You can now track how Pa.’s richest billionaire uses his power and influence

Jeffrey Yass’ net worth nearly doubled in 2024 and is close to $50 billion, thanks to his investments in TikTok’s parent company. A new website is designed to track his political influence and spending. 

2024 turned out to be a very prosperous year for Pennsylvania’s richest billionaire, Jeffrey Yass.

Yass is a major investor in TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, and saw his net worth nearly double between last April and September. According to Forbes, it grew from $27.6 billion to an astonishing $49.6 billion during that time. 

It is estimated that Yass’ shares in the popular social media platform are worth between $34 billion to $41 billion, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. 

A new website, All Eyes on Yass, recently launched to highlight Yass’ wealth and political influence in Pennsylvania. 

“Jeffrey Yass is the richest man in Pennsylvania, and he’s funded one out of every three of our legislators here in Pennsylvania since 2017 in an effort to push his agenda, which is to privatize our public education system,” Mary Collier, a staffer with Pennsylvania Stands Up, explained in an interview. 

“We have developed this website because he likes to keep a low profile. He likes to peddle his influence under the radar, and so we wanted to bring to light his role in attempting to reshape our democracy. We want to inform working people across PA just how detrimental he is.”

Since 2017, Yass has spent over $75 million through a network of political action committees (PACs) helping Republican candidates, and last year, he spent over $13 million, with the majority of that money supporting Republican Attorney General Dave Sunday’s campaign. 

The new website includes a tracker that highlights Yass’ spending habits and demonstrates how his money is funneled through a network of PACs.

The majority of Yass’ donations go to the Commonwealth Children’s Choice Fund and the Commonwealth Leaders Fund. The groups then use that money to pay for mailers, online advertising, or TV commercials on behalf of Republican candidates. 

“When his political power goes unchecked and when he doesn’t pay his fair share of taxes, it’s working people like us who pay the cost,” Collier said. “It’s underfunded schools and an unhealthy environment and economy fails us.”