11 billionaires who made their fortunes after immigrating to the US

Hamdi Ulukaya founded the yogurt brand Chobani after emigrating from Turkey to attend college in New York.

Source of wealth: Chobani

Ulukaya, 46, received a $3,000 loan from the Small Business Administration in 2007 and used it to buy an old yogurt plant in Norwich, New York. Chobani now sells over $1 billion of yogurt annually and is America's most popular brand of Greek yogurt, Forbes reports.

Ulukaya now advocates for companies to get involved in the ongoing refugee crisis, Bloomberg reported in August. Chobani recruits refugees for jobs at its plants and encourages other companies to do the same.

Financier George Soros fled Soviet occupation in his native Hungary in 1947.

Net worth: $8.3 billion

Source of wealth: Quantum Fund

Soros, 88, attended the London School of Economics before moving to New York and getting a job as a stock trader, Business Insider previously reported. Soros went on to found what would later become the world's largest hedge fund, Quantum Fund.

Eren Ozmen, the president of aerospace company Sierra Nevada Corp., immigrated to the United States from Turkey.

Net worth: $1.4 billion

Source of wealth: Sierra Nevada Corp.

Ozmen, 61, and her husband used their house as collateral to purchase Sierra Nevada Corp. in 1994, Forbes reported. Ozmen grew the 20-person company into one of the federal government's largest contractors, having sold billions of dollars of planes, navigation gear, and communications systems to the U.S. Department of Defense.

Miami real estate developer Jorge Perez was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Net worth: $1.9 billion

Source of wealth: The Related Group of Florida

Perez, 69, moved to the United States for college, according to Forbes. Perez worked as an urban planner before partnering with Stephen Ross to launch Miami-based luxury real estate developer The Related Group.

Bharat Desai, the founder of IT consulting firm Syntel, was born in Kenya and raised in India.

Net worth: $1.4 billion

Source of wealth: Syntel Inc.

Desai, 66, came to the US to work for Tata Consultancy Services, according to Forbes. He and his wife, Neerja Sethi, then started their own consulting company, Syntel, in their suburban Detroit apartment with just $2,000.

Early Google investor Kavitark Ram Shriram was born and raised in India.

Net worth: $2.2 billion

Source of wealth: Venture capital

Shriram, 62, serves on Alphabet's board and holds stakes in numerous tech startups (including Paperless Post) through his venture capital firm Sherpalo Ventures, according to Forbes.

Panda Express founders Peggy and Andrew Cherng immigrated to the US from Myanmar and China respectively, before meeting as students at Baker University.

Collective net worth: $3.1 billion

Source of wealth: Panda Express

Andrew Cherng opened a sit-down Chinese restaurant called Panda Inn in 1973 that was so successful he decided to open an outpost in a nearby mall called Panda Express, Business Insider previously reported. The couple still owns and operates virtually all 2,000 Panda Express locations themselves — they don't franchise them out to other owners, making Panda Express a rarity among restaurant chains of its size.

WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum immigrated to California from Ukraine with his mother when he was 16.

Net worth: $10.9 billion

Source of wealth: WhatsApp

Koum, 43, founded the messaging service with seed money he raised from his former colleagues at Yahoo, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The majority of Koum's fortune comes from Facebook's $22 billion acquisition of WhatsApp in 2014.

Pierre Omidyar moved to the US from France with his family long before he founded eBay.

Net worth: $12.6 billion

Source of wealth: eBay

Omidyar, 52, founded eBay in 1995 and wrote the code for the website himself, according to Forbes. Omidyar still serves on the board of the online auction house.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk grew up in South Africa and worked in Canada before coming to the US.

Net worth: $20.7 billion

Source of wealth: PayPal, Tesla

Musk, 48, first moved to the United States to attend the University of Pennsylvania, Business Insider previously reported. The CEO founded a city guide service for newspapers called Zip2 and an online banking named X.com that got acquired by PayPal before taking the top job at Tesla.