- Forbes compiled a list of the richest person in every state in 2024.
- The billionaires include members of the Walton family, Mars family, and Chick-fil-A's Cathy family.
- Alaska, Delaware, and West Virginia are the only states without billionaires.
The US is home to more billionaires than any other country. While it's tempting to think they all congregate in California, New York, and Florida, these ultra-rich members of society can also be found in Bloomington, Indiana, Bentonville, Arkansas, and many other cities nationwide. In fact, there are billionaires in 47 states.
In May 2024, Forbes released a list of the wealthiest person in each state. With fortunes across industries like tech, retail, agriculture, and oil, these individuals have a combined net worth of $1.6 trillion.
Find out who's the richest person that calls your state home, according to Forbes' report. The below estimated net worths were accurate as of March 2024.
ALABAMA: Jimmy Rane
Net worth: $1.5 billion
Age: 77
Source of wealth: As the founder and CEO of Great Southern Wood Preserving, Rane helped popularize the lumber business by appearing in commercials as a cowboy known as "the Yella Fella."
Residence: Abbeville
ALASKA: Jonathan Rubini and family, Leonard Hyde and family
Net worth: $400 million
Age: Rubini is 69; Hyde is 67.
Source of wealth: Rubini serves as the CEO and chairman of commercial real-estate developer JL Properties, while Hyde serves as its president. Each of them owns 50% of the business, which also includes properties in Florida and Utah, Forbes reported.
Residence: Anchorage
ARIZONA: Ernest Garcia II
Net worth: $8 billion
Age: 67
Source of wealth: Ernest Garcia II owns the used car retailer DriveTime Automotive. He is also the largest shareholder of Carvana, an online used car dealer founded by his son Ernest Garcia III in 2012.
Residence: Tempe
ARKANSAS: Jim Walton and family
Net worth: $78.4 billion
Age: 75
Source of wealth: Jim Walton and his siblings inherited their wealth from their father, Sam Walton, who opened the first Walmart store in 1962 and founded the discount warehouse Sam's Club in 1983. Jim Walton is also the chairman of Arvest Bank.
Residence: Bentonville
CALIFORNIA: Mark Zuckerberg
Net worth: $177 billion
Age: 40
Source of wealth: As a student at Harvard, Zuckerberg cofounded a social network known as "The Facebook" in 2004. He went on to become CEO of Meta, the parent company for Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads.
Residence: Palo Alto
COLORADO: Philip Anschutz
Net worth: $15.3 billion
Age: 84
Source of wealth: Anschutz initially amassed his fortune through the discovery of an oil field on the Wyoming-Utah border in 1979 and subsequent investments in railroad companies. He founded Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) in 1994, which owns major sports teams and performance venues such as the Crypto.com Arena. AEG is also the parent company for Coachella music festival.
Residence: Denver
CONNECTICUT: Steve Cohen
Net worth: $19.8 billion
Age: 67
Source of wealth: Cohen founded two hedge funds, SAC Capital and Point72. Until SAC Capital was shut down after pleading guilty to insider trading charges in 2013, it was one of the most successful hedge funds in the world. (Cohen himself was never charged.) Point72 currently manages over $30.6 billion, Forbes reported. He also holds a 95% ownership stake in the New York Mets.
Residence: Greenwich
DELAWARE: Elizabeth Snyder
Net worth: $800 million
Age: 77
Source of wealth: Snyder's parents founded WL Gore & Associates, a manufacturing company that holds over 7,000 patents, in 1958. Gore-Tex, a waterproof fabric used in outdoor apparel and shoes, remains its most profitable invention. Snyder owns around 5.5% of the company, Forbes reported.
Residence: Wilmington
FLORIDA: Jeff Bezos
Net worth: $194 billion
Age: 60
Source of wealth: Bezos founded e-commerce titan Amazon in 1994 and still owns around 9% of the company. As of March 2024, he was the second-richest person in the US behind Elon Musk. Bezos has since overtaken Musk and attained the title of second-richest person in the world behind LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault, according to Forbes' real-time billionaires list.
