Not IIM, Nor IIT: This Indian University Has Produced The Most Billionaires
With 22 billionaire alumni, the University of Mumbai shares its position with Cornell University (ranked seventh).
The University of Mumbai has secured eighth place among the world’s top 21 universities producing the highest number of billionaires, emerging as India’s only representative in the global list, according to a new analysis by Venture Capitalist.
The findings draw on data from Salas Diaz & Young’s 2024 report, which tracks the educational backgrounds of the world’s richest individuals.
With 22 billionaire alumni, the University of Mumbai shares its position with Cornell University (ranked seventh), surpassing renowned institutions such as Tsinghua University (19), New York University (18), and the University of Southern California (17).
The inclusion marks a milestone for India’s public education system, underscored by one of its most notable graduates, Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries.
Harvard Tops, Mumbai Breaks Into the Club
At the summit, Harvard University remains unrivalled with 104 billionaire alumni, followed by Stanford University (69), the University of Pennsylvania (38), Columbia University (32), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (28). Yale University occupies sixth place with 24 billionaire graduates, ahead of Cornell University and the University of Mumbai, both with 22.
Tsinghua University (19), New York University (18), the University of California, Berkeley (15), and the University of Michigan (15) round out the top ranks. Further down the order are Peking University (14), Lomonosov Moscow State University (13), Princeton University (13), and several institutions with 12 billionaire alumni each, including UCLA, the University of Chicago, Fudan University, Seoul National University, and Zhejiang University.
Several universities boast some of the world’s most recognised names in business and technology. Stanford University, deeply integrated with Silicon Valley’s startup ecosystem, counts Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang and DoorDash co-founder Andy Fang among its distinguished alumni. The University of Pennsylvania is home to Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, while Columbia University claims legendary investor Warren Buffett among its graduates.
Asia’s Growing Role In Global Wealth
While US universities continue to dominate billionaire education rankings, the rise of institutions from India, China, South Korea, and Russia show a shifting balance of global wealth creation.
According to Visual Capitalist, the presence of Asia’s leading public universities in the top 21 underscores the region’s accelerating innovation economy and expanding domestic capital.
Mumbai University’s inclusion at eighth place reflects a broader transformation, the one where entrepreneurial success and wealth generation are no longer confined to elite Western institutions but increasingly rooted in the educational systems of the Global South.
