Tilman Fertitta

Tilman Fertitta rose to fame on CNBC’s hit series “Billionaire Buyer” back in the mid-2010s, displaying his simplified business strategies, and he rolled that momentum into a 2021 book called “Shut Up And Listen!” 

Fertitta controls a vast real estate portfolio that includes destination resorts, urban hotels, casino properties and high-profile waterfront and downtown assets. In 2024, he paid $30 million for Keen’s Steakhouse in New York City. The same year, he purchased the upscale River Oaks District in Houston for $450 million.

He grew up peeling shrimp at his father’s Galveston restaurant and started out on his own as a partner in the first Landry’s restaurant in Houston in 1980. 

Fertitta’s real estate strategy is vertically integrated: Landry’s often owns the operating businesses as well as the underlying land and buildings. His holdings include the Golden Nugget casino resorts in Las Vegas; Atlantic City, New Jersey; Lake Charles, Louisiana; and Laughlin, Nevada, as well as luxury hotels such as the Post Oak Hotel in Houston, a mixed-use development that also houses high-end retail, office space and event venues. 

He bought the Houston Rockets for $2.2 billion in 2017, and is the sole owner. His name is also on the University of Houston basketball arena, Fertitta Center.

Fertitta is a major donor to Republican candidates, including President Trump and Texas GOP leadership. His sons, Michael and Patrick, are directors at Fertitta Entertainment, the Rockets’ parent company.

President Trump in his second term put Fertitta’s no-nonsense business style to work as U.S. Ambassador to Italy and San Marino.

— Rachel Stone