CUE Research · Study 4
The Forbes 400: America’s Richest
A second, independent wealth list: the 400 richest Americans in 2025, by head count and by share of their wealth.
The question: Does what the world list showed about the 28th hold up on a different, larger list?
Testing CUE’s claim
CUE teaches that 28 is the number of wealth.
The claim was stated before this data was examined, so each test asks one narrow question: how often would random birthdays from the same years give that value as many people, or as much wealth, as it really has?
Born on the 28th Some evidence
In the top 20, people with this birthday hold 17.7% of the net worth, against 3.3% expected. Random birthdays give that much about 1 in 63 times. Behind it: Elon Musk, Bill Gates.
| Group | People | Expected | Share of wealth | Expected | By luck (wealth) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top 20 | 2 of 20 | 0.7 | 17.7% | 3.3% | about 1 in 63 |
| Top 50 | 2 of 45 | 1.5 | 14.3% | 3.3% | about 1 in 50 |
| Top 100 | 3 of 69 | 2.3 | 13.5% | 3.3% | about 1 in 56 |
| All 400 | 5 of 179 | 5.9 | 11.7% | 3.3% | about 1 in 49 |
Life Path 28 No evidence
Life Path 28 appears about as often as chance gives, and holds about its share of the wealth, in every group.
| Group | People | Expected | Share of wealth | Expected | By luck (wealth) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top 20 | 3 of 20 | 1.4 | 9.9% | 6.9% | about 1 in 4 |
| Top 50 | 5 of 45 | 3.0 | 9.5% | 6.7% | about 1 in 4 |
| Top 100 | 6 of 69 | 4.8 | 9.0% | 6.9% | about 1 in 4 |
| All 400 | 15 of 179 | 12.5 | 8.7% | 7.0% | about 1 in 3 |
Read this honestly
- This is one list from one year, and the groups overlap: the top 20 is inside the top 100, so the rows are not separate confirmations.
- If CUE’s belief in 28 was first inspired by noticing wealthy people born on the 28th, this list cannot confirm it: a pattern cannot be tested on the data that suggested it. The clean test is new data, which is why this study will be re-run on Forbes’ 2026 list and on other wealth rankings.
- A strong result describes where the wealth sits; it does not show that a birthday causes wealth.
What stands out
No clear differences. Across every group of 50 or more and every measure, the numbers are within what chance produces.
Where the net worth is
No slice of the net worth is bigger than random birthdays regularly produce.
Money patterns are tested again on the next published list. A pattern that holds on new data is evidence; one that does not was luck.
Worth watching, not enough to claim
- Life Path
All 400: Life Path 4 appears 26 times against about 15.6 expected (1.66×).
- Day energy
Top 100: 11 day energy appears 13 times against about 6.7 expected (1.95×).
Top 20: the most common birth quarter is Jan–Mar (7 of 20). A group this small can’t show a real pattern.
Top 20 Expected, random birthdays 1930–1984
See all 20 in “Top 20”
| # | Name | Born | Detail | Life Path | Sun | Chinese |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elon Musk | 1971-06-28 | $428B · Tesla, SpaceX | 7 | Cancer | Pig |
| 2 | Larry Ellison | 1944-08-17 | $276B · Oracle | 7 | Leo | Monkey |
| 3 | Mark Zuckerberg | 1984-05-14 | $253B · Facebook | 5 | Taurus | Rat |
| 4 | Jeff Bezos | 1964-01-12 | $241B · Amazon | 6 | Capricorn | Cat |
| 5 | Larry Page | 1973-03-26 | $179B · Google | 4 | Aries | Ox |
| 6 | Sergey Brin | 1973-08-21 | $166B · Google | 4 | Leo | Ox |
| 7 | Steve Ballmer | 1956-03-24 | $153B · Microsoft | 3 | Aries | Monkey |
| 8 | Jensen Huang | 1963-02-17 | $151B · Semiconductors | 11 | Aquarius | Cat |
| 9 | Warren Buffett | 1930-08-30 | $150B · Berkshire Hathaway | 6 | Virgo | Horse |
| 10 | Michael Dell | 1965-02-23 | $129B · Dell Technologies | 28/1 | Pisces | Snake |
| 11 | Rob Walton & family | 1944-10-27 | $118B · Walmart | 28/1 | Scorpio | Monkey |
| 12 | Jim Walton & family | 1948-06-07 | $115B · Walmart | 8 | Gemini | Rat |
| 13 | Michael Bloomberg | 1942-02-14 | $109B · Bloomberg LP | 5 | Aquarius | Snake |
| 14 | Bill Gates | 1955-10-28 | $107B · Microsoft | 4 | Scorpio | Goat |
| 15 | Alice Walton | 1949-10-07 | $106B · Walmart | 4 | Libra | Ox |
| 16 | Julia Koch & family | 1962-04-12 | $81.2B · Koch, Inc. | 7 | Aries | Tiger |
| 17 | Charles Koch & family | 1935-11-01 | $73.8B · Koch, Inc. | 3 | Scorpio | Pig |
| 18 | Thomas Peterffy | 1944-09-30 | $73.3B · Discount brokerage | 3 | Libra | Monkey |
| 19 | Jeff Yass | 1958-07-17 | $65.7B · Trading, investments | 11 | Cancer | Dog |
| 20 | Stephen Schwarzman | 1947-02-14 | $51.9B · Investments | 28/1 | Aquarius | Pig |
Context What explains it
The Forbes 400 overlaps with the world list at the very top (the same few Americans lead both), so the top tiers are not fully independent. The wider list, down to rank 400, is mostly people who never appear in the world top 100.
