• 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.

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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.

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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:

Rank	Name	Net Worth	Age	Country	Source
1	Elon Musk	$839 billion	54	United States	Tesla, SpaceX
2	Larry Page	$257 billion	52	United States	Google
3	Sergey Brin	$237 billion	52	United States	Google
4	Jeff Bezos	$224 billion	62	United States	Amazon
5	Mark Zuckerberg	$222 billion	41	United States	Facebook
6	Larry Ellison	$190 billion	81	United States	Oracle
7	Bernard Arnault & family	$171 billion	77	France	LVMH
8	Jensen Huang	$154 billion	63	United States	Semiconductors
9	Warren Buffett	$149 billion	95	United States	Berkshire Hathaway
10	Amancio Ortega	$148 billion	89	Spain	Zara
11	Rob Walton & family	$146 billion	81	United States	Walmart
12	Jim Walton & family	$143 billion	77	United States	Walmart
13	Michael Dell	$141 billion	61	United States	Dell Technologies
14	Alice Walton	$134 B	76	United States	Walmart
15	Steve Ballmer	$126 B	69	United States	Microsoft
16	Carlos Slim Helu & family	$125 billion	86	Mexico	Telecom
17	Changpeng Zhao	$110 billion	49	Canada	Cryptocurrency exchange
18	Michael Bloomberg	$109 billion	84	United States	Bloomberg LP
19	Bill Gates	$108 billion	70	United States	Microsoft
20	Francoise Bettencourt Meyers & family	$100 billion	72	France	L’Oréal
21	Mukesh Ambani	$99.7 billion	68	India	Diversified
22	Giancarlo Devasini	$89.3 billion	61	Italy	Cryptocurrency
23	Thomas Peterffy	$82.9 billion	81	United States	Discount brokerage
24	Julia Koch & family	$81.2 billion	63	United States	Koch, Inc.
25	Charles Koch & family	$73.8 billion	90	United States	Koch, Inc.
26	Zhang Yiming	$69.3 billion	41	China	TikTok
27	Zhong Shanshan	$68.1 billion	71	China	Beverages, pharmaceuticals
28	Jeff Yass	$67.4 billion	67	United States	Trading, investments
29	Dieter Schwarz	$67.2 billion	86	Germany	Retail
30	Germán Larrea Mota Velasco & family	$67.1 billion	72	Mexico	Mining
31	Gautam Adani	$63.8 billion	63	India	Infrastructure, commodities
32	Tadashi Yanai & family	$61.8 billion	77	Japan	Fashion retail
33	Ma Huateng	$53.8 billion	54	China	Online games
34	Robin Zeng	$53.2 billion	57	Hong Kong	Batteries
35	Iris Fontbona & family	$52.6 billion	83	Chile	Mining
36	Masayoshi Son	$51.5 billion	68	Japan	Telecom, Investments
37	Ken Griffin	$49.8 billion	57	United States	Hedge funds
38	Jacqueline Mars	$49.1 billion	86	United States	Candy, pet food
38	John Mars	$49.1 billion	90	United States	Candy, pet food
40	Lukas Walton	$48.9 billion	39	United States	Walmart
41	Giovanni Ferrero	$48.8 billion	61	Italy	Nutella, chocolates
42	Li Ka-shing	$47 billion	97	Hong Kong	Diversified
43	Mark Mateschitz	$45.8 billion	33	Austria	Red Bull
44	Gianluigi Aponte	$44.5 billion	85	Switzerland	Shipping
44	Rafaela Aponte-Diamant	$44.5 billion	80	Switzerland	Shipping
46	Andrea Pignataro	$42.6 billion	55	Italy	Financial software
47	Klaus-Michael Kuehne	$41.9 billion	88	Germany	Shipping
48	Thomas Frist, Jr. & family	$41.1 billion	87	United States	Hospitals
49	Alain Wertheimer	$39.4 billion	77	France	Chanel
49	Gerard Wertheimer	$39.4 billion	75	France	Chanel

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_.

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• A bipartisan group of Minnesota lawmakers is proposing several bills to regulate the artificial intelligence industry.
• Proposed measures include restricting minors’ access to AI chatbots and requiring disclosure when a person is communicating with AI.
• One bill aims to prohibit the government from using “reverse warrants” to obtain location or search data, citing privacy concerns.

A bipartisan group of Minnesota lawmakers are hoping to limit how the artificial intelligence industry operates in the state, arguing that it’s evolving in ways that are harmful and unconstitutional.

Minnesota senators on Monday considered five measures to regulate AI, including a bill (SF 1857) stating that companies that create AI chatbots — like ChatGPT — ensure minors do not access them, and a bill (SF 1886) requiring that companies disclose when a person is communicating with AI.

Sens. Erin Maye Quade, DFL-Apple Valley, and Eric Lucero, R-St. Michael, are leading the bipartisan effort to regulate AI. The duo — who are on opposite sides of the political spectrum — said they aren’t opposed to the technology but urged lawmakers to protect Minnesotans. Maye Quade and Lucero were co-authors of a bill regulating deepfakes — digitally altered photos or videos depicting events that didn’t actually happen — which became law in 2023.

“There’s a recognition that we need to do something to bring controls in place, to uphold the Constitution, to protect privacy and to empower individuals against these multi-billion dollar industries,” said Lucero, who works in cybersecurity, on Monday.

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One of Maye Quade and Lucero’s bills (SF 1120) would prohibit the government from requesting reverse-location data, which many law enforcement agencies use when they do not know who specifically committed a crime.

Law enforcement can obtain a warrant that mandates a technology company give them data about which cellphones were in a certain location at a specific time or who has searched for a specific word or phrase on their phones or on an AI chatbot.

Civil liberties advocates argue warrants are supposed to be narrow, and these so-called “reverse warrants” allow the government to conduct widespread surveillance on everyone who was in an area at a given time or on people who are searching for words or phrases. This is a violation of the Fourth Amendment, advocates argue.

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Law enforcement officials, including the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, testified against the bill, arguing that it would harm public safety.

“While I certainly appreciate Sen. Maye Quade’s intentions to protect individuals’ privacy rights with such technological capabilities, prohibiting this critical investigative tool would have extensive negative consequences in local and state investigations,” BCA Superintendent Drew Evans stated in written testimony. “It would impact the ability for law enforcement to prevent and solve crimes and to hold individuals accountable.”

A growing number of states are seeking to regulate AI, as more companies seek to capitalize on the technology. Last year, 38 states adopted or enacted around 100 AI-related measures, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

But the federal government has sought to curb states’ ability to regulate AI, as companies are furiously lobbying Congress and the White House to get rid of state regulations. Lawmakers last summer attempted to include a 10-year moratorium on state AI laws in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, but the Senate dropped it.

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President Donald Trump in December signed an executive order giving the attorney general the ability to sue states and overturn laws that don’t support the “United States’ global AI dominance.”

Maye Quade said that minors should be prohibited from accessing AI chatbots because the machine could introduce virtually any topic including disturbing content.

Maye Quade said she’s been talking to AI companies about the regulations and believes they could reach a compromise, but she said she’s okay if they oppose the bills. 

Maye Quade said that states shouldn’t back down from trying to regulate AI.

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“For decades, tech companies have told legislators and the public that damage and destruction from their unregulated products are necessary byproducts of growth and innovation. They have told us that they can do amazing things, like cure cancer, but not comply with 50 different laws in states. We can no longer accept that narrative,” Maye Quade said.

Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.