Six Romanians in Forbes’ 2026 list of the richest people in the world
Romania has six representatives in the 2026 ranking of the richest people in the world compiled by Forbes, the same as in the previous edition of the top.
Ion Stoica (61) and Matei Zaharia (40) are the first Romanian names in the latest edition of the Forbes ranking. The two are placed in 852nd position, a significant rise from 1462nd place occupied last year. Their fortunes are now estimated at USD 5 billion each, double the level of the previous edition.
Stoica is cofounder and executive chairman of the software startup Databricks, which private investors valued at USD 134 billion in February. Before Databricks, Stoica co-founded the video streaming startup Conviva. He is also a computer science professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
Matei Zaharia is cofounder and chief technology officer of Databricks. He developed the popular analysis engine Apache Spark. The engine set a world record for data sorting speed in 2014 and brought Zaharia an award for the best PhD thesis in computer science.
The third Romanian in the ranking (in 1755th place) is Ion Țiriac, with an estimated fortune of USD 2.4 billion, up from USD 2.1 billion in 2025. The former professional tennis player leads the Țiriac Group, with interests in real estate, automotive, financial services, and more.
The next Romanians in the Forbes ranking are the Pavăl brothers. Dragoș Pavăl and his brother Adrian Pavăl are the owners of Dedeman, a major Romanian retailer of construction materials and home improvement products. Dragoș Pavăl ranks 1913th in the ranking, with an estimated fortune of USD 2.2 billion (up from USD 2 billion in the previous edition), while Adrian Pavăl appears in 2600th place with a fortune of USD 1.5 billion (up from USD 1.3 billion).
UiPath CEO and cofounder Daniel Dines ranks 2858th, with an estimated fortune of USD 1.3 billion, down from USD 1.4 billion in the previous edition. He is the only Romanian in the ranking whose fortune has decreased, due to troubles faced by UiPath in recent years. The company recorded revenues of USD 1.4 billion and a net loss of USD 74 million in the fiscal year ending in January 2025.
Elon Musk, the majority shareholder of the US car manufacturer Tesla, the space company SpaceX, the social network X, and the artificial intelligence company xAI, is at the top of the list of the richest people in the world, with a fortune estimated at USD 839 billion. Next come Google co-founders Larry Page (USD 257 billion) and Sergey Brin (USD 237 billion).
(Photo source: Inquam Photos | Sabin Cirstoveanu, Dataversity.net and Berkeley.edu)
