Forbes names Arnold Schwarzenegger top immigrant success story; Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, Melania Trump also make list

Forbes has unveiled a list of 250 successful immigrants to the United States to mark the country's 250th anniversary, with Arnold Schwarzenegger topping the rankings. Five Korean-born figures also made the cut.

Forbes published the list Thursday. Schwarzenegger immigrated to the United States in 1968. "When he came to America, he was already a bodybuilding champion," Forbes said, describing him as a billionaire real estate mogul, actor and two-term governor of California.

The publication also quoted his declaration of affection for his adopted country: "The one title I'm most proud of is 'American.'"

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the wealthiest person in history, ranked second. A native of Pretoria, South Africa, Musk taught himself to code and obtained US citizenship in 2002 — the same year he founded aerospace company SpaceX.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin came in third. Brin arrived in the United States at age 6 with his family, Soviet refugees who had fled religious persecution of Jews.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang ranked fourth. Huang immigrated at age 9, and last month, speaking at the Carnegie Mellon University commencement ceremony in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he said: "My parents are also very proud of me. My journey is their journey, and the fulfillment of their dreams. Their dream was the American Dream. Like many of you here, I am a first-generation immigrant."

Australian-born media mogul Rupert Murdoch placed fifth, while Peter Thiel, the German-born co-founder of PayPal, came in sixth.

Others on the list included AMD CEO Lisa Su (8th, Taiwan), actor and entrepreneur Ryan Reynolds (13th, Canada), financier George Soros (16th, Hungary) and first lady Melania Trump (20th, Slovenia). Melania Trump is the first naturalized US citizen to serve as first lady.

The 250 successful immigrants on the Forbes list hail from 68 countries around the world.

India produced the most honorees, with 27 people — 10.8 percent of the total. They include Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla (14th), Google CEO Sundar Pichai (55th), Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (89th), IBM CEO Arvind Krishna (219th) and former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi (248th).

Canada ranked second with 18 honorees (7.2 percent), followed by Israel in third with 15 (6.0 percent).

China and the United Kingdom each placed fourth with 14 honorees (5.6 percent), while Taiwan ranked sixth with 11 (4.4 percent).

The top five countries — India, Canada, Israel, China and the United Kingdom — together accounted for 88 honorees, or 35.2 percent of the list.

South Korea placed 11th with five honorees, alongside countries including South Africa, Australia, Hungary, Pakistan and Italy.

The five Korean-born figures on the list are businesswoman and soccer executive Michele Kang (78th), Fitbit founder James Park (140th), DC Comics president Jim Lee (141st), KKR CEO Joseph Bae (191st) and Viva Systems founding director Young Sohn (192nd).

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