That makes this the fairest re-test of CUE’s 28 claim available today: stated in advance, tested the same way, on hundreds of new people.
Source The data
- The Forbes 400, 2025. Retrieved 2026-09-27. View source
- Ranks and net worth as published by Forbes in September 2025. Where Forbes lists “& family”, the date is the named person’s.
- Verification: 179 of 400 included. A Forbes birth date is accepted only when a Wikidata human found by name search records the same date at day precision. Otherwise, an exact date from CUE’s billionaires source review.
- Expected values: every day of the years each group was born in, weighted by how many people were born in each year, run through CUE’s engine. Weighting matters for Chinese signs and Life Paths, which depend on the year.
- A difference is called clear only in groups of 50 or more and at least three standard errors from expected. Because each study tests about a hundred values, a clear difference needs 3.5 standard errors; 2.5 to 3.5 is only “worth watching”.
Left out: 221 people whose exact birth date could not be confirmed
- #24 Lukas Walton: Second source gives only the year
- #29 Marilyn Simons & family: Second source gives only the year
- #35 Lyndal Stephens Greth & family: No second source found
- #42 Ernest Garcia, II.: No second source found
- #45 Rick Cohen & family: No second source found
- #50 Henry Nicholas, III.: No second source found
- #54 Israel Englander: Second source gives only the year
- #55 Edwin Chen: No second source found
- #56 Eric Smidt: No second source found
- #57 Adam Foroughi: Second source gives only the year
- #61 Lin Bin: No second source found
- #62 Arthur Dantchik: Second source gives only the year
- #65 Jay Chaudhry: No second source found
- #68 Ray Dalio: Sources disagree on the date
- #68 Robert Duggan: Second source gives only the year
- #68 Brad Jacobs: No second source found
- #74 Alexander Karp: No second source found
- #76 Edward Johnson, IV.: No second source found
- #77 Jack Dangermond: Sources disagree on the date
- #78 Antony Ressler: Second source gives only the year
- #78 David Sun: No second source found
- #78 John Tu: No second source found
- #83 Bubba Cathy: No second source found
- #83 Trudy Cathy White: No second source found
- #87 J. Christopher Reyes: Second source gives only the year
- #87 Jude Reyes: Second source gives only the year
- #91 Orlando Bravo: Second source gives only the year
- #91 David Duffield: No second source found
- #91 Robert Pender: Second source gives only the year
- #91 Michael Sabel: Second source gives only the year
- #99 Elizabeth Johnson: No second source found
- #101 Andrew Beal: Sources disagree on the date
- #103 Carl Cook: No second source found
- #104 Chris Larsen: Second source gives only the year
- #105 Ernest Garcia III: No second source found
- #112 Ramzi Musallam: No second source found
- #114 Marijke Mars: No second source found
- #114 Pamela Mars: Second source gives only the year
- #114 Valerie Mars: Sources disagree on the date
- #114 Victoria Mars: No second source found
- #114 Mark Stevens: No second source found
- #119 Jonathan Gray: No second source found
- #123 Jeffery Hildebrand: Second source gives only the year
- #126 Harry Stine & family: Second source gives only the year
- #129 Michael Rubin: No second source found
- #130 Jim Kennedy: No second source found
- #130 Michael Kim: No second source found
- #130 Blair Parry-Okeden: Second source gives only the year
- #130 Randa Duncan Williams: No second source found
- #135 Dannine Avara: No second source found
- #135 Milane Frantz: No second source found
- #141 Scott Duncan: No second source found
- #146 Elisabeth DeLuca & family: Second source gives only the year
- #146 Bruce Kovner: Sources disagree on the date
- #149 Robert Rowling: Second source gives only the year
- #153 Nathan Blecharczyk: Second source gives only the year
- #153 Neil Bluhm: Second source gives only the year
- #157 Ronda Stryker: Second source gives only the year
- #158 Stephen Bisciotti: Second source gives only the year
- #158 John Brown: No second source found
- #158 Michael Dorrell: Second source gives only the year
- #158 Tamara Gustavson: Second source gives only the year
