4 of the Richest CEOs in the US Who Own Their Companies’ Stocks — Should You Invest?
Written by
Andrew Lisa
Edited by
Jenna Klaverweiden
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Some of the richest CEOs in America transformed startup companies into household names. Those who believed in themselves invested their money into their efforts, and the company stock they bought has helped propel them to billionaire status.
The following list — which omits ultra-rich former CEOs like Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Bill Gates and Larry Ellison — profiles U.S.-based chief executives who rode their companies’ rising shares to fabulous fortunes.
Also see three money lessons to learn from successful millennial CEOs.
Elon Musk
Only you and your advisor know if Tesla (TSLA) should have a home in your portfolio — but the company’s shares have earned its CEO a mind-boggling fortune.
According to Forbes, Elon Musk is worth $406.7 billion — less than $100 billion away from becoming the world’s first half-trillion-dollar man — and much of that fortune was built on Tesla stock.
Musk owns about 12% of the more than $1 trillion company, but in a testament to the power of leveraging assets, he has pledged around half his stake to secure up to $3.5 billion in loans, per Forbes.
Forbes also reports Musk as having these holdings:
- 42% of privately owned SpaceX, which is worth $350 billion.
- X (formerly Twitter), which as of August 2024, is worth 70% less than the $44 billion Musk spent to buy it in 2022.
- 54% of xAI, which Musk founded in 2023 and is valued at $50 billion.
As of early February, Tesla stock is down just slightly for 2025. However, over the past year, it’s seen gains of more than 100%.
Mark Zuckerberg
Meta (META) stock is up about 55% year over year and up more than 230% over the past five years — and the rise of Facebook’s parent company has been good to its co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose net worth Forbes estimates at $243.3 billion.
Zuckerberg’s status as a shareholder, however, is what made him rich. He owns 13% of the company, per Forbes. Meta currently has a market cap of $1.78 trillion.
Betting on himself allowed Zuckerberg to give back and give to himself. Forbes reported that he and his wife have pledged to give away 99% of their Meta stake during their lifetimes.
The stock has seen healthy gains since Zuckerberg made that pledge, and it could have more growth in store. Per Barron’s, 55 analysts rate the stock a “Buy,” with the highest price target being $900.
Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett is one of history’s most successful investors, and the Oracle of Omaha’s stock market wisdom is evident in how he structured his company’s shareholder classes.
Berkshire Hathaway is best known for its stock portfolio, which the Oracle himself curates, but it’s also a massive holding company that controls corporations like Duracell, Dairy Queen and Geico.
The publicly traded company issues shares in two classes.
- Class A (BRK.A): $709,840 per share
- Class B (BRK.B): $473.73 per share
According to Barron’s, Class B shares are worth 1/1,500 of Class A shares. However, a Class B share carries just 1/10,000 of a Class A share’s voting power. While investors can convert Class A shares to Class B shares, Class B shareholders can’t convert their stock to Class A status.
This structure has allowed the famously philanthropic Buffett to maintain ironclad control over the company despite donating more than half his shares to charity since 2006, per Barron’s.
According to Forbes, Warren Buffett is worth $147.7 billion.
Jensen Huang
Jensen Huang founded Nvidia (NVDA), one of the rosiest stock market success stories of the 21st century. In 2023, the computer, gaming and artificial intelligence chipmaker became just the seventh U.S. company to top $1 trillion in market cap, per MarketWatch — and Huang got rich as an investor.
According to Forbes, which estimates his net worth at $109.1 billion, Huang owns 3% of Nvidia. However, Huang has been regularly selling Nvidia stock since last summer, per Fortune.
The stock is up 83% year over year and 1,887% over the past five years.
Editor’s note: All net worth figures, current stock gains and market cap figures are as of Feb. 6, 2025.
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