Canada is home to some remarkable fortunes, but the stories behind them are far more varied than a simple ranking of bank balances might suggest. The country’s wealthiest citizens have built or inherited fortunes through cryptocurrency, technology, media, retail, investment, software and diversified industrial businesses. Some are closely connected to companies that have shaped Canadian economic life for generations, while others accumulated extraordinary wealth through industries that barely existed a few decades ago.
The numbers also need some context. Billionaire rankings are estimates rather than fixed measurements: the value of shares, private companies, cryptocurrencies and other investments can change dramatically. Forbes’ annual 2026 list, for example, valued Canadian citizen Changpeng Zhao at about US$110 billion in March, while its real-time estimate had risen to roughly US$114.6 billion by September 15. With that in mind, here are ten facts that help explain Canada’s biggest fortunes and how they were created.
1. Changpeng Zhao has become Canada’s richest billionaire
The biggest Canadian fortune in Forbes’ 2026 ranking belongs to Changpeng Zhao, widely known as CZ. Forbes valued his wealth at approximately US$110 billion when its annual billionaire list was calculated in March 2026, placing him 17th worldwide at the time. By mid-September, Forbes’ real-time estimate had increased to approximately US$114.6 billion.
Zhao’s story differs considerably from those of Canada’s traditional business dynasties. Born in China, he moved to Canada with his family and later studied computer science at McGill University. Before becoming one of the most prominent figures in cryptocurrency, he worked on trading systems and developed technology for financial markets.
His enormous fortune is primarily associated with Binance, the cryptocurrency exchange he founded in 2017. Forbes estimates that Zhao still owns about 90% of Binance as well as BNB tokens. That means his wealth can move considerably as estimates of Binance’s value and cryptocurrency markets change.
His career has also included major legal controversy. Zhao stepped down as Binance CEO in 2023 as part of a settlement with U.S. authorities, pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program, paid a US$50 million fine and served four months in prison. He received a presidential pardon from Donald Trump in October 2025.
2. Canada’s biggest fortunes no longer come only from traditional industries
For much of modern Canadian business history, the country’s wealthiest families were associated with newspapers, retail, natural resources, manufacturing, real estate and financial services. The rise of Zhao illustrates how radically that picture has changed. A cryptocurrency entrepreneur can now possess a fortune larger than those created by some of Canada’s most established corporate dynasties.
The broader billionaire landscape tells a similar story. Technology entrepreneurs and investors increasingly appear alongside the owners of traditional businesses. This makes the Canadian rich list an interesting snapshot of economic change: old fortunes based on established companies coexist with wealth generated through software, e-commerce, digital assets and other relatively young industries.
The contrast is particularly striking because digital businesses can expand internationally at extraordinary speed. A retailer or industrial company may require decades of physical expansion, while a software or cryptocurrency platform can acquire users across dozens of countries much faster. That does not make digital fortunes more stable, however. Their valuations can also fluctuate sharply.
3. The Thomson family remains one of Canada’s great business dynasties
While newer industries have created new billionaires, the Thomson family remains central to any discussion of Canadian wealth. The family fortune originated with Roy Thomson, who built a major media and publishing empire during the twentieth century. Today, its most important holding is its enormous position in Thomson Reuters, the global information-services company.
Forbes now lists several Thomson heirs individually rather than treating the entire family fortune as a single entry. David Thomson, Peter Thomson and Taylor Thomson each had a 2026 Forbes billionaire-list fortune of approximately US$7 billion, while Sherry Brydson’s fortune was considerably larger.
Together, the family retains more than 310 million shares of Thomson Reuters through its investment company Woodbridge. Its holdings extend beyond the information business: Forbes also identifies interests connected with The Globe and Mail and professional sports assets including the Montreal Canadiens and Winnipeg Jets.
4. Sherry Brydson has one of Canada’s largest individual family fortunes
One particularly interesting member of the Thomson dynasty is Sherry Brydson. Forbes estimated her real-time net worth at around US$11.8 billion on September 16, 2026, making her substantially wealthier on an individual basis than several other Thomson heirs.
The difference comes partly from the size of her economic interest. Forbes reports that Brydson owns approximately 23% of the family business through Woodbridge, the largest share attributed to any of the six billionaire Thomson heirs. By comparison, David Thomson’s interest is estimated at approximately 14%.
This is an important reminder that a “family fortune” is not necessarily divided equally among family members. Different ownership structures, trusts, holding companies and investments can result in substantial differences between the estimated wealth of individual heirs.
5. Information can be just as valuable as physical products
The Thomson fortune also illustrates something unusual about modern wealth: some of the world’s most valuable businesses do not primarily sell physical products. Thomson Reuters provides specialized information and technology to professionals working in fields such as law, tax, accounting, government, media and business.
This type of business can be particularly powerful because information products can become deeply embedded in professional workflows. Customers may rely on databases, research systems and specialized software every working day. Over time, a company that began in traditional media can therefore evolve into a sophisticated global information and technology enterprise.
David Thomson serves as chairman of Thomson Reuters, while Peter Thomson sits on its board. Their family’s continuing ownership demonstrates how a fortune created in an earlier media era can survive enormous technological change when the underlying business evolves with its customers.
