Four Indian Americans among Forbes 400 2022

The list of wealthiest Americans includes Jay Chaudhry, Vinod Khosla, Romesh Wadhwani, Rakesh Gangwal

Four Indian Americans figure among the 400 wealthiest Americans in The Forbes 400 2022 list topped by Elon Musk making his debut “despite all the turmoil in both his professional and personal lives.”

Tesla and SpaceX chief unseats Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, now No. 2, “who was hit by a 27% drop in Amazon shares.” Bill Gates moved up a spot, to No. 3, “despite giving $20 billion to his foundation earlier this year.”

Read: Zscaler CEO Jay Chaudhry tops 7 desis in 2021 Forbes 400 (October 13, 2021)

As a group, the 400 wealthiest Americans are worth $4 trillion—$500 billion less than last year, Forbes noted. The minimum net worth to make The Forbes 400 dropped for the first time since the Great Recession, down $200 million to $2.7 billion amid the market selloff.

No one has been hit harder than tech billionaires, who have lost a combined $315 billion, it said. Still 42 people, spanning ages 29 to 90, joined or rejoined the ranks.

Topping the richest Indian Americans list was Jay Chaudhry, CEO of Zscaler with a net worth of $8.2 billion. Chaudhry who founded the cybersecurity firm in 2008 is ranked 79. He and his family own 42% of the Nasdaq-listed firm which went public in March 2018.

Before Zscaler, Chaudhry founded four other tech companies that were all acquired: SecureIT, CoreHarbor, CipherTrust and AirDefense.

In 1996, Chaudhry and his wife, Jyoti, both quit their jobs and used their life savings to start the cybersecurity firm SecureIT, his first startup. He moved to the US in 1980 to attend graduate school and now lives in Nevada.

Next comes venture capitalist Vinod Khosla with a net worth of $5.2 billion. The founder of Khosla Ventures which invests in experimental technologies such as biomedicine and robotics is ranked 181.

Read: 58 Indian Americans in Forbes Under 30 class of 2022 (December 14, 2021)

The firm scored exits in 2020 and early 2021 with IPOs of Affirm and DoorDash and SPAC listings of QuantumScape and Opendoor. Additionally, he co-founded the computer hardware firm Sun Microsystems in 1982 with Andy Bechtolsheim, Bill Joy and Scott McNealy.

Khosla spent 18 years at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (now called Kleiner Perkins) before launching his own fund.

He is followed by Romesh T. Wadhwani, founder and chairman of Symphony Technology Group ranked 196 with a net worth of $5.1 billion. Earlier this year he stepped down as CEO of SymphonyAI “in a move to start to ready the firm for a potential public offering.”

He is also chairman of ConcertAI, an AI company focused on healthcare and life sciences that was valued at $1.9 billion by venture capital investors in March 2022.

Read: Forbes ranks Kamala Harris as world’s second most powerful woman (December 20, 2021)

After graduating from the Indian Institute of Technology, he went to Carnegie Mellon and received a PhD in 1972 in electrical engineering. The serial entrepreneur later founded Aspect Development, which i2 Technologies acquired for $9.3 billion in stock in 1999.

Airline veteran Rakesh Gangwal, who made his fortune from InterGlobe Aviation, the parent outfit of budget airline IndiGo, India’s largest by market share, comes next. Ranked 261, he co-founded IndiGo, headquartered outside Delhi, with pal Rahul Bhatia in 2006 with one aircraft.

The Miami resident owns close to 37% of the company and served as a board member. Gangwal started his airline career with United Airlines in 1984 and went on to run US Airways Group as its chief executive and chairman.

Read: Pakistani American Shahid Khan Followed by Four Indian Americans are Among the Forbes 400 Wealthiest Americans (September 29, 2022)

He resigned from the company’s board in February and said he would be gradually selling his holding over the next five years.