Net Worth: $8.9 billion

LAST YEAR: $9 billion
CHANGE: 1.10%
AGE: 81
RESIDENCE: Beverly Hills
SOURCE OF WEALTH: Entertainment, art, investments

Geffen is a founder of two of the country’s most recognizable names in entertainment, Geffen Records and, alongside Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks Pictures. That may have been enough to earn him a spot on the list of Wealthiest Angelenos, but in the years since multiplied his fortune many times over through savvy investments in companies like Apple and Activision Blizzard. Geffen’s timely investment in Activision Blizzard – made just a few weeks ahead of its announced acquisition by Microsoft, when shares were trending near lows at $40 a share – earned him tens of million in profit. The deal was so savvy it triggered an SEC investigation, though the probe was closed in May 2024 with no wrongdoing found.

Education: Santa Monica College (did not obtain degree)

Art & Charity: Geffen is reportedly the owner of the largest solely owned art collection in the world, which is valued at over $2 billion. In November 2023, he sold Arshile Gorsky’s “Charred Beloved” for $23.4 million in a record sale for Christie’s auction house.