4 with Pittsburgh ties land on Forbes list of 400 richest Americans

Four people with significant ties to Pittsburgh made the latest Forbes 400 ranking of wealthiest Americans.

David Tepper tops the local connections with an appearance at No. 33 with an estimated net worth of $18.5 billion.

Tepper, the president and founder of the Appaloosa Management hedge fund, was raised in the Stanton Heights neighborhood of Pittsburgh and graduated from Peabody High School. He received his bachelor’s degree in economics from Pitt and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon. Tepper donated $55 million to Carnegie Mellon in 2003, with the business school renamed after him.

A former minority owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Tepper now owns the Carolina Panthers.

Mark Cuban, who grew up in Mt. Lebanon, came in at No. 227 with a net worth of $4.6 billion.

Cuban, who attended Pitt for a year before transferring to Indiana, made his fortune with the sale of broadcast.com in 1999. He’s the owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, an investor on the “Shark Tank” TV series and the founder of a drug company seeking to lower generic drug prices.

Ron Burkle, the former owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins, came in at No. 351 with an estimated net worth of $3.1 billion. The Penguins were sold in 2021 to Fenway Sports Group for around $900 million, according to reports.

Thomas Tull made the cut at No. 369 with a net worth estimated at $2.9 billion.

Tull, who lives in Pittsburgh, founded Legendary Entertainment, a film production company which sold for $3.5 billion in 2016. He’s also a part owner of the Steelers and was involved in the naming rights change for Acrisure Stadium.

In an explainer of its methodology, Forbes says it bases its calculations on SEC documents, court filings, news reports and interviews.