Forbes announces 'True Net Worth' to track how much billionaires give away

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On Wednesday evening, Randall Lane, editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine, announced a new layer to the publication’s wealth-tracking of billionaires: How much money they are giving away.

Lane is the editorial steward behind the Forbes World’s Billionaires List, which tracks the wealth of 3,428 people who Forbes believes has a real-time net worth of $1 billion or more.

On Wednesday, Lane spoke about the dissonance between the world’s wealthiest people and the general public.

“They all have one thing in common,” Lane said at this year’s TED conference, an annual event where speakers give TED Talks to a live audience, which are recorded and released at a later date. “Nobody likes them.”

He then showed an April 2026 Forbes favorability rating, where billionaires came in at 31%, tied with members of Congress.

“Why all the hate?” Lane asked. “Wealth disparity is some of it.”

But, he added, one of the biggest reasons people do not support billionaires is due to how little of their wealth they actually use to make the world a better place.

“People resent billionaires when they forget that the purpose of business is to create happiness; not who dies with the most toys,” Lane said in his TED Talk.

He showed a score card of the current five richest people in the world, in order: Elon Musk, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg.

“Less than 1% of their net worth has been donated to charity: 0.9%,” Lane added. “Compare that with the average American — teacher, fireman — [they] give 2% of his or her income to charity. That gap … bothers me.”

So, he launched a new way to track and measure billionaires’ philanthropic activity: A “True Net Worth” calculation.

“True Net Worth is your regular net worth, combined with the money you’ve donated, that we appreciate like you still own it,” Lane explained.

He then once again showed that list of the five richest people in the world and adjusted it in real time to include original net worth and appreciated giving. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett made an appearance.

“[Warren Buffett has] already given more away in today’s dollars than he still has, he’s pledged 99% of what’s left to charity, and he stipulated that all that money has to be spent down within ten years of his death, as opposed to just sitting in a foundation gathering interest for years,” Lane said. “That’s true net worth.”

Then he showed a new list of the five “Biggest Movers,” ranked by appreciated giving. They are, in order, MacKenzie Scott, Dustin Moskovitz, Reed Hastings, Lynn Schusterman, and John Arnold.

“MacKenzie Scott is giving away money faster, smarter — no strings attached — than pretty much anyone in history,” Lane said. “She’s the 84th richest person in the world by net worth; she’s 26th by True Net Worth.”

MacKenzie Scott has donated over $26 billion to charity since her divorce from Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos in 2019. In 2025 alone, Scott donated $7.17 billion to approximately 225 organizations.

It’s unclear when the Forbes “True Net Worth” rankings will be available to view publicly online, along with Lane’s TED Talk.

“True Net Worth offers role models for billionaires, for millionaires — for thousandaires,” Lane concluded. “Give while you live … [it] supports the system that makes all of us prosperous.”

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Header illustration by Good Good Good. Images: The Giving Pledge, Forbes, Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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