Canada's richest billionaires in 2025 were revealed and #1 just got out of prison
Canada has a new richest person — and he just did hard time. 😳
The new Forbes billionaire list for 2025 includes 76 Canadians. Here are the top 15 richest.
Canada is home to some seriously wealthy people — and thanks to the freshly dropped Forbes billionaire list for 2025, we now know exactly who the richest Canadians are and how they made their billions.
From tech titans and crypto moguls to retail legends and real estate giants, these Canadian billionaires have built their fortunes in all kinds of ways (some, perhaps, more legal than others).
While some names are fixtures in the annual rankings, others have seen their net worths skyrocket (or plummet) since last year. Some of them you've never even heard of, while others amassed their fortunes at the helm of well-known Canadian businesses like Shopify, Lululemon and Circle K.
And one was even at the centre of a money laundering scandal resulting in a $50 million fine and four months in prison last year.
This year's list saw a record number of billionaires globally, according to Forbes — there are now over 3,000 billionaires around the world, worth a combined $16.1 trillion.
Topping the global list once again is Elon Musk, whose net worth has soared to an eye-watering $342 billion after an extremely eventful year. He's followed by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at $216 billion and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, just behind him at $215 billion, according to Forbes.
The list also includes a total of 76 Canadians, making Canada the country with the sixth-most billionaires in the world. Their combined net worth? A whopping $359 billion, up from $315 billion last year, according to Forbes.
So who are the richest Canadians in 2025 — and how exactly did they get so wealthy? Let's break down the top 15 richest billionaires in Canada right now and the (sometimes surprising) ways they made their fortunes.
Explore this list 👀
Stuart Hoegner
Net worth: $6.2 billion
Global rank: #561
How he made his billions: Stuart Hoegner is a Toronto-based lawyer and accountant who struck crypto gold through Tether — the world's largest issuer of stablecoins. A certified accountant in Canada, Hoegner got his start at Ernst & Young before launching his own boutique law firm that catered to online gambling and crypto clients. He joined Tether and its sister company Bitfinex in 2014 as general counsel and owns an estimated 13% of Tether, which raked in $6.2 billion in profits last year from interest on customer collateral, according to Forbes.
Peter Gilgan
Net worth: $6.4 billion
Global rank: #540
How he made his billions: Peter Gilgan is the founder and CEO of Mattamy Homes — the largest privately owned homebuilder in North America. The 74-year-old Toronto-based billionaire got his start as an accountant before shifting into construction, launching Mattamy in 1978 and naming it after his two oldest kids, Matt and Amy. Since then, he has built over 135,000 homes and still oversees the $4.1 billion business himself, according to Forbes.
Alain Bouchard
Net worth: $6.6 billion
Global rank: #512
How he made his billions: Alain Bouchard turned a single Quebec convenience store into a global empire. The Montreal-based billionaire co-founded Alimentation Couche-Tard in 1980 and at age 76, still serves as executive chairman of the company, which now operates over 14,000 stores worldwide under brands like Circle K and Ingo.
According to Forbes, Bouchard rapidly expanded the business through major acquisitions and aggressive growth — including an ongoing bid to buy 7-Eleven. Before launching his own company, Bouchard got his start stocking shelves at his brother's store — and the rest is retail history.
Chip Wilson
Net worth: $6.8 billion
Global rank: #498
How he made his billions: Chip Wilson is the founder of Lululemon, the iconic athleisure brand he launched in Vancouver back in 2000. Though he stepped away from the company in 2015, Wilson, now 68, still holds a 7% stake — making him Lululemon's biggest individual shareholder.
According to Forbes, Wilson now runs a holding company called Hold It All with his wife and five sons, investing in everything from apparel to real estate. The son of a seamstress, Wilson's fashion journey reportedly started with a snowboard brand he founded way back in 1979.
Gaye Farncombe & Linda Campbell
Net worth: $8 billion each
Global rank: #382 (tied)
How they made their billions: Sisters Gaye Farncombe and Linda Campbell are heirs to the Thomson family fortune — a sprawling media empire started by their grandfather, Roy Thomson. As cousins of David, Taylor and Peter Thomson and Sherry Brydson (all of whom will appear later on this list), they each hold a significant slice of the family's investment firm, Woodbridge, which controls over 310 million shares of Thomson Reuters.
