Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns three properties in Indian Creek, also known as the “Billionaire Bunker.”
Become Legendary / Dina Goldentayer
What do four of the world’s five richest people have in common?
They all have megamillion waterfront estates in Miami and Miami Beach — including a $170 million property for Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg that recently broke a record as the county’s most expensive home sale ever.
Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Zuckerberg are the second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-wealthiest people in the world, respectively, according Forbes’ 2026 billionaire list, published this month.
All are recent transplants to the area, buying impressive waterfront homes within the last three years. All four seem to have prioritized privacy in their real estate buys, opting for gated communities like Indian Creek and Allison Island, both just off Miami Beach, or secluded parts of Coconut Grove.
Three of them — Page, Brin and Zuckerberg — have scooped up properties in the last few months alone. Bezos, who spent his teenage years in Miami, moved to the exclusive island community of Indian Creek in 2023. Together, the four men have an estimated net worth of around $940 billion.
The only billionaire in Forbes’ top five not buying Miami real estate seems to be Tesla’s CEO and the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, who lives in Texas and has a net worth of $839 billion.
Some have speculated that the surge of interest in Miami from ultra-wealthy buyers has been driven by a recent wealth tax proposal in California.
Most billionaires have numerous homes, and few spend the whole year in one place. But billionaires hoping to take advantage of Florida’s low taxes have to live in the state for more than half of the year to establish residency.
Larry Page
Page created the search engine Google with Brin in 1998. He has served as the CEO of Google and of its parent company Alphabet Inc., and his net worth of $257 billion makes him the second-richest person in the world on this year’s Forbes list.
Page has reportedly spent around $188 million amassing a waterfront property in Coconut Grove in recent months. His purchases included Banyan Ridge, a 4.5-acre compound he picked up for $101.5 million, plus nearby $15 million and $71.9 million homes, the Real Deal Reported.
He was one of the first in a recent wave of Silicon Valley tech billionaires to make big real estate purchases in South Florida, kicking off speculation that the wealth tax proposal was sending billionaires fleeing to Florida. Page began assembling his compound in the Grove late last year.
Sergey Brin
Brin, Page’s Google co-founder, is the third-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $237 billion. He also made a major purchase in South Florida around the same time as Page. The tech billionaire reportedly purchased a home on a double lot on Allison Island for $51 million.
Allison Island is located within the city limits of Miami Beach, near La Gorce Island. Although the gated island was clearly up to the standards of the world’s third-richest man, it hasn’t always been the buzziest Miami Beach community.
“I think Allison Island’s always lagged behind all the others — La Gorce, Sunset Islands,” said Cyril Matz, a real estate agent who has been involved in major sales on Allison Island. “Now it’s definitely on par with these other islands.”
Matz represented the seller in a recent high-profile sale on Allison Island: a home previously owned by rapper Lil Wayne. The waterfront mansion sold to an undisclosed buyer last week for around $33 million, just three years after Lil Wayne unloaded it for about $22 million.
Matz said he thinks Brin’s purchase has drawn attention to the island. Allison Island has more than 40 homes, all of which are on the water. Brin’s double-lot purchase is on the west side of Allison Island, which has views of Biscayne Bay and La Gorce Island. Matz said the west side of the island is particularly desirable for ultra-wealthy buyers.
Jeff Bezos
Bezos founded Amazon as an online bookstore in the early days of the Internet. It has since grown into the world’s largest online shopping platform and turned Bezos into one of the richest people in the world, with a net worth of $224 billion.
Bezos spent part of his childhood living in Miami and graduated from Miami Palmetto Senior High, where he was the valedictorian and a Silver Knight Award winner. He returned to his Florida roots in 2023, buying a home in Indian Creek, an exclusive gated community nicknamed the “Billionaire Bunker” located off Miami Beach.
And when one home wasn’t enough, the tech billionaire purchased two more. Bezos reportedly spent $234 million across the three Indian Creek waterfront properties in 2023 and 2024.
Other rich and famous homeowners on the island include President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her real estate developer husband Jared Kushner, Wall Street investor Carl Icahn and billionaire auto dealer Norman Braman. Tom Brady, Julio Iglesias and David Guetta are also among Bezos’ neighbors in Indian Creek.
Mark Zuckerberg
A new name on the list of who’s who in the Billionaire Bunker is Zuckerberg, who recently purchased a home in Indian Creek.
Zuckerberg broke Miami-Dade County’s record for most expensive home sale earlier this month when he closed on a nine-bedroom, 27,889-square-foot mansion with 200 feet of water frontage. The home is still under construction.
Jill Hertzberg’s team at luxury South Florida brokerage the Jills Zeder Group represented the seller, cosmetic surgeon Aaron Rollins and his wife, Marine Rollins. Hertzberg said sometimes purchasing a partially completed house is preferable for ultra-wealthy buyers with a specific vision for their home.
“This way, you can create your own home the way you want,” Hertzberg said.
Zuckerberg launched the social media platform Facebook as a student at Harvard University. Now, the Meta founder is the fifth-richest person in the world, worth $222 billion.
Other Florida billionaires on the list
Other notable Florida billionaires on the list included Interactive Brokers founder and chairman Thomas Peterffy and Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin.
Peterffy’s net worth of $82.9 billion earned him the rank of 23rd richest person in the world, while Griffin’s $49.8 billion put him at 37th. Peterffy lives in Palm Beach, and Griffin lives in Miami, where he owns hundreds of millions worth of property in Coconut Grove and Star Island.
Griffin, who moved Citadel’s headquarters from Chicago to Miami in 2022, started an initiative last month with fellow Florida billionaire Stephen Ross to encourage other billionaires and business leaders to move to the Sunshine State.
Ross, the chairman of the real estate development firm Related Companies, is worth $17 billion and is the 169th richest person in the world, according to the Forbes list. Ross owns the Miami Dolphins and lives in Palm Beach.
Larry Ellison, the co-founder and executive chairman of Oracle Corporation, made his Palm Beach County estate his official residence last month, Forbes reported. Ellison, a close ally of Trump, is worth $190 billion and is the sixth-richest person in the world. His Manalapan, Florida, home is located a half-hour from Mar-a-Lago.
Howard Schultz, the longtime CEO of Starbucks, was the latest billionaire to announce he had moved to South Florida. Schultz, who has a net worth of $3.5 billion and is the 1,223rd-richest person in the world, according to Forbes, purchased a $44 million penthouse in Surfside.
Also in the news recently was Palantir Technologies Inc., a software firm that creates data analysis and surveillance tools. The tech company announced last month that it had moved its headquarters to South Florida. Peter Thiel, the company’s co-founder and chairman, is the world’s 87th richest person, with a net worth of $28.4 billion. Thiel also moved his private investment firm Thiel Capital to Miami late last year.
Palantir co-founder and CEO Alex Karp is worth $13.1 billion and ranks 228th. The Real Deal reported last week that Karp had purchased a $46 million mansion in Miami Beach.
This story was originally published March 19, 2026 at 3:40 PM.
Catherine Odom covers real estate for the Miami Herald. She previously interned on the Herald’s government team and has worked as a journalist in Germany and Armenia. She is a graduate of Northwestern University.
