America’s elite have long turned to Hawaii as the ideal tropical paradise for their vacation homes.
Notable island neighbors include billionaires like Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, and Oracle founder Larry Ellison.
But despite the big names and showy personalities of Hawaii’s ultra-rich residents, it’s the media-shy founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar, who is the island state’s richest permanent inhabitant, according to Forbes’s list of the richest billionaire in every state for 2024.
In total, Forbes calculated that 47 out of 50 US states play home to 54 billionaires. Together they’re worth a combined $1.6 trillion.
Omidyar contributes just $6.5 billion to that total.
The French-born Iranian-American founded eBay in 1995. Within three years he had made his first billion from the online auction house.
Chairman and founder Pierre Omidyar and CEO Meg Whitman of EBay.com in 1998.
James D. Wilson/Getty
In 2002, eBay acquired the online payment company PayPal for $1.5 billion. It was spun off in 2015 to allow eBay to develop its own payments system.
In 2020, Omidyar stepped from eBay’s board as part of a broader overhaul of the company. The departure was not related to any disagreement with the company, the Wall Street Journal reported.
He remains active in the company and retains the role of director emeritus.
Omidyar has also become involved in investigative reporting, creating First Look Media which subsequently launched the online news site The Intercept.
He also develops real estate in Mexico while residing in Hawaii’s state capital, Honolulu, with his wife Pamela.
According to Forbes, the 56-year-old is the world’s 444th richest person. Since 2004, he’s given away over $1.5 billion of his fortune through impact investments and philanthropy.
He is a long-term Democratic party donor and a well-known critic of Big Tech. In 2020, the Omidyar group donated $150,000 to Whistleblower Aid, a nonprofit that was representing Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.
Omidyar has taken the top spot in Hawaii from Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle.
Though Ellison still owns 98% of an entire island in Hawaii, records now indicate that California is his primary home, according to Forbes.
The Hawaiian Island of Lanai was purchased by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison.
Ted Soqui/Getty
The same is true for Mark Zuckerburg and Jeff Bezos, who won top spots in their main residencies in California and Florida, respectively.
In 2021, Bezos and his now-fiancée Lauren Sanchez broke records for purchasing the most expensive property ever sold on the Hawaiian island, according to Architectural Digest. The couple paid $78 million for a 14-acre property on the island of Maui.
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