3 Billionaires From NJ Among Richest Americans: New Forbes List

NEW JERSEY — Billionaire Rocco Commisso is still the wealthiest person in New Jersey, 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 of at least $2.9 billion to be included on the prestigious list, a threshold slightly higher than $2.7 billion a year ago. Forbes said its net worth calculations use stock prices from Sept. 8.

Commisso, 73, the richest person in New Jersey, is worth an estimated $8 billion as of Tuesday – up from last year, but not as high as the $8.4 billion net worth reported in 2021.

The Italian-American businessman is the founder and CEO of cable television company Mediacom, and owns the New York Cosmos and A.C.F. Fiorentina, in Italy. He was ranked No. 114 on the Forbes list nationally.

Here are the other New Jersey billionaires who made the cut, and their net worth:

• John Overdeck, the co-founder of Two Sigma, a New York City-based hedge fund. Overdeck's net worth rose to $7.3 billion, compared to $6.8 billion reported earlier this year. He is 54 years old.
• Peter Kellogg, who sold brokerage house Spear, Leeds & Kellogg to Goldman Sachs for $6.5 billion in cash and stock in 2000 and then turned his attention to reinsurance outfit IAT.. Kellogg's net worth Tuesday was $3.8 billion, up from $3.6 billion earlier this year. He is 81 years old.

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.

As for the New Jersey billionaires: Commisso and Kellogg got a score of 1, and Overdeck got a score of 2 (meaning he has given away between 1 percent and 4.99 percent of his wealth).

Read more about Forbes’ methodology.