Residence: Miami
GEORGIA: Dan Cathy, Bubba Cathy, and Trudy Cathy White
Net worth: $11.2 billion
Age: 71, 69, and 68
Source of wealth: The Cathys are heirs to the Chick-fil-A family fortune. Founded by their father, S. Truett Cathy, in the 1960s, the fried-chicken fast-food chain now has over 2,800 restaurant locations worldwide.
Residence: Atlanta
HAWAII: Pierre Omidyar
Net worth: $6.3 billion
Age: 56
Source of wealth: Omidyar founded eBay in 1995 and became a billionaire when the e-commerce company went public during the dot-com bubble in 1998. eBay also acquired PayPal in 2002 for $1.5 billion.
Residence: Honolulu
IDAHO: Frank VanderSloot
Net worth: $3.3 billion
Age: 75
Source of wealth: VanderSloot is the founder and former chief executive of Melaleuca, Inc., which sells nutritional and wellness products online. Forbes reported that the company now has over one million customers each month.
Residence: Idaho Falls
ILLINOIS: Lukas Walton
Net worth: $28 billion
Age: 37
Source of wealth: Lukas Walton is the billionaire heir to the Walmart fortune and the grandson of Walmart founder Sam Walton. Lukas Walton inherited his vast wealth after his father, John T. Walton, died in a plane crash in 2005 at the age of 58. He founded Builders Vision, an impact investing group, in 2021, and also chairs the Walton Family Foundation's environment program committee.
Residence: Chicago
INDIANA: Carl Cook
Net worth: $10.6 billion
Age: 61
Source of wealth: Cook has served as CEO of Cook Group, a medical-device manufacturing company founded by his parents, since his father's death in 2011. Bloomberg reported the company made about $2.3 billion in revenue in 2022 and sells its products in over 135 countries.
Residence: Bloomington
IOWA: Harry Stine
Net worth: $9.7 billion
Age: 82
Source of wealth: Stine is an agricultural pioneer and the founder and owner of Stine Seed, a corn and soybean seed company based in Adel, Iowa. According to the company's website, Stine Seed and its affiliates own around 800 patents related to soybean and corn genetic technology. Major licensing deals have helped it become one of the world's largest private seed companies.
Residence: Adel
KANSAS: Charles Koch and family
Net worth: $58.5 billion
Age: 88
Source of wealth: Koch amassed his billions from serving as co-CEO of Koch Industries, which produces around $125 billion in revenue each year, Forbes reported. Founded in 1940 by his father, Fred Koch, Koch Industries is involved in various businesses, from oil pipelines to paper goods, and is the second-largest private company in the US.
Residence: Wichita
KENTUCKY: Tamara Gustavson
Net worth: $7.8 billion
Age: 62
Source of wealth: Gustavson made her billions as the heiress to the Public Storage empire and as a prize-winning horse breeder. Her father, B. Wayne Hughes, cofounded Public Storage, a self-storage company that now owns and operates thousands of locations across the US and Europe, in 1972. Forbes reported Gustavson owns about 10% of the company.
Residence: Lexington
LOUISIANA: Todd Graves
Net worth: $9.1 billion
Age: 52
Source of wealth: Graves, the founder and CEO of the chicken-tender restaurant chain Raising Cane's, opened his first restaurant in 1996. The company now has more than 750 restaurants in the US and internationally and $3.7 billion in annual sales, Forbes reported.
Residence: Baton Rouge
MAINE: Susan Alfond
Net worth: $3.1 billion
Age: 78
Source of wealth: Alfond's father, Harold Alfond, made a fortune as the founder of the Dexter Shoe Company, once one of the largest shoe manufacturers in the US. He sold the company to Warren Buffett in 1993 for $420 million in Berkshire Hathaway stock, Forbes reported. Harold Alfond died in 2007, leaving his fortune to Susan Alfond and her three siblings.
Residence: Scarborough
MARYLAND: Annette Lerner and family
Net worth: $6.4 billion
Age: 94
Source of wealth: Lerner's fortune grew after she loaned $250 to her husband, Ted Lerner, to establish a firm that sold homes to real-estate developers, Forbes reported. Founded in 1952, it grew to become one of the most successful real-estate companies in the DC area. The Lerners also made their money as owners of the Washington Nationals baseball team.
