6 Houston startups disrupting industries with innovative technology

meet the finalists

A concept design rendering of Persona AI's humanoid robot. The company is one of the finalists for the 2025 Houston Innovation Awards in the Deep Tech Business category. Rendering courtesy Persona AI.

Houston is no stranger to technology that's shaping the future. As the longtime location of NASA Johnson Space Center to home base for new ventures disrupting industries with their technology, the Bayou City has had its finger on the pulse of what's new and next for decades.

The Deep Tech Business category in our 2025 Houston Innovation Awards will honor an innovative startup providing technology solutions based on substantial scientific or engineering challenges, including those in the AI, robotics and space sectors.

Six deep tech companies have been named finalists for the 2025 award. They range from a company developing predictive software to accelerate the energy transition to a new venture that's developing humanoid robots.

Read more about these businesses, their founders and their breakthrough technologies below. Then join us at the Houston Innovation Awards on Nov. 13 at Greentown Labs, when the winner will be unveiled.

Tickets are now on sale for this exclusive event celebrating Houston Innovation.

ARIX Technologies

Industrial and robotics company ARIX Technologies is an integrated robotics and data analytics company that delivers inspection services. Its ARIX VENUS robot combines aerospace-grade engineering, advanced non-destructive testing (NDT) and AI-powered analytics to detect hidden corrosion under insulation for the downstream energy, petrochemical, and chemical processing sectors.

ARIX was founded in 2017 by Dianna Liu, a former ExxonMobil engineer. Craig Mallory serves as CEO. The company reports that it is scaling deployments with major Gulf Coast refineries, expanding its analytics platform to include predictive corrosion modeling and growing a global partner program.

Little Place Labs

Space tech company Little Place Labs is developing an AI, machine-learning software across a network of satellites that can provide insights from space in under seven minutes.

The company was founded in 2022 by CEO Bosco Lai and CTO Gaurav Bajaj. The company recently received an award from the U.S. Space Force that will support it in deploying multiple applications and products onto more than 55 satellites over the next 36 months for both national security and commercial use cases. The company won the Security, GovTech & Space competition at the SXSW Pitch showcase last year.

Newfound Materials

Newfound Materials has developed a predictive synthesis software platform for accelerating the discovery of novel materials for critical energy applications, such as batteries, magnets, catalysts, and more. It guides users on the best experiments to try in the lab to optimize the synthesis of their materials.

Newfound Materials was founded in 2024 by CEO Matthew McDermott and participated in the inaugural Activate cohort. The company plans to release a public web app soon. It also has plans to raise a pre-seed or angel round.

Paladin Drones

Paladian develops drone-as-first-responder (DFR) systems for public safety. Its technology gives first responders live aerial video before teams arrive, enabling quicker decisions, better resource allocation and reduced false alarms.

The company was founded in 2018 by Divyaditya Shrivastava and participated in the Y Combinator accelerator that year. The company raised a $5.2 million seed round in 2024 and another round for an undisclosed amount earlier this year. In the future, it plans to expand its DFR deployments into more cities, offer new payload delivery capabilities (like delivering Narcan and life vests), and enhance deconfliction features.

Persona AI

Persona AI is building modularized humanoid robots that aim to deliver continuous, round-the-clock productivity and skilled labor for "dull, dirty, dangerous, and declining" jobs.

The company was founded by Houston entrepreneur Nicolaus Radford, who serves as CEO, along with CTO Jerry Pratt and COO Jide Akinyode. It raised eight figures in pre-seed funding this year and also expanded its operations at the Ion. The company is developing its prototype of a robot-welder for Hyundai's shipbuilding division, which it plans to unveil in 2026.

Tempest Droneworx

Tempest Droneworx provides real-time intelligence collected through drones, robots and sensors. Its Harbinger software platform shares data through a video game engine and aims to provide teams with early warning and insight to help them make decisions faster.

The company was founded in 2021 by CEO Ty Audronis and COO Dana Abramovitz. It participated in the Mass Challenge Air Force Labs and won the Best Speed Pitch at SXSW earlier this year. The company is currently raising a $2.5M seed round.

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This week's roundup of Houston innovators includes Dianna Liu of ARIX Technologies, Rawand Rasheed of Helix Earth, and Nada Ahmed of Energy Tech Nexus. Photos courtesy

3 Houston innovators to know this week

who's who

Editor's note: Every week, I introduce you to a handful of Houston innovators to know recently making headlines with news of innovative technology, investment activity, and more. This week's batch includes three innovators across robotics, climatetech, and more.

