Kentucky’s Only Billionaire Is Worth $8.7 Billion

There was a time, decades ago, when I couldn't have told you the names of any billionaires off the top of my head. It could be because we didn't use to have that many. Inflation will do that.

America's Billionaires

Let me show you what I mean. I accessed an inflation calculator (they are invaluable) and entered the largest amount it would allow, $10 million, then did a little extra math. One billion dollars in August 2026 had the same buying power as about $322.4 million in August 1985.

Today, on the other hand, billionaires are high-profile. Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg. There are several others whose names you know, but you get where I'm coming from. According to Forbes, there were a record 3,428 billionaires worldwide when it released its annual list in 2026, including 990 Americans. That's a lot of people who aren't household names like the ones I mentioned.

Richest Person in Kentucky

But I doubt that matters to someone like Kentucky's only billionaire, Tamara Gustavson, or any of the other billionaires, for that matter, whose names do not roll off our tongues. The Forbes "Real Time Net Worth" function puts Gustavson's fortune at $8.7 billion, and it's come to her by way of self-storage behemoth Public Storage, of which she is the largest shareholder, owning about 10% of the company. Additionally, Gustavson and her husband Eric own Lexington's Spendthrift Farm, which has been home to 10 Kentucky Derby winners.

Tamara Gustavson Makes the Forbes 400

Gustavson also landed at No. 177 on the 2026 Forbes 400, the magazine's annual ranking of the wealthiest Americans. This year, it took a record net worth of $4.4 billion just to make the list. Forbes says another 590 American billionaires weren't wealthy enough to crack the top 400.

Gustavson is also a board member for American Homes 4 Rent, as well as a director for the William Lawrence & Blanche Hughes Foundation, a 501(c)3 that researches childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

As of this writing, Forbes ranks Tamara Gustavson among the 500 richest people in the world.