Who are the richest people in North Carolina?

(WGHP) – From every billionaire who made it the Forbes 400 for 2021only three were from North Carolina.

The richest North Carolina native, ranked 90th, is James Goodnight, 78, who is worth $8.8 billion net, according to Forbes.

Goodnight first met John Sall, the man with whom he would build his empire, at North Carolina State University while the two were working on their PhD.

The two founded SAS, an analytics company, in 1976.

The second richest North Carolinian – and the 120th richest American – is Tim Sweeney, 50.

While you may not recognize his name, players out there will surely recognize his company, Epic Games.

Sweeney initially founded the company as Potomac Computer Systems in 1991 before releasing his first video game, ZZT, and founding the company in Epic MegaGames Inc. the following year, according to Polygon.

While the company was founded in Maryland, Epic relocated to Cary in 1999, around the time the name was simplified to Epic Games.

Some of Epic’s most popular titles are Fortnight and Gears of War.

And at this point in the story, you’ve already met the third richest man in North Carolina, Goodnight’s business partner and SAS co-founder, John Sall. Sall, 73, is worth an estimated $4.4 billion.

According to Forbes, the 400 richest Americans increased their wealth by 40 percent last year, totaling $4.5 trillion.

Forbest calculated the net worth of these billionaires using stock prices and exchange rates as of Sept. 3.