Billionaire Couple Falls Off “Forbes” List of Richest People After Giving Away Nearly Half of Their Fortune to Date

• Laura and John Arnold fell off the Forbes’ 400 Highest Earners list this year, having donated $2 billion to date

• The couple is currently listed among the country’s top 25 most generous givers, per Forbes

• Both Laura and John have long been committed to philanthropy and ensuring they donate their money to worthy causes

One billionaire couple has dropped off Forbes’ list of the 400 richest people in America after giving away nearly half of their personal fortune through philanthropy.

In 2023, John was ranked 345th on the Forbes 400. Two years later, in 2025, the 51-year-old philanthropist was ranked at 1,265 on their list of all the country’s billionaires, which put him well outside of the top 400 wealthiest individuals.

The change has been a long time coming as the Arnolds have been dedicated to donating their massive fortune for more than a decade, having donated $2 billion to date, according to the outlet, which lists them among the top 25 most generous givers in the United States. Their fortune is currently estimated to be around $2.9 billion.

Currently, the Arnolds have given away an estimated 42% of their personal fortune — and they’re showing no signs of slowing down their philanthropic efforts.

John previously worked at Enron, earning $750 million for the company in 2001, the year it went bankrupt, according to Forbes.

The following year, he founded his own hedge fund, Centaurus Advisors, according to Bloomberg — but 10 years later, he announced that he would no longer manage other people’s money, per Forbes.

Meanwhile, Laura previously worked as a mergers and acquisitions attorney at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz in New York City, according to a news release shared by Rice University after she was elected as a trustee in April 2010.

She also served as executive vice president and general counsel of Cobalt International Energy in Houston until her departure in 2006.

In 2008, John and Laura launched the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, which has since evolved into Arnold Ventures. The organization currently focuses on reforming criminal justice, higher education, health, infrastructure and public finance, according to its website.

“They believe philanthropy should be transformational and should seek through innovation to solve persistent problems in society,” reads a message on the organization’s website.

In 2010, both John and Laura signed The Giving Pledge, which was launched that same year by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates.

In a letter announcing their commitment to giving away the majority of their fortune to charitable causes, the couple wrote that they both “view our wealth…not as an end in itself, but as an instrument to effect positive and transformative change.”

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In July 2019, John and Laura joined the board of the REFORM Alliance, according to Business Insider. The non-profit organization, founded by rappers Meek Mill and Jay-Z, “aims to transform probation and parole by changing laws, systems, and culture to create real pathways to work and wellbeing,” according to its website.

At the time, Laura told the outlet that philanthropy “has always been a core value” in her family, which focuses on giving back to “very difficult, intractable issues that impact a large number of people.”

“It is important to us to leave behind a better country than we were born into,” Laura added. “Having achieved financial success early in our lives, we had the enormous privilege of making this mission our full-time job.”

Speaking with Texas Monthly in December 2018, John said he and Laura are “willing to take risks” with their philanthropy in hopes they will have a “high impact” as his wife noted at another point in the article that “every dollar that goes out the door is a strategic investment.”

“We understand that governments are by nature risk-averse, so we’re trying to create an infrastructure and a set of ideas that can redirect funds to be more effectively and efficiently spent,” Laura explained. “The things that we’ve done, the things that we’ve got on deck, could really be game changers.”

Representatives for Laura and John declined to provide comment for this story when contacted by PEOPLE.

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