Forbes 25th Midas List: 100 top VCs, 25 newcomers

Forbes released its 25th‑anniversary Midas List for 2026 in partnership with TrueBridge Capital Partners, naming the top 100 venture capital investors and adding 25 newcomers. The list covers investor performance from 2021 through 2026.

The ranking was compiled from submissions, deal data and independent research. To qualify, investors needed to back companies that went public, were acquired for at least $200 million, or doubled in private valuation to more than $400 million over the five‑year period.

New entrants among the 25 include Yasmin Ravazi, ranked No. 13, a partner at Spark Capital who led a 2023 funding round for Anthropic; Steve Vasallo, No. 17 at Foundation Capital, an early backer of the cryptocurrency network Solana and chip maker Cerebras; Luke Nosek, No. 18 of Gigafund, known for early support of SpaceX and other ventures tied to Elon Musk; Lior Susan, No. 20, founder and CEO of AI firm Eclipse and an investor in Cerebras; Antonio Gracias, No. 32, founder of Valor Equity Partners, which reports about $16 billion in gross assets; and Steve Jurvetson, No. 62 of Future Ventures, an investor in SpaceX and Tesla.

The top 10 of the 2026 Midas List shows heavy exposure to companies in artificial intelligence, cloud security and space and defense technology. Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures ranks No. 1 and is identified as an early investor in OpenAI, which Forbes values at $852 billion as of March 2026. Other top names include Neil Shen of HSG, associated with a roughly $3 billion deal involving ByteDance; Eric Vishria of Benchmark Capital, linked to the Cerebras IPO valued at more than $56 billion; Gili Raanan of Cyberstarts, who led a seed round for cloud security firm Wiz; and Peter Thiel of Founders Fund, noted for founding Palantir and early investments in Stripe and SpaceX, valued at $159 billion and $1.75 trillion respectively. Elad Gil, Trae Stephens, Douglas Leone, Martin Mignot and Shardul Shah complete the top 10, with investments spanning Anduril, Figma, Revolut, Anthropic and Wiz.

Artificial intelligence companies and advanced technology firms recur among the deals that placed investors on the list. OpenAI, SpaceX, Wiz, Anthropic and Cerebras appear multiple times among qualifying exits and valuation gains. The 2026 list includes eight women, two fewer than in 2025.

Forbes makes the full ranking and individual profiles available through its Midas List publication.