Dianna Liu, founder and CEO of ARIX Technologies

Dianna Liu of ARIX Technologies joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to share her entrepreneurial journey — and why Houston was the right place to start her company. Photo courtesy of ARIX

After working for years in the downstream energy industry where safety and efficiency were top priorities, Dianna Liu thought there was a way technology could make a huge difference.

Despite loving her company and her job, she took a leap of faith to start a robotics company to create technology to more safely and efficiently monitor corrosion in pipelines. ARIX Technologies has developed software and hardware solutions for its customers with pipelines in downstream and beyond.

"Overall, this industry is an industry that really harps on doing things safely, doing things well, and having all the data to make really informed decisions," Liu says on the Houston Innovators Podcast. "Because these are huge companies with huge problems, it takes a lot of time to set up the right systems, adopt new things, and make changes." Continue reading.

Rawand Rasheed, co-founder and CEO of Helix Earth

Helix Earth Technologies closed an oversubscribed $5.6 million seed funding led by Houston-based research and investment firm Veriten. Anthropocene Ventures, Semilla Capital, and others including individual investors also participated in the round.

“This investment will empower the Helix Earth team to accelerate the development and deployment of our first groundbreaking hardware technology designed to disrupt a significant portion of the commercial air conditioning market, an industry that is ready for innovation,” Rawand Rasheed, Helix Earth co-founder and CEO, says in a news release. Continue reading.

Nada Ahmed, founding partner at Energy Tech Nexus

Health tech’s gradual success, fueled by policy support, public advocacy, and strategic investment, provides a blueprint for accelerating the growth and impact of climate tech. Photo courtesy

In a guest column, Nada Ahmed, founding partner at Houston-based Energy Tech Nexus, draws a uniquely Houston comparison between the health tech innovation sector and that of the climate tech world.

"Over the past several decades, climate tech has faced numerous challenges, ranging from inconsistent public support to a lack of funding from cautious investors. While grassroots organizations and climate innovators have made notable efforts to address urgent environmental issues, we have yet to see large-scale, lasting impact," she writes.

"A common tendency is to compare climate tech to the rapid advancements made in digital and software technology, but perhaps a more appropriate parallel is the health tech sector, which encountered many of the same struggles in its early days," she continues. Continue reading.

Dianna Liu of ARIX Technologies joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to share her entrepreneurial journey — and why Houston was the right place to start her company. Photo courtesy of ARIX

Houston innovator builds tech to revolutionize pipeline safety, efficiency

HOUSTON INNOVATORS PODCAST EPISODE 261

After working for years in the downstream energy industry where safety and efficiency were top priorities, Dianna Liu thought there was a way technology could make a huge difference.

But it's an industry Liu knows well, so she founded ARIX in 2017 and created a team of engineers to create the first iteration of the ARIX robot, which was at first made of wood, she says. Now, years later, the much-evolved robot moves up and down the exterior of the pipe, using its technology to scan the interior to evaluate corrosion. The technology works with ARIX's software to provide key data analysis.

With customers across the country and the world, ARIX has a strong foothold in downstream, but has garnered interest from other verticals as well — even working with NASA at one point, Liu says.

"Staying in downstream would be nice and safe for us, but we've been very lucky and have had customers in midstream, upstream, and even outside oil and gas and chemicals," she says. "We've gotten inquiries ranging from cosmetics plants to water or wastewater — essentially anything that's round or a pipe that can corrode, we can help with."

Liu, who goes into detail on the show about how critical establishing a positive company culture has been for ARIX, shares a bit about what it's been like growing her company in Houston.

"Houston being the Energy Capital of the World opens a lot of doors to both customers, investors, and employees in a way that's unparalleled. It is a great place to build a company because of that — you have all this expertise in this city and the surrounding areas that's hard to find elsewhere," she says. "Being such a hub — not only for energy, but in terms transportation — means it's easy for us to get to our customers from around the world."

Clockwise from top left: Sean Kelly of Amperon, Dianna Liu of ARIXTechnologies, Matthew Dawson of Elementium Materials, Vibhu Sharma of InnoVent Renewables, Cindy Taff of Sage Geosystems, and Emma Konet of Tierra Climate. Photos courtesy

Overheard: Houston's top energy transition founders explain their biggest challenges

Houston Innovation Awards

From finding funding to navigating the pace of traditional oil and gas company tech adoption, energy transition companies face their fair share of challenges.

