Jeff Yass, co-founder of the trading firm Susquehanna International Group, is ranked No. 28 on the Forbes 2026 World’s Billionaires list with a net worth of $67.4 billion. He is a major investor in TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance.
Jeffrey Steven Yass was born in July 1958 in Queens, New York City, in a middle-class Jewish family. He graduated from Bayside High School in 1975 and earned a degree in mathematics and economics from Binghamton University, then pursued graduate studies in economics at New York University.
Net Worth and Rank
- Forbes 2026 list: No. 28, with $67.4 billion
- Later estimate: Wikipedia cites Forbes at $77.8 billion as of September 2026, up from $27.6 billion in April 2024; he is the richest person in Pennsylvania
From Gambler to Trader
In the 1970s and early 1980s, before starting his trading firm, Yass was a professional gambler, winning money from poker and horse betting. At Binghamton he and five fellow students became friends, and in 1987 they co-founded Susquehanna International Group (SIG), which Wikipedia calls the largest trader of liquid stocks in the United States. Billionaire trader Israel Englander sponsored Yass for a seat on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, where SIG was first based. In 2021 SIG generated almost one-tenth of the market-making trading volume in exchange-traded funds.
TikTok
Yass is an investor in ByteDance. In September 2023 the Wall Street Journal reported that he was a major donor to US politicians who opposed restrictions on TikTok. According to Wikipedia, after Yass met Donald Trump in March 2024, Trump went from supporting a ban on TikTok to opposing one.
Politics and Education
- Libertarian: he is a registered Libertarian and sits on the executive advisory council of the Cato Institute
- Donations: he gave about $100 million to Republican groups and campaigns in the 2024 US election cycle
- School choice: he and his wife Janine have donated tens of millions of dollars to the cause
Why It Matters
SIG is one of the biggest market makers in US options and stocks, and Yass’s stake in ByteDance has made him one of the most politically influential private investors in the TikTok debate.
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: The main office of Susquehanna International Group, the trading firm Jeff Yass co-founded (file photo, 2024; he is not pictured). Photo: OtoPhuploader / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
