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(WGHP) — Out of every billionaire that made it onto the Forbes 400 for 2021, only three were from North Carolina.

NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 08: Businessman James Howard Goodnight attends the Cocktails To Celebrate The Fortune 100 Best Companies To Work For on March 8, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Brad Barket/Getty Images for Time Inc.)

Coming in at rank 90, the richest North Carolinian is James Goodnight, 78, worth a net $8.8 billion, according to Forbes. Goodnight first met John Sall, the man with whom he’d build his empire, at North Carolina State University while the two were working on their PhDs. The two went on to form SAS, an analytics firm, in 1976.

WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 12: Tim Sweeney is awarded during the BAFTA Presents Special Award to Epic Games at The London on June 12, 2019 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Rachel Luna/Getty Images)

The second richest North Carolinian—and 120th richest American—is Tim Sweeney, 50. While you may not recognize his name, gamers out there are sure to recognize his company, Epic Games. Sweeney initially founded the company as Potomac Computer Systems way back in 1991 before releasing his first video game ZZT and transforming the company into Epic MegaGames Inc. the following year, according to Polygon. While the company was founded in Maryland, Epic moved to Cary, North Carolina, in 1999 at about the time when the name was simplified to Epic Games. Some of Epic’s most popular titles includes Fortnite and Gears of War.

Headshot of John Sall (Daniel Valente, CC BY-SA 3.0)

And at this point of 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 wealthiest Americans grew their wealth by 40% throughout the last year reaching a collective $4.5 trillion.

Forbes calculated the net worth of these billionaires using stock prices and exchange rates from September 3, 2021.