How Many Billionaires Does New Zealand Have?

Ask how many billionaires New Zealand has and you will get at least three different answers: 26, four or one. All of them are correct. The number just depends on who is counting, and in which currency.

Measure	Billionaires	Combined wealth	What it counts
NBR Rich List 2026	26	$129 billion (NZD)	Private individuals and families, including unlisted businesses
Forbes	4	US$17.9 billion	Verifiable, mostly listed assets, in US dollars
Bloomberg	1	US$12.3 billion	Listed assets only (Graeme Hart alone)

Figures current as of the 2026 NBR Rich List, with Forbes and Bloomberg data to September 2026.

The Short Answer: 26

By the measure most New Zealanders see quoted, the National Business Review Rich List, the country has 26 billionaires as of 2026. That is up sharply from 18 the year before. The full list of wealthy individuals and families is now worth a combined $129 billion, against $102 billion in 2025 and just $5.3 billion when NBR first published the list back in 1986.

“In 40 years, the number of profiles has nearly tripled, while the collective wealth has increased 23-fold. Over that time, the Rich List has chronicled the story of wealth in New Zealand through times of boom and bust, providing the most thorough account of who the country’s wealthiest people are, how they created their wealth and where the money flows are going.”
Hamish McNicol, NBR Rich List editor

Those figures are in New Zealand dollars, and that detail matters more than it sounds.

Why Forbes Counts Only Four

Look at the same country through Forbes and the picture shrinks. As of September 2026, Forbes recognised just four New Zealand billionaires, worth a combined US$17.9 billion. Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index is tighter still: in mid-2026 it listed only one New Zealander, packaging magnate Graeme Hart, at around US$12.3 billion.

The gap comes down to two things. The first is currency. A billion New Zealand dollars is a little over half a billion US dollars, so plenty of people who clear the NZ$1 billion mark fall well short of the US$1 billion bar Forbes and Bloomberg use. The second is method. NBR estimates the wealth of private individuals and whole families, much of it locked up in businesses that are not publicly traded. Forbes and Bloomberg lean on verifiable, mostly listed assets, so they count fewer people and tend to put smaller numbers beside the names they do.

Neither is wrong. They are answering slightly different questions.

Who Actually Makes the List

At the top, the three measures more or less agree on the cast, if not the totals. Zuru founders Nick and Mat Mowbray lead the 2026 NBR list at an estimated $20 billion, built on the toy and consumer-goods business they run from Auckland and offshore. Graeme Hart, long the country’s richest man, sits second at about $14.1 billion. Rocket Lab founder Sir Peter Beck is third at roughly $11 billion.

Beck is the standout mover. His estimated wealth jumped from about $650 million a year earlier to $11 billion, almost entirely on the back of Rocket Lab’s share price. It is the clearest example of how fast a single company can rewrite this list.

Why the Number Keeps Climbing

The jump from 18 billionaires to 26 in a single year is not spread evenly. Most of it comes from technology and services. The 36 rich listers in that category roughly doubled in value over the year, to nearly $32 billion, as software and space companies that were once just promising grew into serious operations.

That is a real shift in where New Zealand money is made. For most of the list’s 40-year history the big fortunes sat in property, retail and primary industry. The 2026 edition is the clearest sign yet that tech has pulled up a chair at the top table.

So the honest answer to “how many billionaires does New Zealand have” is this: 26 if you count in New Zealand dollars and include private wealth, four if you go by Forbes, one if you go by Bloomberg. You can see the full ranking, and the stories behind the names, in our guide to the richest people in New Zealand.

Who is the richest person in New Zealand?

Zuru founders Nick and Mat Mowbray lead the 2026 NBR Rich List at an estimated $20 billion, built on their toy and consumer-goods business. Graeme Hart, the long-time number one, sits second at about $14.1 billion.

How much is a billionaire worth in New Zealand dollars?

A billion New Zealand dollars is a little over half a billion US dollars. That gap is why NBR counts 26 New Zealand billionaires while Forbes, which uses a US$1 billion bar, recognises only four.

Why do Forbes and NBR give different numbers?

Two reasons: currency and method. NBR measures private individuals and families in NZ dollars, including wealth held in unlisted businesses. Forbes and Bloomberg lean on verifiable, mostly listed assets in US dollars, so they count fewer people.