• Finance and tech have minted the most billionaires in the US.
• However, less obvious industries have also led to some of the US's biggest fortunes.
• The common denominator of massive wealth is being a founder (or, of course, an heir).

Finance and technology usually spring to mind when thinking of the world's most lucrative industries.

And that's for good reason. They have been the source of wealth for nearly half of America's 400 richest people, as ranked and categorized by Forbes.

However, billion-dollar fortunes have been made in other sectors, too, ranging from trucking to pest control.

Business Insider has compiled data from the 2026 Forbes 400 list, which is an estimated snapshot of the 400 richest people in America as of September 4.

Forbes estimated each member's net worth using a variety of sources, including interviews, asset valuations, and deductions for debt, charitable contributions, and fund donations.

The following ranking is based on the 16 industries into which Forbes categorized each individual. Business Insider calculated how many individuals went into each category to find which industries have minted the most of America's richest people. It also compiled the richest person within each industry.

Some of the members featured an "& family" tag, which means wealth held by a founder or heir's immediate family. The totals, therefore, count Forbes entries, not necessarily individual people.

Here are the industries that featured the most on the Forbes 400 list, from most to least prevalent.

1. Finance & investments — 108 members

Richest: Warren Buffett — $144 billion

The finance and investments industry has been the biggest maker of fortunes. Most of the wealthiest individuals in this category are founders of hedge funds, mortgage lenders, VC, and investment firms.

Some are heirs to founders, such as the grandchildren of Fidelity founder Edward Johnson II.

2. Technology — 91 members

Richest: Elon Musk — $908 billion

Technology has been a massive maker of fortunes; the nine richest in this category are wealthier than Warren Buffett.

Many are founders of big-name tech companies, as well as software and computer hardware firms. The AI boom has brought several newcomers to the list, including OpenAI cofounder and president Greg Brockman.

3. Food & beverage — 35 members

Richest: (Tie) Jacqueline and John Mars — $50.3 billion

From Chick-fil-A to Tito's Vodka, there are plenty of household-name brands in this category.

Others made their fortunes in the non-consumer parts of the food and beverage industry. These include J. Christopher Reyes and Jude Reyes, who cochair the food and beverage distribution firm Reyes Holdings, or Harry Stine, who made his fortune licensing soybean and corn genetics.

4. Fashion & retail — 26 members

Richest: Rob Walton & family — $132 billion

Like food and beverage, household names dominate the fashion & retail category. Walmart alone is listed as the source of wealth of eight people in this industry.

Other sources of retail wealth are less obvious. Jimmy and Bill Haslam's fortunes largely derive from the truck stop chain Pilot Flying J, which their father founded.

5. Energy — 23 members

Richest: Lyndal Stephens Greth & family — $30 billion

Oil tycoons and their families make up the bulk of this list. And it's not just those with stakes or roles in companies involved in production, but also pipelines and refineries.

6. Real estate — 18 members

Richest: Stephen Ross — $21.5 billion

America's wealthiest real-estate magnates built their fortunes through all kinds of properties. Jeff Greene, for example, made billions investing in credit default swaps tied to subprime mortgage-backed securities before the financial crisis.

With an estimated net worth of $7 billion and much of his wealth tied to real estate, President Donald Trump is also included in this category.

7. Media & entertainment — 17 members

Richest: Rupert Murdoch & family — $25 billion

Legacy media, such as cable and satellite television, continue to dominate this category. However, some billionaires built their fortunes through other kinds of media, including Gabe Newell, who cofounded video game developer Valve.

Movies have minted others, such as award-winning director Steven Spielberg and "Star Wars" creator George Lucas.

8. Sports — 16 members

Richest: Stanley Kroenke — $27.6 billion

For many people in the sports category, team ownership is more of a second act, rather than the original source of their wealth.

For example, before they bought teams, Arthur Blank cofounded Home Depot, Stephen Bisciotti made his fortune in talent management, and Arturo Moreno made his money from billboard advertising.

There are some exceptions, such as Michael Jordan, whose basketball career was the origin of his wealth.

9. Healthcare — 15 members

Richest: Thomas Frist, Jr. & family — $33.6 billion

Aside from the category's richest entry, Thomas Frist Jr. and family, whose wealth comes from hospitals, most of the others made or inherited their fortunes in pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and medical equipment.

One, Patrick Soon-Shiong, developed the chemotherapy drug Abraxane.

10. Manufacturing — 15 members

Richest: Steven Rales — $8.7 billion

Manufacturing spans a variety of industries, from packaging materials to defense.

Some big fortunes come from everyday products you might not expect. Cleaning products alone account for four people on the list, all of whom are heirs to SC Johnson, whose products include Windex and Glade.

11. Service — 11 members

Richest: Micky Arison & family — $11.5 billion

Aircraft leasing, cruises, and self-storage are just some examples of services that have turned people into billionaires.

Lucrative service companies aren't necessarily the most glamorous. Gary Rollins, for example, is executive chairman emeritus of pest control firm Rollins, which was founded by his father.

12. Automotive — 8 members

Richest: Ernest Garcia, II — $24.3 billion

In the US, automotive fortunes are less about manufacturing cars and more about selling, servicing, and moving them.

Forbes 400 member Dan Friedkin, for example, owns Gulf States Toyota, while Shahid Khan owns auto parts supplier Flex-N-Gate.

13. Diversified — 8 members

Richest: Julia Koch & family — $84.6 billion

Diversified means fortunes that don't neatly come from one industry. Members of the Koch family, which has stakes in the conglomerate Koch, dominate this segment.

14. Logistics — 4 members

Richest: Brad Jacobs — $13.3 billion

The businesses that move products through the supply chain are among the most essential to day-to-day life, and can be worth billions.