This year's Houston Innovation Awards finalists in the Energy Transition category explained what their biggest challenge has been and how they've overcome it. See what they said below, and make sure to secure your tickets to the Nov. 14 event to see which of these finalists win the award.

"The evolving nature of the energy industry presents opportunities to solve some of our industry's greatest challenges. At Amperon we help optimize grid reliability and stability with the power of AI demand forecasting."

— Sean Kelly, CEO of Amperon, an AI platform powering the smart grid of the future

"The biggest challenge in leading an energy transition-focused startup has been balancing the urgency for sustainable solutions with the slow pace of change in traditional industries like oil and gas. Many companies are cautious about adopting new technologies, especially when it comes to integrating sustainability initiatives. We overcame this by positioning our solutions not just as environmentally friendly, but as tools that improve safety, efficiency, and cost savings. By aligning our value proposition with their operational goals and demonstrating real, measurable benefits, we were able to gain traction and drive adoption in industries that are traditionally resistant to change."

— Dianna Liu, CEO of ARIXTechnologies, an integrated robotics and data analytics company that delivers inspection services through its robotics platforms

"Scaling up production of hard tech is a major challenge. Thankfully, we recruited top-notch talent with experience in technology scale-up and chemical processes. In addition, we've begun building partnerships with some of the world's largest chemical manufacturers in our space who are excited to be a part of our journey and could rapidly accelerate our go to market strategy. We have significant demand for our product as early as 2025, so partnering with these companies to scale-up will bring our technology to market years ahead of doing it alone."

— Matthew Dawson, CEO of Elementium Materials, a battery technology with liquid electrolyte solutions

"Our pyrolysis reactor is a proprietary design that was developed during Covid. We ran simulations to prove that it works, but it was not easy to test it in a pilot facility, let alone scaling it up. We managed ... to run our pilot plant studies, while working with them remotely. We proved that our reactor worked and produced high quality products. Later, we built our own pilot plant R&D facility to continue running tests and optimizing the process. Then, there was the challenge of scaling it up to commercial size. ... We put together a task force of four different companies to come together to design and build this complex reactor in record time."

— Vibhu Sharma, CEO of InnoVent Renewables, a startup with proprietary continuous pyrolysis technology that converts waste tires, plastics, and biomass into valuable fuels and chemicals

"Energy storage and geothermal power generation are capital-intensive infrastructure projects, requiring investors with a deep commitment and the patience in terms of years to allow the technology to be developed and proven in the field. One challenge is finding that niche of investors with the vision to join our journey. We have succeeded in raising our $30 million series A with these types of investors, whom we’re confident will continue the journey as we scale."

— Cindy Taff, CEO of Sage Geosystems, an energy company focused on developing and deploying advanced geothermal technologies to provide reliable power and sustainable energy storage solutions regardless of geography

"The biggest challenge we've faced has been to bring together massive independent power producers on one side who are investing hundreds of millions of dollars into grid infrastructure with multi- national tech giants on the other that don't have experience working much with energy storage. As a startup with only four employees, gaining credibility with these players was critical. We overcame this hurdle by becoming the preeminent thought leader on storage emissions, through publishing white papers, discussing the issues on podcasts, and (more)."

— Emma Konet, CTO of TierraClimate, a software provider that helps grid-scale batteries reduce carbon emissions

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This article originally ran on EnergyCapital.

As a part of its Texas Startup Manifesto, Austin-based Capital Factory came into town to talk about the Houston's ecosystem and advice for tech startups looking to do business in town. Natalie Harms/InnovationMap

Here are 3 pieces of Houston startup advice from Capital Factory's emerging tech panel

Tech talk

Throughout the year, Austin-based Capital Factory loads up a bus and takes startup founders and tech entrepreneurs around the Lone Star State in order to better connect the dots of innovation within Texas' major metros. The Texas Startup Manifesto bus recently put it in park outside Station Houston and hosted a tech-focused panel at Accenture's innovation hub.

The panel, which was hosted by two deep tech startup founders, asked some important questions about Houston's ecosystem and startup needs to three experts. Trevor Best of Syzygy Plasmontics and Diana Liu of Arix Technologies represented the startups, while Allison Sawyer of League of Worthwhile Ventures, Mark Volchec of Las Olas VC, and Brian Richards of Accenture fielded their questions.

