First Premier Bank, which is one of the largest issuers of Mastercards. Sanford has said that he wants to die broke, and he has given more than $1 billion to Sanford Health, a group of 43 nonprofit hospitals formerly called the Sioux Valley Health System, according to Forbes.

More: Fort Snelling offers expansive look at Minnesota’s history

Also on the Forbes list are members of the Cargill family, which owns Cargill. The food and beverage company based in Wayzata, Minnesota, is the largest privately owned company in the country, and 21 heirs of founder W.W. Cargill are worth $1 billion or more, according to Forbes. The highest on the list is Pauline MacMillan Keinath, who landed at No. 361 with $9.5 billion in assets, according to Forbes. Keinath, 92, now lives in St. Louis.

There are a record 3,428 people worth $1 billion or more, an increase of 400 compared with last year. This year’s billionaire class is worth a combined record $20.1 trillion, $4 trillion more than last year’s total income.

Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, tops the list again this year, increasing his wealth from 2025 by an estimated $497 billion, roughly doubling his fortune and bringing it to a record $839 billion. The 54-year-old is more than three times richer than Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who Forbes lists as the second and third wealthiest people in the world, respectively.

Here’s the top 50 wealthiest people on this year’s list.

More: Trader Joe’s is bringing its mini pastel tote bags back to Minnesota

Forbes’ 2026 top billionaires in the world

Forbes’ 2026 ranking of the richest people in the world was based on stock prices and exchange rates, as of March 1, according to the magazine.

Here’s a look at the top 50:

See billionaires: Forbes releases the richest people in America list

To see the full list, go to https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/.

Gayle Eubank contributed to this story.

Kate Perez covers national trends and breaking news for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kperez@usatodayco.com or on X @katecperez_.