Edited By Alex Knapp and Michael Noer, Forbes StaffINNOVATION is the grease in the economic engine, the sparkle that keeps culture fresh and the key ingredient in nearly every billion-dollar fortune. To kick off our yearlong series of special reports celebrating America’s 250th birthday, we present the men and women who best embody that creative spirit. All of them are in the mold of the quintessential American innovator, Thomas Edison. That means they aren’t just inventors; they’re business leaders who bring their breakthroughs to market, transforming entire industries and creating new ones.To identify the top 250 living innovators (a list of the 250 greatest historic ones can be found here), we first tapped the expertise of Forbes’ beat reporters, who nominated nearly a thousand candidates. We ran those names by a panel of world-class judges—including Jim Breyer, founder of Breyer capital; tech journalist Kara Swisher; and innovation expert Rita McGrath—who ranked them based on creativity, breadth, engagement, disruption and commercial impact. Then we fed the results into the most revolutionary innovation of our time—artificial intelligence—asking both ChatGPT and Gemini to rank them according to the same criteria. Taking all this into account, Forbes editors then determined the final ranking.Progress, an inherent innovation corollary, continues. More than one-third of our ranking consists of women and people of color. That’s vastly more than would have appeared, using the same methodology, 50 years ago at America’s bicentennial and surely fewer than will appear at our tricentennial. Capital, however slowly, chases talent, wherever and whoever it is. Every person here is an American citizen, though many weren’t born that way. The United States is a nation of immigrants, and this list reflects that, starting at the very top.VIEW THE METHODOLOGYAMERICA’S GREATEST INNOVATORS#1-50#51-100#101-150#151-200#201-250CREDITSEdited by: Alex Knapp and Michael NoerInnovator 250 Judges: Jim Breyer, founder, Breyer Capital; Ken Frazier, former CEO, Merck; Sonia Gardner, cofounder, Avenue Capital Group; Monica Jones, CEO, National Inventors Hall of Fame; Rich Karlgaard, former publisher, Forbes; Michael Kitces, head of planning strategy, Focus Partners Wealth; Mike Mayo, managing director, Wells Fargo Securities; Rita McGrath, academic director in executive education, Columbia Business School; Katie Rae, managing partner, Engine Ventures; Kara Swisher, podcaster and editor at large, New York magazine; Josh Wolfe, cofounder, Lux Capital. Innovator 250 reported by: Asia Alexander, Dan Alexander, Emily Baker-White, Matt Craig, Amy Feldman, Maria Gracia Santillana Linares, Zoya Hasan, Jessica Jacolbe, Jeff Kauflin, Sergei Klebnikov, Brett Knight, Brandon Kochkodin, Luisa Kroll, Randall Lane, Phoebe Liu, Katherine Love, Iain Martin, Simone Melvin, Janet Novack, Alan Ohnsman, John Paczkowski, Matt Schifrin, Katharine Schwab, Michael Solomon, Chloe Sorvino, Giacomo Tognini, Anna Tong, Hank Tucker and Will Yakowicz.Editorial Operations: Justin Conklin, Francesca WaltonCreative Director: Alicia Hallett-ChanDirector of Photography: Robyn SelmanArt and Design Direction: Fernando CapetoArt Director, Editorial Operations: Charles BrucaliereEditorial Design: Philip Smith, Yunjia Yuan, Macy SinreichPhoto Research: Gail ToivanenProduct Enablement Lead: Juman NidalProduct: Traci Kalamajka, Sophie RichardsProduct Design Adrienne Michalski, Sara AmatoEngineering: Tay Buley, Diab Al Sadi, Ahmad Abdelraheem, Ahmad AlshawakriQA: Gevorg Arakelyan, Kristine KarapetyanPhoto/Illustration Credits: ARTHUR BLANK BY MARTIN SCHOELLER, BILL GATES BY MARTIN SCHOELLER, BILLIE JEAN KING BY FRED MULLANE/GETTY IMAGES, CHARLES SCHWAB BY MARTIN SCHOELLER, DAVID GEFFEN BY MARTIN SCHOELLER, EDWIN CHEN BY GUERIN BLASK FOR FORBES, ELON MUSK BY MARTIN SCHOELLER, GEORGE LUCAS BY JAMEL TOPPIN, HAROLD HAMM BY ETHAN PINES FOR FORBES, JACK DORSEY BY KRISHNA SHENOI FOR FORBES, JENNIFER DOUDNA BY CODY PICKENS FOR FORBES, JONY IVE BY DAVID SIMS-ART PARTNER/TRUNK ARCHIVE, JUDY FAULKNER BY GUERIN BLASK FOR FORBES, KATALIN KARIKO BY LIA CLAY MILLER/TRUNK ARCHIVE, KRIS JENNER BY REBECCA MILLER FOR FORBES, LARRY FINK BY RICHARD PHIBBS/TRUNK ARCHIVE, MADONNA BY ARNO FOR FORBES, MARC BENIOFF BY GUERIN BLASK/AUGUST, MARK ZUCKERBERG BY GUERIN BLASK FOR FORBES, MARTINE ROTHBLATT BY MARTIN SCHOELLER, NOUBAR AFEYAN BY MICHAEL PRINCE FOR FORBES, OPRAH WINFREY BY KRISHNA SHENOI FOR FORBES, PATRICK SOON-SHIONG BY ETHAN PINES FOR FORBES, PIERRE OMIDYAR BY LINA JARADAT FOR FORBES, RJ SCARINGE BY ETHAN PINES FOR FORBES, SAM ALTMAN BY CODY PICKENS FOR FORBES, SHEILA JOHNSON BY JONATHAN KOZOWYK FOR FORBES, SHONDA RHIMES BY JAMEL TOPPIN FOR FORBES, STEVE WOZNIAK BY LINA JARADAT FOR FORBES, STEVEN SPIELBERG BY CHANTAL ANDERSON/TRUNK ARCHIVE, SUMA KRISHNAN BY JAMEL TOPPIN FOR FORBES, VINOD KHOSLA BY GUERIN BLASK FOR FORBES, VLAD TENEV BY GUERIN BLASK FOR FORBES, WHITNEY WOLFE HERD BY ARNO FOR FORBESMore From ForbesForbesForbes 250: America’s Greatest Historic InnovatorsBy Alex KnappForbesSam Altman Reveals Why OpenAI Is Poised To Make The Biggest Business Bets EverBy Richard NievaForbesThe Best Movies About America’s Greatest InnovatorsBy Alex KnappForbesThese Great American Innovators Won Fame — But Not Fortune — From Their InventionsBy Alex KnappForbesMeet The Innovative American Women Who Helped Build The InternetBy Alex KnappForbesThe American Dream Turns 250By Randall LaneForbesFrom Henry Ford To Elon Musk, Classic Forbes Interviews With America’s Greatest InnovatorsBy Michael Solomon