The panel started out with the state of Houston's innovation ecosystem — which, of course, was the whole point of the one-day field trip to the Bayou City. The panelists seemed to agree that Houston has things it needs to improve on, but the point is not to try to copy any other market.

"We can't try to be Silicon Valley. We're just simply not," Richards says. "What we have to focus on is what our strengths are."

For instance, Houston has a lot of money within the city, but that hasn't yet translated to a large amount of investments in startups. Even if the city found $1 billion to start investing in companies, Richards says that wouldn't solve everything instantly. Houston has to be able work on the ecosystem as a whole, not just one thing in particular.

"We have so many problems to solve, and we have to solve them in parallel," Richards says. "We have to fix them all at once."

The city's ecosystem aside, the panel weighed in on some of their own advice for tech startups making waves in Houston.

Hire a business-minded leader, like, yesterday.

One of the most crucial aspect for any startup is the team behind the product, and having a diversity of expertise on that team is especially in tech startups, which are usually instigated by a tech-focused founder.

"I think it's really important to have a balanced founding team," Volchec says. "If everyone is tech, I think it's really difficult."

As a venture capitalist and former founder himself, Volchec's biggest critique is that, startups and founders don't start sales early enough. Volchec says he once signed a deal with a company before they even had a product let alone revenue. The key distinguisher for him was that the company already had contracts in place from customers.

Having that person to sell the company is so important, and you need a business-focused person at the helm to do so. For most companies, that's not the tech-minded founder.

"If you're the scientist, why do you even want to be the CEO?" Volchec asks. "The CEO's job is to be out there and selling — to investors, to clients, to employees."

According to the panelists, sooner is better for making that hire.

"if you don't hire a CEO, and you raise enough money, someone will hire a CEO for you, and you might not like that CEO," Volchec says.

Have a free discovery.

In particular, B-to-B companies should have a free trial, so to speak, for their product. It's Sawyer's pet peeve, she says, when startups charge for the discover process. It's strategic to give access to some people within the company your startup is trying to sell to, that way they get hooked and want to get more access for their whole team.

It does make the process a little more challenging, Sawyer says, since it requires a little more upfront funds.

"You do have to raise a little bit more money, but you do get to scale a lot faster," she says.

Corporate venture groups can be more than just investment.

When looking to scale your product into bigger corporations, a way in is through corporate venturing groups, according to the panelists, even if money isn't the right fit. You're more likely to get a meeting with a venture arm than with the company itself.

"I never took corporate venture money, because they were a little too slow and it was a lot of extra accounting work, Sawyer says. "But I loved working with corporate venture when it comes to pilots. I think they are an underused resource for startups."

It also helps that more and more companies are devoting resources to these groups.

"I'm seeing corporate venture groups all over the place," Sawyer says. "Even if you're not taking their money, they will get you in the door for a pilot."

Overall, big companies are more keen to work with startups of late, says Richards, who hosts C-level execs from big companies on a daily basis in Accenture's Innovation Hub.

"I've never seen [corporations] more motivated than they are right now to be able to think differently on how they are able to engage Houston," he says.

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6 Houston entrepreneurs land on coveted Inc. Female Founders 500 list

the future is female

Six Houston female entrepreneurs and innovators were named to the 2026 Female Founders 500 list.

The annual list compiled by Inc. Magazine recognizes female founders based in the U.S. who have built businesses that have moved their industries forward. The group collectively generated approximately $12.3 billion in 2025 revenue and $12.2 billion in funding to date, according to Inc. Five Houstonians were named to the list last year.

"Each year, we are increasingly amazed by the extraordinary leaders on our Inc. Female Founders 500 list," Bonny Ghosh, editorial director at Inc., said in a news release. "The honorees on this year's list include innovators in AI, beauty and wellness trendsetters winning devoted fans, and nonprofit leaders making a real impact in their communities. Together, they're showing all of us what trailblazing female leadership looks like."

The Houston founders are:

Sassie Duggleby, CEO and co-founder of Houston space tech and engine company Venus Aerospace. Duggleby also serves on the Texas Space Commission board of directors.
Stephanie Murphy, CEO and executive chairman of Aegis Aerospace, which provides space services, spaceflight product development, and engineering services. Murphy also serves as chair of the Texas Aerospace Research and Space Economy Consortium Executive Committee.
Laureen Meroueh, CEO and founder of Hertha Metals, which has developed a cost-effective and energy-efficient process that converts low-grade iron ore of any format directly into molten steel or high-purity iron in a single step.
LaToshia Norwood, managing partner of L'Renee & Associates (LRA), a full-service project management consulting firm.
Lauren Rottet, president and founding principal of Rottet Studio, an international architecture and design firm focused on corporate, lifestyle and hospitality projects
Nina Magon, founder and CEO of Nina Magon Studio / Nina Magon Consumer Products, a residential and commercial interior design company. She also co-founded KA Residences earlier this year.