Residence: Chevy Chase
MASSACHUSETTS: Abigail Johnson
Net worth: $29 billion
Age: 62
Source of wealth: Johnson is the president and CEO of Fidelity Investments, and holds an estimated 28.5% ownership in the company. In 2022, American Banker named Johnson the second-most-powerful woman in finance, and she has been praised for embracing mobile technology and cryptocurrency in the company's business initiatives.
Residence: Milton
MICHIGAN: Daniel Gilbert
Net worth: $26.2 billion
Age: 62
Source of wealth: Gilbert is the founder and chairman of Rocket Companies, formerly known as Quicken Loans. From 2013 to 2018, under Gilbert's leadership, the company closed nearly half a trillion in home loans, according to the Gilbert Family Foundation. In 2020, when Quicken Loans went public as Rocket Companies, it was valued at $36 billion, Reuters reported.
Residence: Franklin
MINNESOTA: Glen Taylor
Net worth: $2.9 billion
Age: 83
Source of wealth: Taylor purchased Carlson Letter Service, a wedding stationery business that he worked for while attending college, in 1975, according to the company's website. It became the Taylor Corporation, a print services and communications company. He also owns stakes in the Minnesota Timberwolves and other sports teams.
Residence: Mankato
MISSISSIPPI: Thomas and James Duff
Net worth: $3 billion
Age: 66 and 63
Source of wealth: The Duff brothers' wealth originates from their family business: tires. Their father, Ernest, founded Southern Tire Mart in the '70s and sold it in 1998. James and Thomas bought it back in 2003 and then cofounded Duff Capital Investors, a holding company, in 2007. According to Forbes, it now brings in $5 billion in revenue across 20+ businesses.
Residence: Hattiesburg
MISSOURI: John Morris
Net worth: $9.5 billion
Age: 76
Source of wealth: Morris is the founder and CEO of Bass Pro Shops, the outdoor gear chain that brings in $8.1 billion in sales revenue annually, according to Forbes. He founded Bass in 1972 in the back of his father's liquor store. In 2016, Bass acquired Cabela's for $5 billion.
Residence: Springfield
MONTANA: Dennis Washington
Net worth: $7 billion
Age: 89
Source of wealth: Washington owns a business group called Washington Companies, which owns copper mines, marine transportation, and heavy-equipment businesses. He's also invested in his son Kyle's container-ship business, Seaspan Corp.
Residence: Missoula
NEBRASKA: Warren Buffett
Net worth: $133 billion
Age: 93
Source of wealth: Buffett is perhaps one of the best-known and most successful investors of all time. He's made his fortune via Berkshire Hathaway, which owns brands such as Geico, Dairy Queen, and Duracell. Despite his immense wealth, he's also known for his modest spending habits.
Residence: Omaha
NEVADA: Miriam Adelson and family
Net worth: $32 billion
Age: 78
Source of wealth: Miriam Adelson is on the list after the 2021 death of her husband, casino magnate and major Republican donor Sheldon Adelson. Now, Miriam Adelson and her family own over 50% of Las Vegas Sands, a casino company worth over $34 billion.
Residence: Las Vegas
NEW HAMPSHIRE: Rick Cohen and family
Net worth: $19.6 billion
Age: 71
Source of wealth: Most of Cohen's familial wealth comes from Symbotic, a warehouse automation company that has partnered with Walmart. Cohen is the chairman and CEO. However, Cohen also owns the US' largest grocery wholesaler, C&S Wholesale Grocers, which brings in $33 billion annually, Forbes reported.
Residence: Keene
NEW JERSEY: Rocco Commisso
Net worth: $8 billion
Age: 74
Source of wealth: Commisso is the founder and CEO of Mediacom, the fifth-largest cable television provider in the US, based on the number of video customers, according to the brand. Commisso also owns two professional soccer teams: the New York Cosmos and ACF Fiorentina.
