⬅ # 74 Eric Schmidt|# 76 Eduardo Saverin ➡

# 75 Autry Stephens 

$25.4B

Real Time Net Worth
as of 5/13/2024
$209 (0.00%)

# 75 Autry Stephens 

$25.4B

Real Time Net Worth
as of 5/13/2024
$209 (0.00%)
OccupationFounder, Endeavor Energy Resources
Source of WealthOil
Age86
ResidenceMidland, Texas
Marital StatusMarried
Children2
EducationMS, University of Texas, Austin
Age-Adjusted Net Worth$4.38B
Autry Stephens
Autry Stephens
United States
Net worth: $25.4B

Self-Made Score 

Wealth History

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Biography

Early Life and Career Beginnings

Autry Stephens, born 1939, founded Endeavor Energy Resources in 1979.
Raised in Midland, Texas, he comes from a background of peanut-and-melon farmers.
Before starting Endeavor, Stephens worked for Humble Oil (now part of Exxon Mobil Corp.), the Army Corps of Engineers, and a Midland bank as an oil-and-gas appraiser.

Endeavor Energy Resources

Founded as a sole proprietor business, Endeavor grew to become a major privately held oil exploration and production firm.
Endeavor is one of the largest private oil producers in the U.S., generating around 311,100 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
The company holds drilling rights on over 500,000 acres in the U.S., primarily in Texas.
Autry Stephens led Endeavor through major expansions, embracing services like trucking, well services, and roustabout construction.

Surviving the 2008 Financial Crisis

Stephens adopted a cash-only strategy for acquiring drilling rights, which proved vital during the 2008 financial crisis.
While many operators faced bankruptcy, Stephens' approach allowed Endeavor to weather the crisis, and he shut down almost all rigs until oil prices rebounded.

Permian Basin Dominance

Autry Stephens, over six decades, accumulated drilling rights to 344,000 acres in the Permian Basin.
His foresight and persistence in buying Permian rights contributed to the company's success, especially with the advent of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.

Endeavor's Crown Jewel Status

Despite overtures from bankers and potential acquirers, Stephens resisted selling or going public, focusing on growing production himself.
Endeavor became renowned as 'the crown jewel of private companies in the Permian Basin,' according to analysts.

Diamondback Energy Acquisition

In 2024, Diamondback Energy Inc. acquired Endeavor Energy Resources for $26 billion in cash and stock.
The sale elevated Autry Stephens to the 64th place on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making him America's wealthiest oil driller with a net worth of $25.9 billion.

Post-Acquisition Involvement

Stephens and his family, as Endeavor's sole equity holders, will own just under 40% of the combined company.
Despite not joining Diamondback's board, Stephens retains a foothold in the industry, and his daughter, Lyndal Greth, serves as vice chair of the Endeavor board.
Ensuring no layoffs and keeping the company in Midland were important considerations for Stephens in the acquisition.

How long would it take you to become as rich as Autry Stephens?

If you started with $10,000 and invested an additional $500 each month at a 44.01% CAGR, it would take you 5 years to reach Autry Stephens's net worth of $25.4B.

Is this realistic? It depends how closely the VIX-TA-Macro Advanced model performs to its history in the future. Since Grizzly Bulls launched on January 1, 2022, it's returned 40.45% compared to 10.08% for the S&P 500 benchmark.

Enter data in all but one field below, then calculate the missing value

Autry Stephens is very wealthy, but what's stopping you from reaching that same level of success? As summarized in our five fundamental rules to wealth building, becoming wealthy in a modern capitalist economy is not complicated. There's actually only three variables:

  1. Your starting capital
  2. Your earnings after expenses
  3. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of your savings

Most people start with zero or very little, so if you weren't born into wealth, don't fret! The majority of the fortunate folks listed in our Grizzly Bulls’ Billionaires Index came from middle class or lower backgrounds. The most distinguishing characteristic of the group is their ability to consistently earn a high CAGR on their savings.

Every billionaire has a unique strategy to achieve high CAGR. For Autry Stephens, Oil is the primary source. Whether you choose to invest your savings in your own businesses or the businesses of others is not as important. The salient piece of the puzzle is ensuring that your hard-earned savings are generating sufficient CAGR to reach your long term goals.

Most people simply invest their money in index funds and call it a day. There's nothing wrong with this approach, but it guarantees relative mediocrity. To achieve greatness, you need to invest your money to earn higher than average returns. In the long run, better investors will always finish ahead of better earners.

Source: Grizzly Bulls reporting

Methodology: Grizzly Bulls' Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the world's billionaires and richest people. Grizzly Bulls strives to provide the most accurate net worth calculations available. We pull data from public equity markets, SEC filings, public real estate records, and other reputable sources.

The index is dynamic and updates daily at the close of U.S. stock market trading based on changes in the markets, economy, and updates to Grizzly Bulls' proprietary algorithm of personal wealth calculation. Stakes in public companies are tracked daily based on the relevant closing prices of the underlying securities. Additionally, stakes in private companies, cash, real estate, and other less easily valued assets are updated periodically through careful analysis of insider transactions, comparable public company sales / EBITDA multiples, etc.

Edited by: Lee Bailey