- #158 Pauline MacMillan Keinath: Sources disagree on the date
- #163 J. Joe Ricketts & family: No second source found
- #163 Denise York & family: No second source found
- #166 Leo KoGuan: Second source gives only the year
- #166 Leonard Stern: No second source found
- #171 Paul Tudor Jones, II.: No second source found
- #172 Igor Olenicoff: Second source gives only the year
- #172 John Overdeck: Second source gives only the year
- #172 David Siegel: No second source found
- #176 George Kurtz: Second source gives only the year
- #176 Philippe Laffont: No second source found
- #176 John Morris: No second source found
- #181 Judy Faulkner: No second source found
- #181 Sami Mnaymneh: Second source gives only the year
- #181 Tony Tamer: Second source gives only the year
- #181 Dennis Washington: Second source gives only the year
- #187 Andrew Cherng: Second source gives only the year
- #187 Peggy Cherng: No second source found
- #187 Jim Kavanaugh: No second source found
- #192 Tench Coxe: No second source found
- #192 Min Kao & family: Second source gives only the year
- #192 Thai Lee: Second source gives only the year
- #192 John Sall: No second source found
- #199 Edward Roski, Jr.: Second source gives only the year
- #201 Mark Walter: Sources disagree on the date
- #204 James Clark: No second source found
- #204 Daniel Ziff: No second source found
- #204 Dirk Ziff: No second source found
- #204 Robert Ziff: No second source found
- #208 Chase Coleman, III.: No second source found
- #208 Li Ge: No second source found
- #211 Edythe Broad & family: Second source gives only the year
- #211 Scott Cook: No second source found
- #214 Doug Meijer & family: Second source gives only the year
- #214 Hank Meijer & family: Second source gives only the year
- #214 Mark Meijer & family: No second source found
- #219 Thomas Hagen & family: No second source found
- #219 Michael Intrator: Second source gives only the year
- #219 Karen Pritzker: Second source gives only the year
- #219 Paul Singer: No second source found
- #223 Joseph Liemandt: Second source gives only the year
- #224 Ron Baron: No second source found
- #224 Ray Lee Hunt: Second source gives only the year
- #224 H. Ross Perot, Jr.: No second source found
- #224 Robert Rich, Jr.: No second source found
- #224 Herb Simon: No second source found
- #231 Matthew Prince: No second source found
- #232 James Chambers: No second source found
- #232 Steve Lavin & family: Second source gives only the year
- #232 Katharine Rayner: Second source gives only the year
- #232 John A. Sobrato & family: Second source gives only the year
- #232 Margaretta Taylor: Second source gives only the year
- #239 William Berkley & family: No second source found
- #239 Justin Ishbia: No second source found
- #239 Annette Lerner & family: Second source gives only the year
- #239 Elizabeth Uihlein: Second source gives only the year
- #239 Richard Uihlein: Second source gives only the year
- #244 Robert Bass: No second source found
- #244 Mitchell Morgan & family: Second source gives only the year
- #246 Baiju Bhatt: Second source gives only the year
- #246 William Goldring & family: No second source found
- #246 Robert Hale, Jr.: No second source found
- #246 Dan Kurzius: Second source gives only the year
- #246 Eric Lefkofsky: Sources disagree on the date
- #246 Reinhold Schmieding: Second source gives only the year
- #246 Ronald Wanek: No second source found
- #255 Rakesh Gangwal: Second source gives only the year
- #255 Trevor Rees-Jones: No second source found
- #255 Don Vultaggio & family: Second source gives only the year
- #261 Martha Ingram & family: Sources disagree on the date
- #264 Margot Birmingham Perot: No second source found
- #264 John Henry: No second source found
- #264 Thomas Secunda: Second source gives only the year
- #264 Jon Stryker: Second source gives only the year
- #264 Carl Thoma: No second source found
- #270 Bert Beveridge: Second source gives only the year
- #270 Ken Xie & family: Second source gives only the year
- #276 Neal Blue & family: Second source gives only the year
- #276 Romesh T. Wadhwani: Second source gives only the year
- #280 Jeremy Jacobs, Sr. & family: No second source found