6. Jim Pattison built wealth through an extraordinarily diversified business empire
Another major Canadian fortune belongs to Jim Pattison, whose career represents a very different route to billionaire status. Rather than becoming associated primarily with one famous technology platform or financial asset, Pattison built a sprawling group of businesses operating across numerous industries.
The Jim Pattison Group has become one of Canada’s best-known privately held business organizations. Pattison’s interests over the decades have ranged across automotive dealerships, food, packaging, media, entertainment and other industries. A Canadian billionaire index drawing on Forbes’ 2026 data placed his fortune at roughly US$12 billion in September 2026.
His story demonstrates the potential of diversification as a wealth-building strategy. Instead of relying entirely on the performance of one sector, a diversified holding company can own businesses exposed to very different parts of the economy. The result is a model quite different from that of founders whose fortunes are concentrated almost entirely in the shares of a single public technology company.
7. Canada’s billionaire class increasingly reflects the technology economy
Technology has become one of the most important sources of new Canadian wealth. The 2026 billionaire landscape includes entrepreneurs whose fortunes are associated with e-commerce, software, artificial intelligence and technology investments, demonstrating how much the composition of extreme wealth has changed.
This trend is important because technology companies can create enormous valuations without requiring the same physical footprint as older industrial businesses. Software can be distributed globally, platforms can connect millions of customers, and successful technology companies can expand rapidly into new markets. For founders who retain significant equity, that growth can translate into extraordinary personal wealth.
At the same time, technology fortunes can be volatile. Much of an entrepreneur’s estimated net worth may consist of company shares rather than cash. A large movement in a public company’s share price can therefore add or erase billions of dollars from an estimated fortune without the person actually buying or selling anything.
8. Being worth billions does not mean having billions in cash
This is one of the most important facts to understand about billionaire rankings. When Forbes estimates that someone is worth US$10 billion, it does not mean that person has US$10 billion sitting in a bank account. Net worth is an estimate of assets minus liabilities, and the assets can include public shares, stakes in private businesses, investment portfolios, real estate and other holdings.
David Thomson provides a straightforward example. Forbes estimates that much of his wealth comes through the Thomson family’s ownership of Thomson Reuters via Woodbridge. If the market value of those shares changes, the estimated value of his fortune changes with it. The same principle applies to Zhao, although his wealth is especially sensitive to estimates involving Binance and cryptocurrency assets.
This explains why billionaire lists can appear inconsistent when viewed on different dates. Forbes’ annual list provides a snapshot based on a particular valuation date, whereas its real-time rankings attempt to reflect subsequent market movements. For that reason, it is usually more accurate to describe billionaire fortunes as estimates at a specific moment rather than permanent numbers.
9. Canada combines inherited wealth with self-made fortunes
One of the most interesting characteristics of Canadian wealth is the coexistence of old and new money. The Thomson heirs represent a multigenerational fortune whose origins stretch back to Roy Thomson’s twentieth-century media empire. Zhao, by contrast, built his principal fortune through a cryptocurrency company founded only in 2017.
These different paths produce very different relationships between billionaires and their assets. An heir may own an interest in a company established decades before they inherited it, while a founder may hold a huge percentage of a company whose value depends closely on their entrepreneurial decisions and the market in which it operates.
Neither category is uniform. Some heirs actively manage family businesses, while others function primarily as owners and investors. Similarly, some self-made billionaires retain operational control of their companies, while others eventually move away from day-to-day management. Looking only at a net-worth figure therefore reveals very little about how a fortune was actually created or managed.
10. Canada has dozens of billionaires — but wealth is highly concentrated at the top
Forbes’ 2026 global billionaire list included 82 Canadians, according to a review of the annual ranking published in September. Yet only one Canadian — Changpeng Zhao — appeared within the global top 100 in that March snapshot.
That illustrates just how concentrated billionaire wealth can be. The gap between the very richest Canadian and even other extremely wealthy Canadians is enormous. Zhao’s annual-list estimate of US$110 billion was roughly nine times the US$12 billion figure attributed to Jim Pattison in a September Canadian index, for example.
The composition of Canadian wealth has also evolved considerably. Traditional family fortunes remain influential, particularly in media, retail, finance and diversified businesses, but technology and digital assets have created a new generation of extremely wealthy Canadians. Research on Canadian wealth concentration has meanwhile found substantial growth at the very top over recent decades, with the Thomson family cited as one dramatic example of long-term wealth expansion.
Canada’s richest people tell a broader economic story
The most interesting thing about Canada’s wealthiest citizens is not simply the number of billions attached to their names. Their fortunes trace several generations of economic change. Roy Thomson built wealth in newspapers and broadcasting; later generations inherited an information empire that evolved alongside technology. Jim Pattison expanded through a diversified collection of traditional businesses. Changpeng Zhao became extraordinarily wealthy through cryptocurrency, an industry that barely existed at the beginning of this century.
Together, these stories show how the sources of enormous wealth change while some fundamental principles remain surprisingly consistent. Ownership matters enormously: founders and families who retain large stakes in successful businesses can see their wealth compound as those companies expand. Diversification can preserve fortunes across economic cycles, while new technologies can create wealth at a speed that would have been almost unimaginable to earlier generations.
The precise ranking will continue to change. Share prices move, private companies receive new valuations, cryptocurrency markets rise and fall, and assets pass between generations. The more lasting story is how Canada’s largest fortunes reflect the transformation of its economy — from traditional media, retail and industry to software, global information services and digital finance.
