Fortune Favors the Musk

Billionaire Elon Musk electrifies as wealthiest person in Texas, Forbes says

Elon Musk drives to the top of Forbes' billionaires list.

Eclectic entrepreneur (and supposed recent Austin transplant) Elon Musk has officially knocked Walmart heiress Alice Walton of Fort Worth off her longtime perch as the richest person in Texas.

On April 6, Forbes released its 2021 list of the world’s billionaires. Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, landed at No. 2 globally with a net worth of $151 billion. He sat at No. 31 in last year’s ranking. Forbes lists Musk’s place of residence as Austin, although he hasn’t confirmed where in Texas he settled last year.

Now at No. 2 in Texas is Walton, whose net worth is $61.8 billion. That puts her at No. 17 on the global list.

Walton is the only daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton; as of December 2020, the Walton family still reigned as the richest family in the U.S., with Alice Walton's wealth accounting for a little over one-fourth of the family fortune.

The only other Texan who comes close to Musk and Walton in the Forbes ranking is longtime Austin-area billionaire Michael Dell. The chairman and CEO of Round Rock-based Dell Technologies boasts a net worth of $45.1 billion. That places him at No. 30 on the global list and No. 3 in Texas.

In all, the Forbes list features 64 Texas billionaires collectively worth $460.1 billion. (What pandemic?) Among the state’s metro areas, Dallas-Fort Worth leads with 27 billionaires, followed by Houston (17), Austin (10), and San Antonio (three).

Aside from Musk, Austin billionaires on the list are:

Michael Dell, technology, No. 30, $45.1 billion
Robert F. Smith, private equity, No. 451, $6 billion
Bert “Tito” Beveridge, vodka, No. 622, $4.6 billion
Thai Lee, information technology, No. 956, $3.2 billion
Joe Liemandt, software, No. 1,008, $3 billion
John Paul DeJoria, hair care and tequila, No. 1,174, $2.7 billion
Jim Breyer, venture capital, No. 1,249, $2.5 billion
David Booth, mutual funds, No. 1,750, $1.8 billion
Whitney Wolfe Herd, Bumble dating app, No. 2,263, $1.3 billion

What follows is a breakdown of Texas billionaires in other cities, including their global ranking, source of wealth, and estimated net worth.

San Antonio:

Christopher “Kit” Goldsbury, salsa and private equity, No. 1,833, $1.7 billion
James Leininger, medical products, No. 2,035, $1.5 billion
Red McCombs, real estate/oil/car dealerships/sports/radio, No. 2,035, $1.5 billion

Dallas:

Jerry Jones, Dallas Cowboys owner, No. 264, $8.9 billion
Andy Beal, banking and real estate, No. 311, $7.9 billion
Mark Cuban, online media and Dallas Mavericks owner, No. 655, $4.4 billion
Ray Lee Hunt, oil and real estate, No. 680, $4.2 billion
Margot Birmingham Perot, technology and real estate, No. 705, $4.1 billion
Trevor Rees-Jones, oil and gas, No. 727, $4 billion
Robert Rowling, Omni Hotels and Gold’s Gym, No. 752, $3.9 billion
Kelcy Warren, pipelines, No. 891, $3.4 billion
H. Ross Perot Jr., real estate, No. 1,174, $2.7 billion
Gerald Ford, banking, No. 1,249, $2.5 billion
Ray Davis, pipelines, No. 1,517, $2.1 billion
W. Herbert Hunt, oil, No. 1,580, $2 billion
Todd Wagner, online media, No. 1,664, $1.9 billion
Stephen Winn, real estate services, No. 1,664, $1.9 billion
Kenny Troutt, telecom, No. 2,035, $1.5 billion
Darwin Deason, software, No. 2,141, $1.4 billion
Timothy Headington, oil and gas/investments, No. 2,141, $1.4 billion
A. Jayson Adair, car salvage business, No. 2,674, $1 billion

Houston:

Richard Kinder, pipelines, No. 369, $7 billion
Dannine Avara, pipelines, No. 451, $6 billion
Robert Brockman, software, No. 451, $6 billion
Scott Duncan, pipelines, No. 451, $6 billion
Milane Frantz, pipelines, No. 451, $6 billion
Randa Duncan Williams, pipelines, No. 451, $6 billion
Tilman Fertitta, Houston Rockets owner/food/entertainment, No. 622, $4.6 billion
Dan Friedkin, Toyota dealerships, No. 705, $4.1 billion
Janice McNair, Houston Texans owner and energy, No. 705, $4.1 billion
John Arnold, hedge funds, No. 925, $3.3 billion
Jeffery Hildebrand, oil, No. 1,580, $2 billion
Leslie Alexander, former Houston Rockets owner, No. 1,750, $1.8 billion
Fayez Sarofim, money management, No. 2,035, $1.5 billion
Jim Crane, Houston Astros owner and logistics, No. 2,141, $1.4 billion
Wilbur “Ed” Bosarge Jr., high-speed trading, No. 2,674, $1 billion

