The Forbes Midas list is the annual ranking by Forbes magazine of the most influential and best-performing venture capital investors. Described by Kara Swisher as the "Oscars for venture capitalists in tech,"[1] the Midas List uses parameters that include the first-day market capitalization of IPOs and the opinions of a panel of experts.[2] It also includes a Midas Seed list for ranking seed stage investors.
The name alludes to the mythological King Midas, renowned for his ability to turn anything he touched into gold. Forbes partnered with venture capital fund TrueBridge Capital Partners to create the list from 2011 to 2016.[3][4][5][6]
History
editThe inaugural Midas List was published in the February 19, 2001 issue of Forbes. The print issue featured the top 50 names while the full list of 100 names was posted exclusively online. Carleen Hawn was the editor of the list and five staffers were credited as producers.[7]
Midas List Top 10, 2026
editAccording to Forbes, the top 10 venture capitalists in 2026 are as follows:[8]
| Rank | Name | Firm | Notable Deal | Headquarters |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vinod Khosla | Khosla Ventures | OpenAI | Portola Valley, California |
| 2 | Neil Shen | HSG | ByteDance | Hong Kong, China |
| 3 | Eric Vishria | Benchmark Capital | Cerebras | Atherton, California |
| 4 | Gili Raanan | Cyberstarts | Wiz | Michmoret, Israel |
| 5 | Peter Thiel | Founders Fund | SpaceX | Los Angeles, California |
| 6 | Elad Gil | Gil Capital | OpenAI | San Francisco, California |
| 8 | Trae Stephens | Founders Fund | Anduril | San Francisco, California |
| 8 | Douglas Leone | Sequoia Capital | Wiz | Atherton, California |
| 9 | Martin Mignot | Index Ventures | Revolut | New York, New York |
| 10 | Shardul Shah | Index Ventures | Wiz | New York, New York |
References
edit- ↑ Swisher, Kara. "Accel's Breyer Leads Forbes Midas List of Top Tech Investors Again, While Kleiner's Doerr Leads in Media Scrutiny". AllThingsD. Retrieved May 14, 2026.
- ↑ Primack, Dan (April 6, 2011). "Nitpicking the Forbes Midas List". Fortune. Archived from the original on January 30, 2012. Retrieved August 30, 2012.
- ↑ Perlroth, Nicole (April 6, 2011). "Midas: The Methodology". Forbes.
- ↑ Geron, Tomio (May 2, 2012). "Midas 2012: The Methodology - Forbes". Forbes.
- ↑ Geron, Tomio (May 8, 2013). "Midas 2013: The Methodology - Forbes". Forbes.
- ↑ Konrad, Alex (March 23, 2013). "The Top 10 Venture Capital Investors In The World: Midas List 2016". Forbes.
- ↑ "The Midas List: Tech's Best Venture Investors". Forbes. Vol. 167, no. 4. February 19, 2004. p. 88.
- ↑ "Forbes 2026 Midas List - The Top Venture Capital Investors Ranked". Forbes. May 27, 2026.