This Is The Richest Person In PA, New Analysis Says

PENNSYLVANIA — Jeff Yass has bragging rights as the richest person in Pennsylvania, according to a recent ranking from Forbes.

Nearly all states have at least one billionaire, according to The Richest Person In Every State list put together by Forbes. The only ones that don’t are Alaska, Delaware and West Virginia.

Yass, a trading and investments titan with an estimated net worth of $28.5 billion (as of June 12), is 64 and lives in Haverford. His net worth increased from $12 billion in 2021 and 2022, the Forbes report says.

Yass is a cofounder of Susquehanna International Group, which he started in 1987 with a "handful of partners" and is now "a giant in options trading and making markets."

Susquehanna International Group, or SIG, invests in hundreds of private companies globally. Forbes reports that its most valuable holding is ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok.

SIG also recruits and trains traders using poker tournaments to sharpen decision-making skills, Forbes added. Its traders have won three World Series of Poker bracelets.

Yass is 48th on the Forbes list of top billionaires in 2023, and Forbes classifies him as "self-made" and coming from a middle-class or upper-middle-class background.

According to Forbes, Yass has donated less than 1 percent of his wealth to charity - which puts him in the company of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Walmart heirs Jim and Rob Walton.

Nearly a third of the billionaires topped their states for the first time, according to Forbes.

The competition to make the list is the fiercest in four states, where than 60 percent of the 775 billionaires who live in the United States reside: California with 179 billionaires, New York with 130, Florida with 92, and Texas with 73.

Because of ties, 54 people made the list. Their average age is 73, with Walmart heir Lukas Walton, 36, of Illinois, and Maryland-based Annette Lerner, 93, the widow of Washington Nationals owner Ted Lerner, who died in February, bookending the list.

About two-thirds of these billionaires, as well as centimillionaires (people whose net worth is more than $100 million) are self-made, and the rest inherited their fortunes, according to Forbes. More than half made their money in four industries: finance and investments, fashion and retail, food and beverage, and technology.

Patch's national desk contributed to this report.