Texas’ 38 Richest Billionaires — New Wealth Rankings See a Powerhouse Woman in the Top Spot: Dallas and Houston Tycoons Make Up Nearly 10 Percent of National List
BY Annie Gallay // 10.04.18
Walmart heiress Alice Walton is the richest person in Texas and 17th richest billionaire.
They say everything is bigger in Texas. And judging by The Definitive Ranking of the Wealthiest Americans, the Lone Star State has scored big. Forbes magazine’s new rankings of the 400 richest billionaires in America shows just how much money there is the Lone Star State.
A stunning 38 Texans made the list, just shy of 10 percent of the total.
The Dallas-Fort Worth region leads the way, placing a whopping 18 billionaires on the Forbes 400. Thirteen Houston billionaires made it — with one actually living in The Woodlands. Austin boasts six and one Brownsville billionaire made the cut.
Of course, Walmart heiress Alice Walton reached the tippy top of Texas financial titans. She remained the wealthiest person in Fort Worth and the entire state, and ranks as the 12th richest person in the entire country. According to Forbes, her net worth clocks in at $44.9 billion — a full $6.7 billion more than last year.
There were a few common denominators among the wealthiest of the wealthiest. Many Texans earned their fortune through pipelines and oil. No surprise there. There are the occasional outliers — computers and hair products, anyone? — but energy’s definitely the Lone Star State lifeblood.
Read on for the breakdown of the 38 richest Texans.
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12 (tie). Alice Walton
Net worth: $44.9 billion
City: Fort Worth
Source of wealth: Walmart
Wealth Nugget: She opened the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, where she was born.
17. Michael Dell
Net Worth: $27.6 billion
City: Austin
Source of wealth: Dell computers, self-made
Wealth Nugget: His foundation has committed more than $1.5 billion for charities, with an emphasis on child poverty.
46. Andrew Beal
Net worth: $9.9 billion
City: Dallas
Source of wealth: Banking, real estate
Wealth Nugget: He made money during the Great Recession by buying struggling assets.
75. Jerry Jones
City: Dallas
Net worth: $6.9 billion
Source of wealth: Dallas Cowboys
Wealth Nugget: He’s an avid art collector and owns paintings by Renoir, Matisse, Picasso and Norman Rockwell’s “Coin Toss.”
79 (tie). Rich Kinder
City: Houston
Net worth: $6.6 billion
Source of wealth: Pipelines
Wealth Nugget: In 2015, he donated $25 million to the University of Missouri to enhance U.S. constitution studies.
88 (tie). Dannine Avara
City: Houston
Net worth: $6.2 billion
Source of wealth: Pipelines
Wealth Nugget: Her father, Dan Duncan, was once the richest person in Houston.
88 (tie). Scott Duncan
City: Houston
Net worth: $6.2 billion
Source of wealth: Pipelines
Wealth Nugget: He and this three older siblings inherited a stake in their father Dan Duncan’s pipeline firm, Enterprise.
88 (tie). Milane Frantz
City: Houston
Net worth: $6.2 billion
Source of wealth: Pipelines
Wealth Nugget:: Daughter of the late Dan Duncan, she is a board member of Houston’s Hermann Park Conservancy.
88 (tie). Randa Williams
City: Houston
Net worth: $6.2 billion
Source of wealth: Pipelines
Wealth Nugget: Daughter of the late Dan Duncan, she sits on the board of the University of Texas Health Science Center.
107: Robert Rowlin
City: Dallas
Net worth: $5.8 billion
Source of wealth: Hotels, investments
Wealth Nugget: In 2013, he donated $25 million to the University of Texas McCombs Business School.
127 (tie). Ray Lee Hunt
City: Dallas
Net worth: $5.3 billion
Source of wealth: Oil, real estate
Wealth Nugget: He is the wealthiest of famous wildcatter H.L. Hunt’s 15 children.
127 (tie). Trevor Rees-Jones
City: Dallas
Net worth: $5.3 billion
Source of wealth: Oil and gas
Wealth Nugget: He grossed $7 billion in seven years on seven deals.
134 (tie). Robert Bass
City: Fort Worth
Net worth: $5 billion
Source of wealth: Oil, investments
Wealth Nugget: He and his wife Anne have donated $50 million to Duke and $50 million to Stanford.
136 (tie). Kelcy Warren
City: Dallas
Net worth: $4.9 billion
Source of wealth: Pipelines
Wealth Nugget: He co-founded Energy Transfer in 1995.
153 (tie). Tilman Fertitta
City: Houston
Net worth: $4.5 billion
Source of wealth: Restaurant, entertainment and casino empire, second-year owner of Houston Rockets.
Wealth Nugget: He’s in the process of getting a custom-made Bugatti.
163 (tie). Robert Smith
City: Austin
Net worth: $4.4 billion
Source of wealth: Private equity
Wealth Nugget: The former engineer worked at Goodyear Tire and Kraft Foods before getting his MBA at Columbia.
