10 GA Billionaires Among America's Richest People: See New List

Three members of the Cathy family, who are each worth an estimated $13.7 billion, are the richest people in Georgia, according to the Forbes 400 ranking of the wealthiest Americans released Tuesday.

The Cathies built the Chick-fil-A franchise empire and grew their wealth in the fast-food industry, ranking 83rd nationally. The family is comprised of Bubba Cathy, Dan Cathy and Trudy Cathy White.

Overall, Georgia has 10 billionaires on the elite Forbes list. They’re worth a combined $65.8 billion.

America’s super-rich have never been wealthier. The 400 richest people in the country are worth a record $6.6 trillion — $1.2 trillion richer than they were last year, due mainly to surging stock markets and “AI mania," Forbes said.

It took a net worth of $1.7 billion to make the Forbes 400 a decade ago, and those with fortunes of $3.8 billion were “comfortably within the top half of the ranking,” Forbes said, noting that now, “that lofty sum is the minimum required.”

Other Georgians in the ranking include:

• Arthur Blank, co-founder of Home Depot and owner of Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United, worth $11.4 billion, ranked 105th nationally, has a philanthropy score of 3
• Jim Kennedy, media and automotive industry, worth $9.5 billion, ranked 130th nationally, has a philanthropy score of 3
• John Brown, medical equipment industry, worth $8.5 billion, ranked 158th nationally, has a philanthropy score of 2
• Gary Rollins and family, worth $7.4 billion, ranked 199th nationally, pest control industry, have a philanthropy score of 2
• Dan Kurzius, worth $6 billion, email marketing industry, ranked 206th nationally, has a philanthropy score of 1
• Ben Chestnut, worth $5.3 billion, email marketing industry, ranked 291st nationally, has a philanthropy score of 1
• Neal Aronson, worth $4 billion, private equity industry, ranked 377th nationally, philanthropy score not available

Elon Musk remained at the top of the list. He also became the first person on the list to surpass $400 billion. That was $152 billion richer than Larry Ellison, the second-richest American, and a difference that’s more than Warren Buffett’s entire net worth, Forbes said.

The 10 richest people in America are:

1. Elon Musk, 54, $428 billion, Tesla, SpaceX (Texas)
2. Larry Ellison, 81, $276 billion, Oracle (California)
3. Mark Zuckerberg, 41, $253 billion, Facebook (California)
4. Jeff Bezos, 61, $241 billion, Amazon (Florida)
5. Larry Page, 52, $179 billion, Google (California)
6. Sergey Brin, 52, $166 billion, Google (California)
7. Steve Ballmer, 69, $153 billion, Microsoft (Washington)
8. Jensen Huang, 62, $151 billion, semiconductors (California)
9. Warren Buffett, 95, $150 billion, Berkshire Hathaway (Nebraska)
10. Michel Dell, 60, $129 billion, Dell Technologies (Texas)

This year’s ranking includes 14 newcomers, including four who are worth $10 billion or more.

President Donald Trump ranks 201st on the list with a net worth of $7.3 billion. Within the real estate industry, Trump ranks eighth in the sector, led by Donald Bren of California, with a net worth of $19.2 billion, and Stephen Ross of Florida, who is worth about $17 billion.