Net Worth: $25 Billion
Industry: Gas and Oil
Notable Member(s): Dan Duncan
Claim to Fame: Enterprise Products Co.
Dan Duncan is a shining example of how to achieve the American dream. Near the end of his life, he was worth over $8 billion, but he started from the ground up – quite literally. Duncan grew up in Texas with a family who lived below the poverty line. His father worked the oil and gas fields and taught Dan everything he knew. His father passed away, and Duncan soon put all of his knowledge to good use.
Duncan served in the military and used his G.I bill to earn a degree in business from Massey College in his hometown of Houston. Afterward, he founded Enterprise products with only $10,000. Little did he know just how successful he would be in the oil business… Duncan passed on in 2010, leaving his sprawling estate behind to his four kids, Scott, Milane, Randa, and Dannine. In all, the family business is worth over $10 billion and brings in billions more each and every year. All of his children are now billionaires, themselves. As oil prices continue to rise, so do the Duncan family profits.
The Kochs'
Net Worth: $100 Billion
Industry: Finance
Notable Member(s): David Koch
Claim to Fame: Georgia-Pacific
Today, the family business is run by two of Fred Koch’s sons – David and Charles – who you have probably simply heard referred to as, “The Koch Brothers.” The brothers may have been born incredibly wealthy, but their father still wanted to instill the value of hard work into them, so they worked throughout the time they were in school and still do today.
Fred was originally a chemical engineer who created an oil company at 27-years old, which would result in his 4 sons being born as billionaires. The Koch family business brings in an estimated $100 billion every year. Today, they are simply called, “Koch Industries.” As modest of a start as the company may have had, there is nothing modest about them today. The Koch family is the 2nd richest in America, with an estimated net worth of around $100 billion. Koch Industries is based out of Kansas and employs over 100,000 workers across the globe. It has become the second biggest private corporation in the country.
The Coxs
Net Worth: $33 Billion
Industry: Entertainment
Notable Member(s): Anne Cox Chambers, James Cox Kennedy
Claim to Fame: Cox Enterprises
The Cox family fortune began to grow all the way back in the 1800s when James Cox bought the Dayton Evening News with $25,000 that he’d borrowed from his family and friends. Throughout the early 1900s, his success continued on and he bought several more media outlets, which slowly but surely formed into Cox Enterprises.
Today, the company is a conglomerate, based in Atlanta and employing over 50,000 employees around the world. Although they still specialize in media and communications, there are multiple branches of the business, including an automotive group which runs Kelley Blue Book and AutoTrader. In 1974, Cox Enterprises became female owned when James’ son, James Jr. died and his sisters, Barbara and Anne, ended up inheriting the company. Today, Anne’s grandson, Alexander, is in charge. The family business brings in annual revenue of over $20 billion each year.
The Filos
Net Worth: $5 Billion
Industry: Internet
Notable Member(s): David Filo
Claim to Fame: Yahoo!
In 1994, David Filo, along with a college buddy of his from Stanford named Jerry Yang, launched a website that they called “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web to Yahoo!” Luckily, they ended up shortening the name and by the end of that year, the site had already been visited more than a million times.
In 2008, Microsoft tried to buy Yahoo for more than $44 billion, but Filo and Yang weren’t quite ready to sell. However, in 2017, they sold the popular search engine to Verizon for nearly $5 billion. The company had purchased a 15% in the major online shopping network Alibaba before the sale, which happened to be excluded from the buyout. Yahoo ended up producing a large number of offshoot companies, and Filo enjoys a comfortable life with his wife, Angela Buenning, and their daughter. The couple has been known to donate to Tulane University, and they also created a company called Imagine K12, that invests in educational technology firms. David Filo was ranked as the 564th richest man in the world in 2017.
The Kardashian-Jenners
Net Worth: $2 Billion
Industry: Entertainment
Notable Member(s): Kim Kardashian
Claim to Fame: Hourglass Figures and Instagram Popularity
Kylie Jenner was listed as one of the world’s youngest billionaires, raking in over $100 million alone from her beauty line. A majority of the Kardashian family wealth comes from their popular long-running reality show, Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
Of course, the sisters also often sign endorsement deals with various brands, due to the fact they all have an insane number of followers on social media. Word is that Kendall gets paid millions of dollars for a single sponsored post. These days, Kris usually helps to negotiate these deals for the kids and takes a percentage for being the “momager.” Kim is worth an estimated $350 million or more, while Kris is at about $60, and Kourtney, around $35 million. Altogether, the family is looking at a net worth of right around $2 billion, and contrary to what some may believe, the daughters did not just inherit their fortune – they all work in one way or another.