Residence: Saddle River
NEW MEXICO: Ron Corio
Net worth: $1.7 billion
Age: 62
Source of wealth: Corio's billionaire status — the first in New Mexico — stems from Array Technologies, a solar tracking systems business. He is the founder and former CEO, resigning in 2020 before its IPO.
Residence: Albuquerque
NEW YORK: Michael Bloomberg
Net worth: $106 billion
Age: 82
Source of wealth: What hasn't Bloomberg done? Besides his 12-year stint as the mayor of New York City and an unsuccessful presidential campaign, Bloomberg cofounded Bloomberg LP in 1981. Bloomberg is a media company and a financial firm with revenues of $13 billion.
Residence: New York
NORTH CAROLINA: James Goodnight
Net worth: $10.1 billion
Age: 81
Source of wealth: Goodnight and his colleague John Sall (also a billionaire) cofounded a private school, Cary Academy, and also co-own a hotel and country club. But their biggest business venture together is the software company SAS, founded in 1976. It made over $3 billion in 2022, according to Forbes.
Residence: Cary
NORTH DAKOTA: Gary Tharaldson
Net worth: $1.2 billion
Age: 78
Source of wealth: Tharaldson, the only billionaire in North Dakota, got his start in 1982 when Tharaldson Hospitality purchased a Super 8 Motel. It then became a huge hospitality group and one of America's largest developers of new hotels.
Residence: Fargo
OHIO: Les Wexner and family
Net worth: $6 billion
Age: 86
Source of wealth: Wexner opened The Limited in Ohio in the 1960s. He then founded a retail empire that, at one point, owned brands like Abercrombie & Fitch, The Limited Too, Express, and Victoria's Secret. Now Wexner's company has been renamed Bath & Body Works Inc., and solely owns the chain of the same name.
Residence: New Albany
OKLAHOMA: Harold Hamm and family
Net worth: $18.5 billion
Age: 78
Source of wealth: Hamm founded the Shelly Dean Oil Company, now known as Continental Resources, in 1967 when he was only 21. It's now one of the largest oil companies in the US, thanks in part to Hamm's revolutionary decision to use horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in the Bakken region of North Dakota in the '90s. The company went public in 2007, but in 2022, Hamm and his five children took the company private again in a deal worth $27 billion.
Residence: Oklahoma City
OREGON: Phil Knight and family
Net worth: $40.9 billion
Age: 86
Source of wealth: One word: Nike. Knight cofounded the iconic brand in 1964 alongside Bill Bowerman. Although Knight retired in 2016, he and his family still own 20% of the company, which, in 2023, earned $51 billion in fiscal revenue, per Forbes.
Residence: Hillsboro
PENNSYLVANIA: Jeff Yass
Net worth: $27.6 billion
Age: 65
Source of wealth: After spending time as a pro gambler and trader on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, Yass cofounded Susquehanna International Group in 1987. The successful Wall Street trading firm has a 15% stake in ByteDance, TikTok's parent company. NBC reported that Yass also has a personal share (7%) of ByteDance worth about $21 billion.
Residence: Haverford
RHODE ISLAND: Jonathan Nelson
Net worth: $3.4 billion
Age: 68
Source of wealth: In 1989, Nelson founded and led the private equity firm Providence Equity Partners. He was CEO until January 2021 and is now its executive chairman. The firm has invested in over 170 companies, including Hulu, Warner Media Group, and Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network (YES).
Residence: Providence
SOUTH CAROLINA: Robert Faith
Net worth: $5.8 billion
Age: 60
Source of wealth: Robert "Bob" Faith founded Greystar, a global real estate firm, in 1993 and continues to serve as chairman and CEO. Throughout his career, Faith grew Greystar from 9,000 units in the US to more than 850,000 units across five continents, worth more than $290 billion, the company reported in an April press release. The company also has an investment management platform with $34 billion in assets under development.
Residence: Charleston
SOUTH DAKOTA: T. Denny Sanford
Net worth: $2.1 billion
Age: 88
Source of wealth: The University of Minnesota alum made his fortune as the owner of First Premier Bank. Despite having just 17 branches across South Dakota, the bank is one of the largest issuers of Mastercards, in part because it specializes in offering credit cards to those with low credit scores. Often, the cards have low limits and high interest rates.
