Diddy, Jimmy Iovine Among Forbes List Of “Future 400” Richest In America

Forbes recently released “Forbes 400” (The Richest People in America), which ranks a slew of billionaires no Hip Hop cats on that list yet, but they also released “The Future 400.” The “Future” list highlights a businessmen on their way to topping future lists and becoming billionaires.

“There’s always a new generation of entrepreneurs who disrupt business categories and create new ones,” Forbes.com says. “Here we feature the innovators on the Forbes 400 and the up and comers likeliest to make it into the ranks of the list, such as the founders of highly valuable startups Twitter, Groupon and Dropbox. This year’s Future 400 proves the Rich List is as dynamic as ever.”

Among the list is Diddy, who’s net worth is estimated at $550 million; Interscope Records head, Jimmy Iovine, at $400 million; Dropbox founder, Drew Houston, at $400 million; and many others.

Below is a breakdown, courtesy of Forbes.com:

Diddy: The notorious name-changer has taken to calling himself Ciroc Obama, and for good reason: Through his vodka deal with beverage giant Diageo, Diddy receives an annual cut of profits and a big chunk of cash if the Ciroc brand is ever sold. With the spirit’s value soaring toward $1 billion, and stakes in clothing lines Sean John and Enyce, marketing firm Blue Flame and record label Bad Boy, Diddy may beat buddy Jay-Z, featured on last year’s cover, to The Forbes 400. Net worth: $550 million.(Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images)

Drew Houston (Dropbox): Houston and his partner, fellow MIT grad Arash Ferdowsi, founded the Web-based file-hosting service in 2007 and graduated from Paul Graham’s Y Combinator program soon after. They went on to receive $7.2 million in seed money before this latest round. The service boasted 25 million users in April but may have doubled since. Those users are uploading 200 million files a day. Net worth: $400 million.

Jimmy Iovine (Beats by Dre/Interscope): Record producer Iovine started Interscope in 1990 (and still co-owns the company, with Universal). He branched into hip-hop, helping to launch the careers of Eminem, 50 Cent and Dr. Dre, cofounding a line of eponymous headphones with the latter. It’s been a very profitable association—in August HTC bought 51% of the firm for $300 million. He was a guest mentor on American Idol last season, and his label is home to Lady Gaga. Net worth: $400 million.

Michael Bay (director/producer): When Bay makes a movie he doesn’t just take a fee, he takes an ownership stake. That means he’ll continue to earn big from films like this summer’s third Transformers movie, which grossed $1 billion at the global box office. He also has a large investment in special effects house Digital Domain, which has done pioneering work on movies like Benjamin Button, Tron and Transformers. Net worth: $410 million.

Andrew Mason (Groupon): Mason cofounded daily deals site Groupon three years ago and has a 7.7% stake in the firm, which now has 83 million subscribers. It filed to go public in June, but its much anticipated IPO now appears to be on hold. Net worth: $390 million.

Jack Dorsey (Twitter): The man who created the original idea behind Twitter is now running two of Silicon Valley’s most popular startups. The 34-year-old is executive chairman and head of product development at Twitter, and is CEO of Square, which looks to simplify how people make and receive payments via iPhones, iPads and Android devices. Net worth: $650 million.

Elon Musk (Tesla): The PayPal cofounder, now 40, took his earnings from a $1.5 billion sale to eBay and reinvested them in three new companies: electric car maker Tesla Motors, photovoltaics startup SolarCity and SpaceX. He is CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. Net worth: $680 million.

 

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