Wires · Special Page · June 2026

America turned 250. Forbes ranked the immigrants who built it.

For the country's 250th birthday, Forbes published America's 250 Most Successful Immigrants. Arnold Schwarzenegger took the top spot. Elon Musk took second. And threaded through the list is the story this newsletter exists to tell. India is the most represented birth country on it, 32 entries by Forbes' own count. Here is the South Asian ledger.

THE SOUTH ASIAN CUT · A RUNNING LEDGER
South Asian names confirmed so far
Highest rank · Vinod Khosla
Inside the top 50
Inside the top 100

The Matrix

Two hundred fifty dots. Find ours.

Every dot is a name on Forbes' list, in rank order, left to right. The marigold dots carry a South Asian story. Hover or tap one.

SOUTH ASIAN STORY THE REST OF THE 250

The Ledger

The names, the ranks, the build.

One line each. No adjectives needed, the nouns do the work. Every rank below is verified against Forbes' published list.

The Collector's Edition

Twenty-seven cards. One ledger. Yours.

Every name on the cut gets a collectible card: the rank, the arc, the dot. Download the set, share your favorite, tag us. Five more India-born names are still being identified from the full 250; their cards will drop here.

THE 250 · CARD SET 01

Twenty-seven cards plus a cover, print-ready PDF and story-sized images for sharing. Free, like everything else we make.

DOWNLOAD THE SET →

The Lens

America published this list for its 250th birthday. The same year its visa queues run decades long. Both things are true. The ledger holds them both.

/ The Weekly Chai · Editorial

Method

Source: Forbes, the Immigrant 250, published June 10, 2026, for the US semiquincentennial. Ranks verified against the full Indian-origin list republished by The Indian Express, June 11, 2026. Earlier coverage: The Sunday Guardian.
Count: Forbes records 32 entries born in India, the most of any country. 27 are ranked on this page. The remaining five are being identified from the full 250 and will be added. Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan and Nepali-born candidates, Shahid Khan and Chamath Palihapitiya among them, are not yet confirmed on the list.
Corrections: an earlier version of this page carried Sundar Pichai at rank 89 from initial reporting. The Forbes rank is 55. We publish corrections, not excuses.

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