Residence: Sioux Falls
TENNESSEE: Thomas Frist Jr. and family
Net worth: $26.2 billion
Age: 85
Source of wealth: Frist Jr. cofounded Hospital Corp. of America with his father in 1968. According to its website, the for-profit healthcare company is responsible for 186 hospitals and over 2,400 care sites (like urgent care centers, surgery clinics, and physician clinics) across the US and UK. He and his family own over 20% of the company, and his sons, Thomas Frist III and William Frist, are board members.
Residence: Nashville
TEXAS: Elon Musk
Net worth: $195 billion
Age: 52
Source of wealth: Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are in a continuous battle for the title of richest person in the US. Musk is cofounder of tech giants Tesla and SpaceX, neurotechnology startup Neuralink, and tunneling company The Boring Company. He also helped found OpenAI, but he left in 2018 and announced his own AI endeavor, xAI, in 2023. He also owns an estimated 74% of social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Residence: Austin
UTAH: Gail Miller
Net worth: $3.9 billion
Age: 80
Source of wealth: Miller owns the Larry H. Miller Company, which she founded with her husband, Larry H. Miller, in 1979 after purchasing their first Toyota dealership. The LHM Company's car dealership business became the eighth-largest in the US, and she sold it for $3.2 billion in 2021, Forbes reported. (Larry H. Miller died in 2009.) LHM's portfolio also includes companies in real estate, entertainment, sports, and insurance, among others. In 2020, after more than 30 years of owning the Utah Jazz, Miller sold the team and their home arena for $1.66 billion.
Residence: Salt Lake City
VERMONT: John Abele
Net worth: $1.9 billion
Age: 87
Source of wealth: In 1979, Abele cofounded Boston Scientific, a medical device manufacturer, alongside Peter Nicholas. Boston Scientific focuses on developing more accessible medical technologies, and its products include pacemakers, defibrillators, and stents.
Residence: Shelburne
VIRGINIA: Jacqueline Mars
Net worth: $38.5 billion
Age: 84
Source of wealth: As the granddaughter of Mars Incorporated founder Frank C. Mars, Jacqueline owns an estimated one-third of the legendary candy, food, and pet-care company responsible for treats like Snickers, Juicy Fruit, and Milky Way. (Her brother owns another third and is the richest person in Wyoming, per Forbes.) She served on the board of directors until 2016, having spent nearly 20 years with the company.
Residence: The Plains
WASHINGTON: Bill Gates
Net worth: $128 billion
Age: 68
Source of wealth: Bill Gates is best known as the cofounder of the software company Microsoft. However, he also has an impressive investment portfolio, including companies like Carbon Engineering, EarthNow, Deere & Co., and Republic Services. As of March 2020, Gates owns about 1.3% of Microsoft, which is worth trillions.
Residence: Medina
WEST VIRGINIA: Brad Smith
Net worth: $900 million
Age: 60
Source of wealth: During Smith's time as CEO and then executive chairman of the finance and business software company Intuit, the company's revenue almost doubled, Forbes reported. The success came after Intuit revamped its desktop software into a digital cloud-based platform. Now the president of Marshall University, he also chairs Nordstrom's board of directors and sits on the boards of Amazon and SurveyMonkey.
Residence: Huntington
WISCONSIN: John Menard Jr.
Net worth: $25.2 billion
Age: 84
Source of wealth: Menard Jr. founded Menards, the third-largest home-improvement chain in the US behind Home Depot and Lowe's. With over 300 locations across 15 Midwestern states, the company earned $13.4 billion in 2023.
Residence: Eau Claire
WYOMING: John Mars
Net worth: $38.5 billion
Age: 88
Source of wealth: Mars — whose sister is Jacqueline Mars, Virginia's richest person — is another heir of the Mars family fortune amassed from candy products such as Snickers, Mars Bars, and M&M's, as well as Pedigree pet food and Uncle Ben's rice. He owns a third of the $45 billion business.
Residence: Jackson
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