Jeff Yass

Yass was born in 1958 to two certified public accountants in Queens, New York. He graduated from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1979 and was already drawn to trading in college.⁠[1]

He earned a B.A. in mathematics and economics at Binghamton and pursued graduate studies in economics at New York University.⁠[2]

After college Yass played poker professionally in Las Vegas for about a year and a half before turning to options trading in Philadelphia. In 1981 he began trading on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, backed by billionaire Israel Englander.⁠[1][3]

In 1987 Yass and college friends founded Susquehanna International Group; his co-founders included Arthur Dantchik and Joel Greenberg. The firm grew into a major market maker in stock options and other securities.⁠[1]

Yass is a managing director of SIG responsible for the firm’s overall risk management. SIG is a leader in options trading and market making with more than 3,000 employees worldwide; it recruits and trains traders partly through poker tournaments, and its traders have won three World Series of Poker bracelets.⁠[2][3]

In 2005 Yass established SIG China, a venture capital firm investing in China’s technology industry. SIG China invested in ByteDance in 2012; as of March 2024 it owned about 15% of the company, and Susquehanna co-founder Arthur Dantchik sat on ByteDance’s board.⁠[4]

In March 2024 the Bloomberg Billionaires Index valued Yass’s stake in ByteDance at $15 billion, the largest single asset in his fortune.⁠[4]

On June 21, 2022, ProPublicaProPublicaProPublica is an independent, nonprofit investigative newsroom based in New York, announced in October 2007 and operating from 2008, whose stated mission is to expose abuses of power and betrayals of the public trust; it had won nine Pulitzer Prizes by 2026.Open the full entry published an investigation based on Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data estimating that Yass had saved at least $1 billion in taxes over six years and had paid an average federal income tax rate of about 19% from 2013 to 2018. The article said that a Susquehanna partnership, Susquehanna Fundamental Investments, generated large long-term capital gains alongside large short-term losses, so that much of the income was taxed at the lower long-term rate; in 2015, for example, it showed $774 million in long-term gains and $787 million in short-term losses.⁠[1]

The article also said that in 2010 the firm made offsetting trades in Swiss stocks through Credit Suisse and Morgan StanleyMorgan StanleyMorgan Stanley is an American global financial services firm that grew from an investment banking partnership into a publicly traded financial group spanning investment banking, securities trading, wealth management, and investment management.Open the full entry; the IRS said the trades violated rules against betting for and against the same stocks and demanded back taxes, and Yass and two partners sued in U.S. Tax Court in 2020, a case that was pending when the article was published. In court filings Susquehanna has maintained that it complied with the law, arguing that the 2010 deal was meant to be profitable while acknowledging that it was shaped with “tax efficiency” in mind.⁠[1]

Yass declined an interview through a spokesperson. After publication a Susquehanna spokesman said in a statement to The Philadelphia Inquirer that the story was “derived from stolen tax records” and contained “numerous misstatements,” saying it understated tax rates by omitting foreign taxes and charitable contributions.⁠[1]

Yass gave $32 million to the Club for Growth and was the sole funder of the School Freedom Fund, a political action committee promoting school choice, with $15 million (as of June 2022). In the 2022 midterms he gave $56.2 million, making him the fourth-largest donor; as of March 2024 he had given $46.4 million in the 2024 cycle, the most of any donor, mostly focused on school choice.⁠[1][4]

In a January 2021 email Yass wrote, “I don’t think the election was stolen.”⁠[1]

Yass serves on the board of directors of the Cato Institute.⁠[2]

As of November 1, 2026, ForbesForbesForbes is an American business media brand that began with Forbes magazine, founded by B.C. Forbes in 1917. It is known for rankings such as the Forbes 400, the World’s Billionaires list and 30 Under 30, and operates Forbes.com, ForbesLive events and licensed editions in 81 countries. Since 2014 a majority stake has been held by the Hong Kong investment group Integrated Whale Media; a 2021 plan to list on the New York Stock Exchange through a special purpose acquisition company was terminated in 2022. It is headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey.Open the full entry estimated Yass’s net worth at $77.8 billion, with trading and investments as the source of his self-made wealth; Forbes also notes that SIG has invested in hundreds of private companies worldwide, its most valuable holding being ByteDance.⁠[3]

In 2022 ProPublica estimated that as of 2018 Yass owned about 75% of Susquehanna (Dantchik about 19% and Greenberg about 3%) and put his true wealth at no less than $30 billion.⁠[1]