10 Billionaires From GA Among Richest Americans: New Forbes List

GEORGIA — Billionaires Bubba Cathy, Dan Cathy and Trudy Cathy White are the wealthiest people in Georgia, according to The Forbes 400, an annual ranking of America’s super rich released Tuesday.

Overall, the 400 richest billionaires in America are worth $4.5 trillion, tying a record set in 2021. Overall, they are about $500 billion richer than they were a year ago, in large part because of rebounding stock markets and an AI-driven tech boom, Forbes said.

Billionaires had to have a net worth at least $2.9 billion to be included on the prestigious list, up from $2.7 billion a year ago. Forbes said its net worth calculations use stock prices from Sept. 8.

Bubba Cathy, 69, Dan Cathy, 70, and Trudy Cathy White, 67, are worth an estimated $9.7 billion. The trio oversees the Georgia-based Chick-fil-A franchise and ranked No. 76 nationally.

Other Georgia billionaires who made the cut:

• Bernard Marcus, 94, Home Depot, $9.2 billion
• Arthur Blank, 81, Home Depot, $7.9 billion
• Jim Kennedy, 75, Media/automotive, $6.7 billion
• John Brown, 89, medical equipment, $6.2 billion
• Gary Rollins, 79, pest control, $5.6 billion
• Dan Kurzius, 51, email marketing, $4.9 billion
• Ben Chestnut, 49, email marketing, $4.6 billion

Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, owner of the social media platform X, tops the list for a second year with an estimated net worth of $251 billion — $90 billion richer than Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and No. 2 on the list, and $93 billion ahead of Oracle software development company founder Larry Ellison.

Forbes also tracked the charitable giving of every member of The Forbes 400, and scored each person on a scale of 1 (those who have given less than 1 percent of their wealth away so far) to 5 (those who have given at least 20 percent). The richest people in America are, so far, not all that generous. Two-thirds of them have given less than 5 percent of their wealth away so far; only 11 have donated 20 percent or more.

In Georgia, the Cathy family had a philanthropy score of 1 while Marcus had a score of 4, the highest of the listed billionaires. A philanthropy score of 4 means Marcus has given away between 10 percent to 19.99 percent of his wealth.

Blank and Kennedy both had scores of 3, having given away between 5 percent and 9.99 percent of their wealth, while Brown and Rollins garnered a score of 2, which means they donated between 1 percent and 4.99 percent.

Chestnut had a 1 philanthropy score. A score was not available for Kurzius.

Read more about Forbes’ methodology.