For example, Johnelle Hunt, who cofounded transportation and logistics firm J.B. Hunt Transport Services, is worth $6.6 billion.

15. Construction & engineering — 3 members

Richest: Diane Hendricks — $23.6 billion

All three members of the Forbes 400 in the construction and engineering industry are self-made billionaires.

Diane Hendricks cofounded building-supply distributor ABC Supply with her late husband, Ken Hendricks. Mike Hollingshead founded concrete maker Smyrna Ready Mix, while Robert Clark founded construction firm Clayco.

16. Gambling & casinos — 2 members

Richest: Miriam Adelson & family — $33.5 billion

With just two members categorized in the Forbes 400, gambling and casinos are the smallest category.

Miriam Adelson's late husband, Sheldon Adelson, was the founder of casino company Las Vegas Sands, while Jon Yarbrough founded casino producer Video Gaming Technologies.

Phil Ruffin, who Forbes categorized as diversified, made his wealth from a mix of casinos and real estate.

• A growing share of Americans living in rural areas aren't happy with data centers.
• Most data centers are built in rural areas.
• Data centers are facing a public reckoning amid bipartisan pushback.

Americans living in rural areas are increasingly souring on data centers.

In a new poll by the Pew Research Center, which surveyed people in August, half of rural Americans said data centers "are mostly bad for the environment" — a figure substantially higher than in January, when it sat at 32%.

46% of those respondents also said that data centers would drive up home energy costs, up from 32% in January. 45% said they negatively impact the quality of life for those living nearby, while 28% said so in January.

While displeasure with data centers increased among Americans across the board, according to Pew, higher levels of antagonism among rural voters are striking because most data centers are built in rural areas.

The data center buildout, which proponents say is integral for the US to keep pace with China in the AI race, has been suffering a PR crisis as a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers moves to impose limits on data center construction.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbot, who was formerly bullish about building data centers in his state, recently backed away from that optimism. His administration has halted some 1,800 AI data center projects in the state.

All across the country, Americans are rallying to fight against AI data centers, which can cost billions to build and span hundreds of acres. Many are concerned about how the sprawling facilities will affect the environment, utility prices, water resources, and noise levels. Some just don't like AI.

For AI companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Google, and others, the issue is existential. Without AI data centers, they can't power the products they sell. Sam Altman has recently suggested that new data centers could be built far from where people lived, such as the desert.

Proponents of data centers have said the buildout brings jobs to rural areas. Venture capitalist Gavin Baker recently said that data centers are "probably the best thing that has ever happened to working-class Americans."

Tech bros haven't been able to agree on exactly why Americans aren't taking to the data center buildout. Some have postulated that a Chinese-orchestrated psy-op is behind the distrust, while others said tech leaders haven't sold the product well.

President Donald Trump, for his part, called the data center buildout "the golden goose," and warned against falling behind China.

"The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor," Trump said in August in a Truth Social post.

In the Pew poll, very few Americans — about 4% — said data centers are "good" for the environment, energy costs, and quality of life.

"Americans have grown more negative toward the possible environmental and economic effects of data centers since the beginning of the year," Pew said in a release. "And a majority say they'd be uncomfortable if a new data center started operating in their area."

• Middle-income Americans are increasingly taking on multiple jobs, surpassing lower-income earners.
• The share of multiple jobholders with a college degree has risen, and more women have multiple jobs.
• It paints a picture of traditionally more affluent and stable Americans seeking out a second income.

America's middle class is always hustling — and now, they're side hustling.

The share of Americans with more than one job has been steadily rising for the last several years, and is still hovering at elevated levels. But the population holding multiple jobs looks different from before the pandemic, with a growing cohort of more traditionally stable Americans now seeking multiple income streams.

The second job is no longer just a survival tactic for the lowest earners, or a nice income boost for the highest earners — it's increasingly showing up for college-educated, middle-income Americans and the women of the workforce, who seem to be seeking out an extra buffer of stability and income.

An analysis from the Richmond Federal Reserve found that before the pandemic, the share of multiple jobholders across income groups was similar: low-, middle-, and high-earners worked multiple jobs in roughly equal proportion.

In the past few years, that's changed. Middle-income earners are much more likely to hold multiple jobs than their lower-earning counterparts, and sit just barely below their higher-earning peers.

At the same time, college-educated workers have increasingly been creeping into the multiple jobholder workforce. In the 1990s, they made up around 35% of those holding multiple jobs; by 2024, they made up over half, according to the Richmond Fed analysis.

Simultaneously, the number of women holding multiple jobs has increased in the last few years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics's latest employment data. The gender gap in multiple jobholding has widened, meaning that more women — especially those aged 20 to 24 — are working in several roles. That tracks with a labor force where women have outnumbered men with college degrees, and younger women in some areas earn more than their male counterparts.

Taken together, the data indicate that more educated and traditionally more affluent Americans feel an urge to bring in multiple income streams. Side hustles are increasingly prevalent across the economy: The share of Americans holding down a side hustle has increased from 19% in 2017 to 27% in 2025, per a Bankrate survey. Official measures of multiple jobholding also often fail to completely capture the number of workers participating in gig work, since BLS's rate measures workers who hold at least one traditional wage job.

And that might show how workers feel about their prospects. Women have been shedding jobs in the past months, and the white-collar world has been shaken by layoffs attributed to AI. Taking a new job is risky — workers say it'll cost more than ever to lure them away from their roles — so an additional job might offer more reassurance. For college-educated workers, middle-income earners, and women, a side hustle might be a buffer against an increasingly unsteady labor market.