172 (tie). Ross Perot Sr.
City: Dallas
Net worth: $4.2 billion
Source of wealth: Computer services, real estate
Wealth Nugget: He ran for president in 1992 and 1996.
179 (tie). Bert “Tito” Beveridge
City: Austin
Net worth: $4 billion
Source of wealth: Vodka
Wealth Nugget: He launched Tito’s Vodka 1997 with $90,000 using 19 different credit cards.
179 (tie). Dan Friedkin
City: Houston
Net worth: $4 billion
Source of wealth: Toyota dealerships
Wealth Nugget: His film production studio produced All The Money in The World.
179 (tie). Jeffery Hildebrand
City: Houston
Net worth: $4 billion
Source of wealth: Oil
Wealth Nugget: In 2015, he rewarded every one of his 1,400 employees with a $100,000 bonus for doubling the size of the company in five years.
190 (tie). Mark Cuban
City: Dallas
Net worth: $3.9 billion
Source of wealth: Online media
Wealth Nugget: He offered disco lessons to help pay his way through college.
200 (tie). Robert McNair
City: Houston
Net worth: $3.8 billion
Source of wealth: Energy, Houston Texans
Wealth Nugget: He was one of the first people to pledge $1 million in aid after Hurricane Harvey.
232 (tie). Sid Bass
City: Fort Worth
Net worth: $3.4 billion
Source of wealth: Oil, investments
Wealth Nugget: After the 2015 listeria outbreak, he bailed out Blue Bell with $125-million loan.
239 (tie). John Arnold
City: Houston
Net worth: $3.3 billion
Source of wealth: Hedge funds
Wealth Nugget: When he was just 38, he announced he would no longer manage other people’s money.
239 (tie). David Bonderman
City: Fort Worth
Net worth: $3.3 billion
Source of wealth: Private equity
Wealth Nugget: He founded the Bonderman Travel Fellowship at the University of Washington to sponsor fellows to travel to at least six countries in eight months.
271 (tie). Joseph Liemandt
City: Austin
Net worth: $3 billion
Source of wealth: Software
Wealth Nugget:: He founded Trilogy Software.
280 (tie). Gerald Ford
City: Dallas
Net worth: $2.9 billion
Source of wealth: Banking
Wealth Nugget: He is the majority shareholder of Mechanics Bank in California.
316 (tie). Ray Davis
City: Dallas
Net worth: $2.6 billion
Source of wealth: Pipelines
Wealth Nugget: He stepped down as co-CEO of Energy Transfer in 2007, but he still owns six percent of the company.
316 (tie). John Paul DeJoria
City: Austin
Net worth: $2.6 billion
Source of wealth: Hair care products, tequila
Wealth Nugget: He is the founder of Patron and cofounder of John Paul Mitchell Systems.
328 (tie). William F. Austin
City: Brownsville
Net worth: $2.5 billion
Source of wealth: Hearing aids
Wealth Nugget: He travels to developing countries to distribute hearing aids.
328 (tie). Lee Bass
City: Fort Worth
Net worth: $2.5 billion
Source of wealth: Oil, investments
Wealth Nugget: He raises longhorn cattle in deep South Texas.
328 (tie). George Bishop
City: The Woodlands
Net worth: $2.5 billion
Source of wealth: Oil and gas
Wealth Nugget:: He owns Chub Cay island in the Bahamas.
328 (tie). W. Herbert Hunt
City: Dallas
Net worth: $2.5 billion
Source of wealth: Oil
Wealth Nugget: He’s the son of legendary wildcatter H.L. Hunt.
344 (tie). Edward Bass
City: Fort Worth
Net worth: $2.4 billion
Source of wealth: Oil, investments
Wealth Nugget: This year, he gave $160 million to Yale to refurbish the Peabody Museum.
354 (tie). Thai Lee
City: Austin
Net worth: $2.3 billion
Source of wealth: Information technology, CEO of SHI Technology
Wealth Nugget: She was born in Bangkok, grew up in South Korea and moved to the United States for high school.
354 (tie). Drayton McLane Jr.
City: Houston
Net worth: $2.3 billion
Source of wealth: Walmart, logistics, former owner of Houston Astros
Wealth Nugget: He turned his family’s grocery distribution company McLane Co. into an international firm before selling it to Walmart.
354 (tie). Ross Perot Jr.
City: Dallas
Net worth: $2.3 billion
Source of wealth: Real estate
Wealth Nugget: He is teaming up with architect Norman Foster on a Dallas skyscraper.
383 (tie). Leslie Alexander
City: Houston
Net worth: $2.1 billion
Source of wealth: Real estate, former NBA franchise owner
Wealth Nugget: He first appeared on the Forbes 400 in 2006. He sold the Houston Rockets to Tilman Fertitta for $2.2 billion last year.