"Grateful to be recognized again on the Inc. Female Founders 500," Duggleby said in a LinkedIn post. "The best part of building Venus Aerospace has been working with an incredible team pushing the boundaries of flight—and helping bring more women into aerospace along the way.

Meroueh, whose company emerged from stealth last year, voiced a similar push for bringing more women into the fold.

"We've seen a 7x jump in female-led IPOs over the last decade, from just two in 2014 (less than 1% of all IPOs) to 14 in 2024 (nearly 9% of all IPOs). Progress is happening," Meroueh shared in a LinkedIn post. "Yet, less than 1% of venture funding in hard tech goes to female-founded companies. But as my friend Ana Kraft says, the right man for the job may be a woman."

Twenty-nine Texas female founders made this list, including Amber Venz Box, founder of the Dallas-based LTK shopping platform, and Cheryl Sew Hoy, CEO and founder of Austin-based Tiny Health, a fast-growing at-home microbiome health platform. See the full list of winners here.

NASA clears Artemis moon rocket for April launch with 4 astronauts

3, 2, 1...

NASA has cleared its moon rocket on for an April launch with four astronauts after completing the latest round of repairs.

The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket will roll out of the hangar and back to the pad at Florida's Kennedy Space Center, leading to a launch attempt as early as April 1. It will mark humanity's first trip to the moon in more than 50 years.

The Artemis II crew should have blasted off on a lunar flyaround earlier this year, but fuel leaks and other problems with the Space Launch System rocket interfered.

Although NASA managed to plug the hydrogen fuel leaks at the pad in February, a helium-flow issue forced the space agency to return the rocket to the Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs, bumping the mission to April.

The space agency has only six days at the beginning of April to launch before standing down until April 30 into early May.

"It's a test flight and it is not without risk, but our team and our hardware are ready,” NASA's Lori Glaze told reporters at the end of the two-day flight readiness review.

Glaze and other NASA officials declined to provide the risk probabilities for the upcoming mission.

History has shown that a new rocket has essentially a 50% chance of success, said John Honeycutt, chair of the mission management team.

There's so much gap since the only other SLS flight — more than three years ago without anyone on board — that it's difficult to understand any risk assessment numbers, Honeycutt said.

“It's not the first flight," Glaze said. "But we're also not in a regular cadence. So we definitely have significantly more risk than a flight system that's flying all the time.”

Late last month NASA's new administrator, Jared Isaacman, announced a major overhaul of the Artemis program to speed things up and, by doing so, reduce risk.

Dissatisfied with the slow pace and lengthy gaps between lunar missions, he added an extra practice flight in orbit around Earth for next year. That is now the new Artemis III, with the moon landing by two astronauts shifted to Artemis IV. Isaacman is targeting one and maybe even two lunar landings in 2028.

NASA's Office of Inspector General warned in an audit that the space agency needs to come up with a rescue plan for its lunar crews. Landing near the moon's south pole will be riskier than it was for the Apollo astronauts closer to the equator given the rough polar terrain, according to the report.

The report cited the lunar landers as the top contributor for potential loss of crew during the first few Artemis moon landings. It listed the space agency’s loss-of-crew threshold at 1-in-40 for lunar operations and 1-in-30 for Artemis missions overall.

Contracted by NASA to provide the moon landers for astronauts, Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin have accelerated work in order to meet the new 2028 target date. The inspector general's office said many technical challenges remain including refueling their landers in orbit around Earth before flying to the moon.

NASA sent 24 astronauts to the moon during Apollo, 12 of whom landed on it. All but one of the moonshots — Apollo 13 — achieved their prime objectives. The program ended with Apollo 17 in 1972.

Kinder leads 19 Houstonians on Forbes' World's Billionaires List 2026

World's Richest 2026

According to Forbes, there has “never been a better time to be a billionaire” than in 2026, and the publication's newest World’s Billionaires List has revealed the 19 Houston billionaires that have risen among the wealthiest worldwide.

