Charles Koch and his family are ranked No. 25 on the Forbes 2026 World’s Billionaires list with a net worth of $73.8 billion. He has been chairman and chief executive of Koch Industries since 1967.
Charles de Ganahl Koch was born on November 1, 1935, in Wichita, Kansas, one of four sons of Fred Chase Koch and Clementine Robinson Koch. He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning a bachelor’s degree in general engineering in 1957 and two master’s degrees, in nuclear engineering in 1958 and chemical engineering in 1959.
Net Worth and Rank
- Forbes 2026 list: No. 25, with $73.8 billion, listed as “Charles Koch & family”
- Source of wealth: his 42% stake in Koch Industries, a share that he and his late brother David each held
Building Koch Industries
After college Koch worked for the consulting firm Arthur D. Little. In 1961 he moved back to Wichita to join his father’s business, Rock Island Oil & Refining, now Koch Industries, and became its president in 1967. The brothers inherited the business and expanded it. In 2006 the company had $90 billion in revenue, and Koch Industries is the largest privately held company by revenue in the United States, according to Forbes.
Ideas and Politics
- Cato Institute: he co-founded it in 1977 with Edward H. Crane and Murray Rothbard
- Think tanks: he supports libertarian groups, including the Institute for Humane Studies and the Mercatus Center at George Mason University
- Political giving: he contributes to Republican candidates and libertarian groups, and with his brother has funded think tanks that oppose environmental regulation, according to Wikipedia
- Books: Market Based Management (2006), The Science of Success (2007), Good Profit (2015) and Believe in People (2020)
Why It Matters
Koch Industries is a conglomerate with operations from refining to chemicals and paper, and the Koch network is one of the best-known funders of conservative and libertarian causes in the United States.
Net worth figures change daily with share prices. Rankings here follow the Forbes 2026 World’s Billionaires list, with wealth measured on March 1, 2026.
Image: Charles Koch Arena at Wichita State University in Kansas, named for Charles Koch (file photo; he is not pictured). Photo: Art davis / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
