Jeff Yass

Jeffrey Steven Yass (born July 1958) is an American billionaire businessman. According to Forbes, Yass has a net worth of US$65 billion as of December 2025, up from $27.6 billion in April 2024. The richest man in Pennsylvania, he is also the 25th richest in the world. who gives money to conservative super PACs including Club for Growth Action and the Protect Freedom Political Action Committee.

He is the co-founder and managing director of the Philadelphia-based trading and technology firm Susquehanna International Group (SIG) and a major investor in TikTok. After Yass and US President Trump met in March 2024, Trump went from supporting a ban on TikTok to opposing a ban. In 2002, Yass joined the executive advisory council of the Cato Institute and is a member of the executive advisory council. He donated approximately $100 million during the 2024 US election cycle to Republican groups and campaigns.

Early life Yass was born in 1958 in Queens, New York City, and grew up there in a middle-class Jewish family. He is the son of Gerald and Sybil Yass. He has a sister, Carole. Gerald Yass died on January 6, 2024, aged 94, in Boca Raton, Florida.

Yass attended public schools in Queens, graduating from Bayside High School in 1975. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and Economics from Binghamton University. He pursued graduate studies in Economics at New York University.

Career While at the State University of New York at Binghamton in the 1970s, Yass and five fellow students became friends and in 1987 co-founded Susquehanna International Group (SIG), the largest trader of liquid stocks in the US. In the 1970s and early 1980s, before establishing his trading firm, Yass was a professional gambler, winning sums from poker and horse betting. He and his wife contributed just over $5 million in 2016. In the 2020 election cycle, Yass was one of the ten largest political donors in the United States donating $25.3 million, all to Republican candidates. During the 2022 primary elections, Yass spent at least $18 million, including contributions in support of Republican Bill McSwain, who unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor of Pennsylvania. He donated approximately $100 million during the 2024 US election cycle to Republican groups and campaigns,

In the first half of 2025, Yass donated $16 million to MAGA Inc., a super PAC that supports Donald Trump, which was the highest recorded donation during that period. He donated $10 million to Vivek Ramaswamy’s gubernatorial super PAC in 2025. In 2026, Yass and his wife Janine Yass spent over $89.3 million in political contributions, donating $20,000,000 to Ramaswamy’s gubernatorial super PAC, $16,000,000 to MAGA Inc., and $15,000,000 to Club for Growth Action.

Foreign contributions In March 2021, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Jeff Yass and Arthur Dantchik were behind a large portion of the donations to the Kohelet Policy Forum,

Also according to Haaretz, Yass is a major supporter of Israeli conservative think tanks. In April 2024, The Guardian reported that Jeff Yass donated $16 million to anti-Muslim and pro-Israel groups.

School choice Yass and his wife strongly support school choice, and the couple writing an op-ed in The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2023 advocating for parental school choice in Pennsylvania. In November 2021, he donated $5 million to the School Freedom Fund, a PAC that ran ads for Republican candidates running in the 2022 election cycle nationwide. From 2010 to 2022, Yass contributed $41.7 million to Students First political action committee. Yass co-founded the PAC, which supports the school choice movement. After Yass and Trump met in March 2024 at a Club for Growth event, Trump went from supporting a ban on TikTok to opposing a ban. At the same time Yass's SIG bought a substantial share in Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC), which it had been acquiring since 2021, providing Trump with a massive influx of money at a time when he faced mounting legal expenses.

Wealth and taxes Yass is the richest resident of Pennsylvania since 2022. ProPublica estimated "that if Yass' tax returns had resembled those of his competitors" (specifically, Ken Griffin, John Overdeck, and David Siegel), Yass "would have paid $1 billion more in federal income taxes" during the period 2013 to 2018.

Personal life Yass is married to Janine Coslett. They have lived in Haverford in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, for some years.

Philanthropy In December 2001, following the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, he announced a donation to the charitable fund established by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to assist the victims. He has supported Save the Children, "Spirit of Golf Foundation", People's Emergency Center Families First building, and the Franklin Institute's Franklin Family Funfest Committee.

Jeff and Janine Yass founded the Yass Prize for Sustainable, Transformational, Outstanding, and Permissionless (STOP) education, which was launched during the COVID-19 pandemic. This initiative aims to recognize and support innovative and alternative education models. In 2022, the Yass Prize awarded over $20 million, including a $1 million grand prize to the Arizona Autism Charter Schools for their individualized learning programs.

The Yass prize has also made significant contributions to school choice initiatives including to the first in-person charter school, Yass Prize Finalist, West Virginia Academy in 2023.

In November 2025, Jeff Yass donated $100M to the University of Austin, founded in 2021 by Bari Weiss and others. It was the largest donation the institution received since its founding in 2021. The university's website says it will never charge tuition.