Kinder Morgan chairman Richard Kinder surpassed hospitality honcho Tilman Fertitta as the richest billionaire in Houston, ranking No. 232 on the global list with an estimated net worth of $13 billion. His net worth has grown by $2.4 billion since last year.

Fertitta, 68, may not be the richest Houstonian anymore, but his wealth is still on the rise. He ranked 268th on the list with an estimated net worth of $11.7 billion, up from $11.3 billion last year.

Out of the 390 billionaire newbies that made their debut onto the list this year, one of them calls Houston home: restaurateur and commodities trader Ignacio Torras. Torras, 61, is the founder and CEO of global commodities trading company Tricon Energy, and he owns Michelin-starred local restaurant BCN Taste & Tradition and its sister eatery MAD. But that's not all he spends his time doing, according to Forbes.

"In 2024 Torras launched a soccer tournament for neurodivergent players called the Genuine Cup," his profile said. "Last year 800 players and 30 teams from around the world played at Rice University stadium."

Torras debuted as No. 2600 on the list with an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion.

Houston-born multi-hyphenate superstar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter also staked a claim among the world's richest people in 2026. She ranked No. 3332 on the list with a net worth of $1 billion, thanks to her "years of music sales, touring and collecting art with her already-billionaire husband Jay-Z (estimated net worth: $2.8 billion)," Forbes said.

"The majority of pop star Beyonce’s net worth comes from her roughly three decades as a solo performer and a member of the girl-group Destiny's Child," her profile said. "She holds the record for the most Grammy wins ever, with 35, and won her first Album of the Year trophy in 2025. She and her billionaire husband Jay-Z purchased a $200 million Malibu mansion in 2023, in what was the most expensive home sale in California history."

Beyoncé also ranks No. 21 in the publication's separate list of The World's Celebrity Billionaires.

Here's how the rest of Houston's billionaires fared on this year's list:

Toyota mega-dealer Dan Friedkin: No. 279; $11.4 billion, up from $7.7 billion
Pipeline heir Randa Duncan Williams: tied for No. 323 with an estimated net worth of $10.2 billion, up from $9.3 billion in 2025. Fellow pipeline heirs Dannine Avara and Milane Frantz tied for No. 332 globally. Each has an estimated net worth of $10.1 billion, up from $9.2 billion. Scott Duncan ranks No. 353 with a $9.8 billion estimated net worth, up from $9 billion in 2025.
Oil tycoon Jeffery Hildebrand: No. 341; $10 billion, up from $7.7 billion
Houston Texans owner Janice McNair and family: No. 528; $7.3 billion, up from $6.2 billion
Energy exploration chief exec George Bishop of The Woodlands: No. 908; $4.7 billion, down from $5 billion
Westlake Corporation co-owners Albert Chao, James Chao and their families: tied for No. 1074; $4 billion, flat from 2025
Hedge fund honcho John Arnold: No. 1504; $2.8 billion, down from $2.9 billion
Perry Homes executive chair Kathy Britton: No. 1611; $2.6 billion, flat from 2025
Houston Astros owner Jim Crane: No. 1676; $2.5 billion, up from $2.4 billion
Former Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander: No. 1834; $2.3 billion, up from $1.9 billion
Mercedes-Benz mega-dealer Joe Agresti: No. 3185; $1.1 billion, flat from 2025
Frontier Airlines chairman William Franke: No. 3332; $1 billion, down from $1.2 billion

Elsewhere in Texas

Austin billionaire Elon Musk was declared the world's richest person for the second consecutive year, and Forbes said his “grip on the top spot is as strong as it’s ever been.”

“Musk became the first person to hit $500 billion in wealth, in October,” Forbes said. “Then $600 billion and $700 billion, within four days in December. Then $800 billion, in February.”

The Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI founder’s current net worth has skyrocketed to $839 billion — a shocking $497 billion more than his 2025 net worth.

In Dallas-Fort Worth, Walmart heiress Alice Walton has maintained her elite status as the world’s richest woman for the third year in a row. Walton is the 14th richest person on the planet with a current net worth of $134 billion, an eye-catching $33 billion higher than her 2025 net worth. She is the first American woman worth $100 billion, and one of only 20 “centi-billionaires” worldwide claiming 12-figure fortunes, also known as the "$100 Billion Club."

Koch Inc. stakeholder Elaine Marshall and her family are the richest Dallas residents, ranking No. 71 globally with an estimated net worth of $30.9 billion. Her net worth has grown by $2.6 billion since last year.

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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

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