These are the top Mass. residents on Forbes’ latest billionaires list

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Over 3,000 people are on this year’s ranking, worth $16 trillion in total.

Several Massachusetts billionaires made Forbes’ list of the world’s richest people, as billionaires have been given arguably more control over the U.S. government than ever before.

With 247 additions since last year, more than 3,000 people make up this year’s ranking, which includes the wealth status of individuals as of April 1, with real-time net worth updates.

Those named are worth $16.1 trillion in total — up nearly $2 trillion over 2024, according to Forbes. President Donald Trump, whose wealth has skyrocketed from $2.3 billion in 2024 to $5.1 billion in 2025, is leading an administration with at least ten billionaires and billionaire spouses, the business magazine reported.

The United States has a record of 902 billionaires, including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos, who ranked as the top three richest people in the world, respectively. 

Zuckerberg, a Harvard University graduate, is among many with Massachusetts ties included in this year’s list.

Newly added to the ranking are two Massachusetts billionaires: Stephen Fredette, who lives in Boston and is the co-founder and co-president of Toast, and Bill Cummings, who founded commercial real estate developer Cummings Properties in 1970 in Woburn, Massachusetts. 

Here’s who else made the cut:

Abigail Johnson (No. 55)

Johnson has served as CEO of Fidelity Investments since 2014, when she took over for her father, and has been chairman since 2016, according to Forbes. Johnson’s grandfather, Edward Johnson II, founded the Boston-based mutual fund giant in 1946.

Johnson joined as a full-time analyst in 1988 after receiving a Harvard M.B.A. Her wealth jumped from $29 billion in 2024 to $32.7 billion in 2025, Forbes reported.

Lives in: Milton, Mass.

Edward Johnson, IV (No. 178)

Edward Johnson IV, worth $13.1 billion, is Abigail Johnson’s brother and president of Pembroke Real Estate, which is owned by Fidelity’s parent company FMR.

According to Forbes, the Johnson family is a major donor to nonprofits in Boston and has given money to Harvard, Historic New England, and the Institute of Contemporary Art.

Lives in: Boston, Mass.

Robert Kraft (No. 208)

Kraft, Chairman and CEO of The Kraft Group, bought the New England Patriots for $172 million in 1994, according to Forbes. The team is now worth about $6 billion 

He is also the father of Josh Kraft, who launched a mayoral bid against Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.

Lives in: Brookline, Mass.

Elizabeth Johnson (No. 225)

Elizabeth Johnson gets her wealth from Fidelity like her siblings Abigail and Edward Johnson IV. She is worth $11.1 billion, according to Forbes, and in 2013, she founded Louisburg Farm, a stable of show jumping horses based in Wellington, Florida.

Lives in: Boston, Mass.

Jim Davis & family (No. 540)

Jim Davis bought a small Boston shoemaker in 1977 and transformed it into New Balance Athletics.

Davis is the chairman of the company and his wife Anna serves as the vice chairman.

Davis’ wealth has increased from $5.9 billion in 2024 to $6.4 billion in 2025, Forbes reported.

Lives in: Newton, Mass.

Robert Hale, Jr. (No. 605)

Robert Hale Jr. is the founder and CEO of wholesale telecommunications provider Granite Telecommunications, which provides voice, data, and other communications services to businesses and governmental agencies in the U.S. and Canada.

Hale, worth $5.8 billion, has personally donated over $350 million toward cancer research and other charitable causes, according to Forbes.

Lives in: Boston, Mass.

Amos Hostetter, Jr. (No. 948)

Amos Hostetter Jr., who made a fortune for himself in the 1990s, is now prominent in philanthropy. He is worth $3.8 billion, Forbes reported.

Hostetter’s family’s Barr Foundation donates tens of millions of dollars each year to support the arts and education and fight climate change, according to Forbes.

Lives in: Boston, Mass.

Ted & Bill Alfond (No. 1045)

Ted and his brother Bill are minority investors in Fenway Sports Group, which owns the Boston Red Sox, Liverpool FC, and the Pittsburgh Penguins. 

Their father, Harold Alfond, bought an old mill in Maine in 1958 and turned it into a shoemaker that sold millions of shoes each year, making the brothers heirs of the Dexter Shoe Company, Forbes reported.

Ted lives in Weston, Mass. and Bill lives in Boston, Mass.

Alan Trefler (No. 1172)

Alan Trefler, son of a holocaust survivor, launched the software company, Pegasystems, based in Waltham, Mass. in 1983.

Alan and his wife Pamela are founders of the Trefler Foundation, which has donated to public education and health care in Boston, according to Forbes.

Lives in: Brookline, Mass.

Phillip T. (Terry) Ragon (No. 1172)

Phillip Ragon, known as “Terry,” founded InterSystems, a software company allowing hospitals and banks to analyze data, generating about $1 billion in annual sales, according to Forbes.

Ragon and his wife, Susan, established the Ragon Institute to pursue an HIV vaccine, and joined the Giving Pledge, a promise by the world’s wealthiest individuals to donate a majority of their wealth to charitable causes, in 2017.

Lives in: Boston, Mass.

Also on this year’s list:

 

Lindsay Shachnow covers general assignment news for Boston.com, reporting on breaking news, crime, and politics across New England.