- #280 Gwendolyn Sontheim Meyer: Second source gives only the year
- #280 Lynda Resnick: No second source found
- #280 Russell Savage: No second source found
- #280 Edward Stack & family: No second source found
- #280 Jon Yarbrough: No second source found
- #291 Ben Chestnut: Second source gives only the year
- #291 Joseph Grendys: No second source found
- #295 Jim Davis & family: No second source found
- #298 Peter Kellogg: Sources disagree on the date
- #298 Jean (Gigi) Pritzker: No second source found
- #298 Tim Sweeney: Second source gives only the year
- #301 Mike Brown & family: No second source found
- #301 Robert Faith: No second source found
- #301 Hamilton James & family: Sources disagree on the date
- #301 Scott Kapnick: No second source found
- #308 Seth Boro: No second source found
- #308 Scott Crabill: Second source gives only the year
- #308 David Dean Halbert: No second source found
- #308 Bom Kim: Sources disagree on the date
- #308 Steven Klinsky: Second source gives only the year
- #308 Arturo Moreno: No second source found
- #308 Eren Ozmen: Second source gives only the year
- #308 Holden Spaht: Second source gives only the year
- #319 Austen Cargill, II.: No second source found
- #319 James Cargill, II.: No second source found
- #319 Helen Johnson-Leipold: No second source found
- #319 Marianne Liebmann: Second source gives only the year
- #325 George Bishop: Second source gives only the year
- #325 H. Fisk Johnson: No second source found
- #325 S. Curtis Johnson: Second source gives only the year
- #325 Andrew Karam: No second source found
- #325 Winifred J. Marquart: Second source gives only the year
- #325 Fatih Ozmen: Second source gives only the year
- #325 Phil Ruffin: Second source gives only the year
- #325 Michael Xie: Second source gives only the year
- #334 William Conway, Jr.: No second source found
- #334 David Filo: Sources disagree on the date
- #334 Rupert Johnson, Jr.: No second source found
- #339 Peter Gassner: Second source gives only the year
- #339 Steven Udvar-Hazy: Second source gives only the year
- #341 Richard Schulze: No second source found
- #347 Travis Boersma: Second source gives only the year
- #347 Maggie Hardy: Second source gives only the year
- #347 John Middleton: No second source found
- #347 Stewart Rahr: Second source gives only the year
- #352 Sanjit Biswas: Second source gives only the year
- #352 Eleanor Butt Crook & family: Second source gives only the year
- #352 Paul Foster: No second source found
- #352 Rajiv Jain: Second source gives only the year
- #352 Daniel Och: Second source gives only the year
- #352 Phillip T. (Terry) Ragon: No second source found
- #352 Rodger Riney & family: No second source found
- #352 Brian Venturo: No second source found
- #362 Nick Caporella: Second source gives only the year
- #362 Todd Christopher: No second source found
- #362 James Duff: No second source found
- #362 Thomas Duff: No second source found
- #362 Stewart Horejsi & family: No second source found
- #362 Johnelle Hunt: Second source gives only the year
- #362 Mitchell Rales: Second source gives only the year
- #362 Mark Shoen: No second source found
- #362 Thomas Siebel: Sources disagree on the date
- #362 Pat Stryker: Second source gives only the year
- #362 Charles Zegar: Second source gives only the year
- #377 Neal Aronson: Second source gives only the year
- #377 John Bicket: Second source gives only the year
- #377 Jim Davis: No second source found
- #377 Marc Lore: Second source gives only the year
- #382 José E. Feliciano: Second source gives only the year
- #382 Theodore Leonsis: No second source found
- #382 William Stone: No second source found
- #389 Jim Breyer: Second source gives only the year
- #389 Ray Davis: No second source found
- #389 Edward DeBartolo, Jr.: No second source found
- #389 Robert Johnson & family: No second source found
- #389 Scott Shleifer: Second source gives only the year
- #389 Jeff Tangney: Second source gives only the year
- #389 Eduardo Vivas: No second source found
- #389 Herbert Wertheim: No second source found
Reproduce it: the raw data snapshots and build scripts are in CUE’s code repository (scripts/data and scripts/build-*-study.mts).
Further reading
- Forbes, The Forbes 400, 2025