According to Forbes, the sisters each own roughly 11% of the business. The family's holdings also include the Globe and Mail newspaper, plus ownership stakes in the Montreal Canadiens and Winnipeg Jets.
Tobi Lutke
Net worth: $8.9 billion
Global rank: #337
How he made his billions: Tobias Lutke is the German-Canadian tech brain behind Shopify — the ecommerce powerhouse behind the online stores for around two million businesses worldwide. According to Forbes, Shopify pulled in nearly $9 billion in revenue last year, with Lutke still holding about a 6% stake.
Lutke started building the platform after struggling to find decent software for an online snowboard shop he wanted to open. The 44-year-old moved to Canada in 2003 after meeting his now-wife on a snowboarding trip to Whistler and has been based here ever since.
David, Taylor & Peter Thomson
Net worth: $10.2 billion each
Global rank: #264 (tied)
How they made their billions: David, Taylor and Peter Thomson are three more of the six billionaire heirs to the Thomson family fortune — along with cousins Gaye Farncombe, Linda Campbell and Sherry Brydson, together the last living grandchildren of media magnate Roy Thomson.
The three siblings each hold around 14% of Thomson Reuters through their family's investment firm, Woodbridge. David serves as chairman of Thomson Reuters, while Peter sits on the board and chairs Woodbridge.
Jim Pattison
Net worth: $11.4 billion
Global rank: #213
How he made his billions: Jim Pattison is a business legend who reportedly still clocks in daily — weekends included — at 96 years old. He runs the Jim Pattison Group, a massive conglomerate with 20 divisions in industries like packaging, food, media and entertainment.
According to Forbes, his empire began with a GM dealership in 1961 and now includes major holdings like Canfor, Guinness World Records, Ripley's Believe It or Not! and the Canadian rights to Great Wolf Lodge.
Joseph Tsai
Net worth: $12.1 billion
Global rank: #195
How he made his billions: Joseph Tsai, 61, is the co-founder of Alibaba and is still the tech giant's second-largest individual shareholder, after Jack Ma. Born in Taiwan and holding Canadian citizenship, Tsai is now based in Hong Kong, where he serves as chairman of the company.
According to Forbes, he holds two degrees from Yale and famously started with a $50-a-month salary when he first joined forces with Ma in 1999. He's also a major sports investor — in 2024, he sold a stake in the Brooklyn Nets' parent company for nearly $700 million.
David Cheriton
Net worth: $14.3 billion
Global rank: #163
How he made his billions: David Cheriton is a computer science professor turned "Professor Billionaire" thanks to a legendary early bet on Google. According to Forbes, he and Andreas von Bechtolsheim each invested $100,000 in the startup — and the rest is tech history.
A Canadian citizen now living in Palo Alto, Cheriton has also co-founded several companies, including Arista Networks and Granite Systems. Known for his frugal lifestyle, the 74-year-old still lives in the same house he bought 30 years ago and cuts his own hair.
Sherry Brydson
Net worth: $16.7 billion
Global rank: #125
How she made her billions: Sherry Brydson is the final and largest of the six Thomson family fortune heirs and eldest of media mogul Roy Thomson's grandchildren. She owns the largest individual stake in Thomson Reuters, holding around 23% of the company.
Brydson is the richest woman in Canada and the 21st-richest in the world on this year's list. She's the cousin of fellow billionaires Gaye Farncombe, Linda Campbell and David, Taylor and Peter Thomson — all of whom rank slightly lower on the list due to their smaller shares in the family business.
Changpeng Zhao
Net worth: $62.9 billion
Global rank: #24
How he made his billions: Changpeng Zhao — better known as CZ — is the Canadian crypto tycoon behind Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. Born in China and raised in Vancouver, Zhao founded Binance in 2017 and still owns about 90% of the company, plus a stash of its BNB tokens.
CZ's empire took a hit after he stepped down as CEO in 2023 as part of a major U.S. legal settlement. He served four months in prison last year after pleading guilty to failing to implement anti-money laundering protocols. While he now lives in Dubai, the 48-year-old remains Canada's richest citizen by a long shot — and one of the top 25 richest people in the world — despite the scandal.
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