The Gorbes Methodology
How we measure wealth creation for others, not personal accumulation.
Forbes ranks people by personal net worth — how much wealth they've accumulated. Gorbes does the opposite: we rank by Distributed Value (DV) — how much wealth they've created for everyone else.
When someone builds a trillion-dollar company and owns only 10% of it, traditional lists focus on their $100B stake. We focus on the $900B held by other shareholders, employees, and investors — the wealth distributed to the world.
Core Insight: The most impactful builders aren't necessarily the wealthiest. Someone who owns 5% of a $2T company has created 20x more value for others than someone who owns 100% of a $10B company — even though they're equally wealthy.
1 Calculate Distributed Value per Company
RoleWeight accounts for how much credit the person deserves for creating that value (founder vs. hired executive, current vs. past leadership).
2 Sum Across All Companies
3 Calculate Gorbes Multiple
This ratio shows how much wealth someone created for others relative to what they kept. A multiple of 3.0x means they created $3 for others for every $1 they kept.
4 Calculate Gorbes Score
This formula balances absolute value creation (85% weight) with relative generosity (15% weight). Someone who created $1T for others at 3x multiple ranks higher than someone who created $10B at 20x multiple.
Not all leaders contribute equally to a company's value creation. We assign weights based on role and tenure:
Tenure Adjustment for Hired CEOs: Hired CEOs earn tenure bonuses based on years in role and proportion of company's life under their leadership. A CEO who leads for 15+ years can reach 1.0 weight, approaching founder-CEO credit.
Let's calculate Elon Musk's Distributed Value using Tesla and SpaceX:
🚗 Tesla
🚀 SpaceX
Final Rankings Calculation
Interpretation: Elon has created $1.5T in value held by others, which is 3.0x his personal net worth. This gives him one of the highest Distributed Values in the world.
The Gorbes Index is a normalized 0-100 score for display purposes. It uses a logarithmic scale to meaningfully differentiate rankings:
Currently, our Top 10 are scaled to 90-100, assuming they represent the top 10% of an eventual Top 100 list. As we add more people, the scale will expand down to 0.
Enterprise Values
Public market cap for public companies, latest private valuation for private companies. Data sourced from Bloomberg, PitchBook, public filings, and credible news reports.
Ownership Stakes
From SEC filings (13F, 13D, DEF 14A) for public companies, news reports and company announcements for private companies. We use latest available data, typically within the last quarter.
Personal Net Worth
From Forbes Real-Time Billionaires, Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and other credible wealth tracking sources. Updated regularly.
Limitations
This methodology focuses on equity value creation. It doesn't account for:
- Tax revenue generated
- Jobs created and wages paid
- Consumer surplus from products/services
- Philanthropic giving
- Innovation spillovers and positive externalities
Future versions may include adjusted DV metrics that factor in philanthropy and other value distribution mechanisms.
See the methodology in action
View 2025 Top 10 Rankings