Laurene Powell Jobs

Laurene Powell Jobs
Image	; Powell Jobs at TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco, September 2017
Born	6 November 1963 (Forbes)
Nationality	American
Residence	Palo Alto, California (Forbes)
Occupation	Founder and president, Emerson Collective
Known for	Emerson Collective; majority owner of The Atlantic; Waverley Street Foundation
Spouse(s)	Steve Jobs (died 2011)
Children	3 (Forbes)
Education	University of Pennsylvania (Wharton); Stanford Graduate School of Business, MBA (Forbes)

American investor and philanthropist; founder of Emerson Collective

Laurene Powell Jobs (born 6 November 1963) is an American investor and philanthropist. She founded Emerson Collective, a company that combines venture investing, grant-making and advocacy.^[1]^[2] Forbes says she inherited her fortune, mostly shares in Disney and Apple, from her husband, the Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who died in 2011.^[2] On 10 November 2026 the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list ranked Laurene Powell Jobs 180th in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$16.0 billion; Forbes lists the source of wealth as apple, disney.^[2]^[3] In the annual World's Billionaires list published in 2026, Forbes had ranked Laurene Powell Jobs 212th, at US$13.7 billion.^[4] Through Emerson Collective she acquired majority ownership of The Atlantic in 2017. She is a long-standing donor to and friend of Kamala Harris.^[5]^[6]^[7]

Early life and education

Forbes lists degrees from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. It reports that she met Steve Jobs when she attended a guest lecture he gave at the Stanford business school.^[2] Forbes lists her residence as Palo Alto, California, and records three children. It says her son Reed Jobs launched the venture-capital firm Yosemite in 2023.^[2]

Emerson Collective

According to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Powell Jobs founded Emerson Collective in 2011 to combine venture-capital investing and philanthropic grant-making "under one roof", with a focus on education, economic mobility, immigration and the environment.^[1] Inside Philanthropy notes that Emerson is a limited liability company rather than a foundation or 501(c)(3) charity. Its programmes have included gun-violence reduction in Chicago.^[8] The same profile says Emerson does not publish a grants database or a list of grantees, and calls it "notoriously lacking in transparency" on the details of its giving.^[8]

Media holdings

In July 2017 The Atlantic announced that Emerson Collective had agreed to acquire majority ownership of the magazine from David G. Bradley. Bradley's Atlantic Media kept a minority stake and was to run the title for at least three to five years.^[5] Bradley said he had researched more than 600 possible investors, and that Powell Jobs and Emerson were at the top of the list and the only prospect he approached.^[5] The CFR describes her as lead investor and board chair of The Atlantic.^[1] Forbes adds that she has invested in other media outlets and non-profit newsrooms, including Axios, ProPublica and the Committee to Protect Journalists.^[2]

Education and climate philanthropy

The CFR says Powell Jobs founded College Track, a college-access programme, in 1997, and co-founded the XQ Institute, which works on high-school reform. She chairs the boards of both.^[1] The CFR also lists her as a board member of Chicago CRED, Elemental Excelerator (as chair) and the Ford Foundation.^[1] In 2021 she set up the Waverley Street Foundation, which the CFR describes as a spend-down fund for climate solutions.^[1] Forbes says she committed US$3 billion to it over a decade.^[2] The foundation said it supported more than 90 partner organisations in 2025.^[9]

Sports investments

Forbes reports that she owns a minority stake in Monumental Sports & Entertainment, the parent of the Washington Wizards, Washington Capitals and Washington Mystics, and that in 2022 she invested in the WNBA's first capital raise.^[2]

Relationship with Kamala Harris

Fortune reports that Powell Jobs gave US$500 to Harris's first campaign for San Francisco district attorney in 2003.^[6] Semafor reports that she hosted a fundraising lunch for Harris in Palo Alto in 2009, during Harris's campaign for California attorney general, and reportedly another fundraiser at her home in 2013.^[7] Semafor adds that when the Obama administration invited Powell Jobs to the 2012 State of the Union address, she flew Harris to Washington on her private jet.^[7] Fortune, citing the New York Times, reported that she had made other "quiet" donations amounting to millions of dollars to an organisation backing Harris. It also reported that she "allegedly played a 'key role'" in easing Biden out of the 2024 race.^[6] Semafor reported that an Emerson Collective staff member, Ben Wessel, was an unpaid adviser to the Democratic super PAC Future Forward.^[7]

Wealth

Forbes classes her fortune as inherited and lists its sources as Apple and Disney.^[2]

Wealth history

Forbes has included this entry in its annual World's Billionaires list in 15 of the editions from 2001 to 2026 checked for this profile, starting with 2012. The table gives the rank and estimated net worth in each annual list, and, where applicable, the rank and estimate in the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans.^[4]^[2]

Forbes estimates by list year
Year	World's Billionaires rank	Net worth (US$ bn)	Forbes 400 rank	Forbes 400 net worth (US$ bn)
2012	100	9.0	28	11.0
2013	98	10.7	35	11.7
2014	73	14.0	28	16.6
2015	45	19.5	23	19.1
2016	44	16.7	23	17.7
2017	40	20.0	24	19.4
2018	58	18.8	20	20.5
2019	54	18.6	22	21.3
2020	59	16.4	30	16.0
2021	95	19.0	33	22.1
2022	110	16.4	50	12.6
2023	145	12.0	54	13.4
2024	153	12.8	53	15.1
2025	136	15.6	96	12.7
2026	212	13.7	82	15.1

Political activity

Semafor reports that Powell Jobs largely stopped giving directly to candidates after buying The Atlantic in 2017, to avoid appearing to compromise its independence. It adds that in 2023 she gave US$10,000 to nearly every state Democratic Party and a six-figure sum to the Democratic National Committee, plus a single maximum US$6,600 contribution to the Democratic presidential campaign.^[7] Fortune counted more than US$3.4 million in donations by Powell Jobs and Emerson Collective to Democratic candidates and funds since 2020. It said this included three donations in 2023, totalling nearly US$1 million, to the Biden–Harris re-election effort.^[6] The two outlets thus describe her 2023 giving to the Biden–Harris effort differently: Semafor mentions one direct maximum contribution, while Fortune counts nearly US$1 million across three donations. Neither source reconciles the two figures. The FEC records summarised below include a US$929,000 contribution to the Harris Victory Fund dated 20 September 2023.^[10]

Across the 5 non-memo records retrieved for the 2022–2026 cycles, the filtered total is US$2,904,300 (a lower bound). The largest recipient committees, as named in the filings, were HARRIS VICTORY FUND (US$1,852,000), HMP (US$1,000,000), SEAN PATRICK MALONEY HOUSE VICTORY FUND (US$42,300), BOOKER VICTORY FUND (US$10,000).^[10]

Federal contributions (FEC Schedule A, itemised; lower bound)
Cycle	Total (US$, lower bound)	Records	Largest recipient committees (as filed with the FEC)
2022	$52,300	2	SEAN PATRICK MALONEY HOUSE VICTORY FUND ($42,300); BOOKER VICTORY FUND ($10,000)
2024	$1,852,000	2	HARRIS VICTORY FUND ($1,852,000)
2026	$1,000,000	1	HMP ($1,000,000)

International and political links

This section uses the same ten headings for every profile in this series. Only specific, sourced actions are included; company-level and foundation-level actions are labelled as such. Where nothing was found, the entry reads "No documented involvement found in sources checked."