Two billionaires in the Houston suburbs also show up on the list:

Leo Koguan of Sugar Land, information technology services, No. 1,444, $2.2 billion
George Bishop of The Woodlands, oil and gas, No. 1,517, $2.1 billion

Aside from Walton, Fort Worth billionaires on the list are:

Robert Bass, oil and investments, No. 550, $5.1 billion
David Bonderman, private equity, No. 705, $4.1 billion
Sid Bass, oil and investments, No. 1,064 $2.9 billion
Donald Horton, homebuilding, No. 1,299, $2.4 billion
Edward Bass, oil and investments, No. 1,444, $2.2 billion
Lee Bass, oil and investments, No. 1,664, $1.9 billion
John Goff, real estate, No. 2,263, $1.3 billion

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Infowins

Satire website The Onion wins auction for Alex Jones' Infowars

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Alex Jones at a trial related to the case in 2021.

The satirical news publication The Onion won the bidding for Alex Jones' Infowars at a bankruptcy auction, backed by families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims whom Jones owes more than $1 billion in defamation judgments for calling the massacre a hoax.

"The dissolution of Alex Jones’ assets and the death of Infowars is the justice we have long awaited and fought for,” Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie was killed in the 2012 shooting in Connecticut, said in a statement Thursday provided by his lawyers.

The Onion acquired the conspiracy theory platform’s website; social media accounts; studio in Austin, Texas; trademarks; and video archive. The sale price was not immediately disclosed. The Onion said its “exclusive launch advertiser” will be the gun violence prevention organization Everytown for Gun Safety.

The Infowars website appeared to be down Thursday morning. Jones was angry and defiant on his live broadcast before announcing that his show was being shut down and signing off. Jones vowed to challenge the sale and auction process in court and said he would resume his broadcasts from a new studio using websites and social media accounts he said were already set up.

“The journey has just begun. Thank you,” Jones concluded.

The Onion, a Chicago-based satirical site that manages to persuade people to believe the absurd, confirmed the sale in a column on its website.

“No price would be too high for such a cornucopia of malleable assets and minds,” said the satirical post. “And yet, in a stroke of good fortune, a formidable special interest group has outwitted the hapless owner of InfoWars (a forgettable man with an already-forgotten name) and forced him to sell it at a steep bargain: less than one trillion dollars.”

The Onion bills itself as “the world’s leading news publication, offering highly acclaimed, universally revered coverage of breaking national, international, and local news events” and says it has 4.3 trillion daily readers. Recent headlines have included, "Trump Boys Have Slap Fight Over Who Gets To Run Foreign Policy Meetings,” “Oklahoma Law Requires Ten Commandments To Be Displayed In Every Womb” and “Man Forgetting Difference Between Meteoroid, Meteorite Struggles To Describe What Just Killed His Dog.”

The publication consulted on the bidding with some of the Sandy Hook families that sued Jones for defamation and emotional distress in lawsuits in Connecticut and Texas, lawyers for the families said.

“Our clients knew that true accountability meant an end to Infowars and an end to Jones’ ability to spread lies, pain and fear at scale,” said Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the families.

Everytown for Gun Safety said it will use the Infowars platforms to raise awareness about gun violence.

Sandy Hook families sued Jones and his company for repeatedly saying on his show that the shooting that killed 20 children and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, was a hoax staged by crisis actors to spur more gun control.

Parents and children of many of the victims testified that they were traumatized by Jones’ conspiracies and threats by his followers.

Before he signed off Thursday, Jones repeatedly told listeners that the bankruptcy trustee and others were in the building and threatening to shut down the show at any moment.

Sealed bids for the private auction were opened Wednesday. Both supporters and detractors of Jones had expressed interest in buying Infowars.

Jones had told listeners that if his supporters won the bidding, he could stay on the Infowars platforms. The bankruptcy trustee named First United American Companies, a company affiliated with one of Jones’ product-selling sites, as the “backup bid,” in case The Onion purchase falls through.

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