This Is The Richest Person In Florida, New Analysis Says

FLORIDA — Stock trader Ken Griffin has bragging rights as the richest person in Florida, 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.

Griffin, founder of one of Wall Street's largest hedge funds, has an estimated net worth of $33 billion as of June 20. Griffin, 54, lives in Miami.

He founded and runs Citadel, a Miami-based hedge fund firm that manages roughly $57 billion in assets, Forbes said. Griffin started the firm in 1990 but first began trading from his Harvard dorm in 1987. Citadel Securities is responsible for one of every five stock trades in the U.S.

During the pandemic, Griffin funded the State Department's rescue of 800 U.S. citizens from Wuhan, China, and donated $45 million to community initiatives in cities like Chicago and Miami.

Griffin has given $1.86 billion to philanthropic causes, including $300 million to Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences in April 2023; the graduate school of arts and sciences will take his name.

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.