Philip Anschutz

Philip Anschutz
Born	28 December 1939 (Forbes)
Nationality	American
Residence	Denver, Colorado (Forbes)
Occupation	Businessman, investor
Known for	Anschutz Corporation; Anschutz Entertainment Group; Qwest Communications; Clarity Media Group
Spouse(s)	Nancy Anschutz
Children	3 (Forbes)
Education	University of Kansas (Forbes)

American businessman; owner of the Anschutz Corporation and Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG); Republican donor and owner of conservative media

Philip Anschutz (born 28 December 1939) is an American businessman based in Denver who, Forbes says, has built fortunes in oil, railways, telecommunications, property and entertainment over five decades.^[1] Through the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) he owns arenas and music festivals including Coachella, and he is majority owner of the Los Angeles Kings ice hockey team.^[1]^[2] Through Clarity Media Group he owns the Washington Examiner and Colorado newspapers.^[2]^[3] On 10 November 2026 the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list ranked Philip Anschutz 140th in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$19.3 billion; Forbes lists the source of wealth as energy, sports, entertainment.^[1]^[4] In the annual World's Billionaires list published in 2026, Forbes had ranked Philip Anschutz 141st, at US$19.4 billion.^[5] OpenSecrets reported in 2022 that he and his wife, Nancy, had given more than US$5 million in state and federal political contributions since at least 1989, mostly to Republicans since 2016.^[2] His foundation's grants to groups opposed to LGBT rights have drawn criticism; he has called claims that he is anti-LGBTQ "fake news".^[6]^[7]

Early life and education

Anschutz grew up in Kansas; Forbes says that at the age of six he sold Kool-Aid on a nearby college campus from a wheeled stand he had built himself. He is a graduate of the University of Kansas.^[1]^[8]

Oil, railways and telecoms

Anschutz began in oil by buying out his father's business. By 1967 he was broke after drilling mostly dry wells. When one well blew out and caught fire, he sold Universal Pictures the right to film the firefighting for US$100,000, enough to pay the firefighter Red Adair.^[8] In 1980 Amoco found a billion-barrel field that extended onto a ranch he owned on the Utah–Wyoming border; he sold it for US$500 million and went on to buy railways, including Southern Pacific in 1988.^[8] In the late 1980s he laid fibre-optic cable along his railways' rights of way, keeping spare capacity for himself, and from this formed Qwest Communications. After the dotcom collapse, Qwest executives including Joe Nacchio were indicted. Forbes reported in 2010 that Anschutz had been investigated but that prosecutors never suggested he was involved in wrongdoing, although he had sold US$1.5 billion of shares before the fall; he held the rest and suffered a paper loss of about US$10 billion.^[8] In 2010 his holding company sold its oil and gas fields in the Marcellus and Bakken shales for about US$3 billion.^[8]

Entertainment, sport and property

AEG grew out of plans for a sports arena. By 2010 it controlled 120 venues worldwide, including Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles and the O2 Arena in London, the former Millennium Dome, in which it invested US$600 million.^[8] Forbes now says AEG owns and operates more than 70 arenas and concert venues.^[1] AEG owns Coachella, Stagecoach and other festivals.^[7]^[2] The Anschutz Film Group has made family films, including The Chronicles of Narnia series.^[8] Anschutz is majority owner of the Los Angeles Kings and has a stake in the LA Galaxy. He also owns the Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs and Sea Island in Georgia, and is planning one of the world's largest wind farms on 320,000 acres in Wyoming.^[1]

Media

Anschutz owns the Washington Examiner, which OpenSecrets describes as a conservative outlet, through his holding company's subsidiaries.^[2] In 2009 he bought The Weekly Standard.^[8] His Clarity Media Group owns The Gazette of Colorado Springs and ColoradoPolitics.com. In 2017 it bought The Colorado Statesman from the homebuilder Larry Mizel, who had co-chaired Donald Trump's Colorado campaign. CJR described this as a further consolidation of Anschutz's media presence in a swing state.^[3]^[9] The editor of The Gazette told CJR that ColoradoPolitics had been his own idea rather than Anschutz's.^[3]

Wealth

Forbes lists his source of wealth as energy, sports and entertainment, and classes the fortune as inherited and growing. It quotes him as saying: "When you see what can be done, the possibilities, you want to be involved in something. You want to own it."^[1] OpenSecrets noted that he was one of only two billionaires to have appeared on every Forbes 400 list since 1982.^[2]

Wealth history

Forbes has included this entry in its annual World's Billionaires list in 26 of the editions from 2001 to 2026 checked for this profile, starting with 2001. The table gives the rank and estimated net worth in each annual list, and, where applicable, the rank and estimate in the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans.^[5]^[1]

Forbes estimates by list year
Year	World's Billionaires rank	Net worth (US$ bn)	Forbes 400 rank	Forbes 400 net worth (US$ bn)
1996	–	–	41	2.2
1997	–	–	18	5.2
1998	–	–	16	6.2
1999	–	–	13	11.0
2001	16	15.3	16	9.6
2002	54	5.1	36	4.3
2003	62	4.9	33	5.0
2004	80	5.2	33	5.2
2005	77	5.8	28	7.2
2006	89	6.4	31	7.8
2007	93	7.9	41	7.6
2008	125	7.4	36	8.0
2009	98	5.0	37	6.0
2010	123	6.0	34	7.0
2011	124	7.5	39	7.0
2012	133	7.0	44	7.6
2013	109	10.0	38	10.3
2014	113	10.4	40	11.1
2015	104	11.8	43	10.9
2016	108	9.7	39	10.8
2017	96	12.5	35	12.6
2018	108	13.0	40	11.3
2019	128	10.9	41	11.5
2020	118	11.0	50	10.1
2021	224	10.1	66	10.8
2022	180	10.9	56	11.0
2023	161	10.9	45	14.8
2024	125	15.3	45	16.9
2025	122	16.9	52	19.4
2026	141	19.4	60	19.3

Philanthropy

The Anschutz Foundation was created in 1984. In 2020 Billboard reported that it had an endowment of US$1.2 billion and had made 705 donations totalling US$58.4 million in fiscal 2017, mostly to non-political charities such as the American Museum of Western Art, the Foundation for a Better Life and the Boy Scouts of America.^[7] In 2010 Anschutz gave 400 works by artists such as Frederic Remington to create the American Museum of Western Art in Denver.^[1] LGBT controversy. In 2016 the campaign group Freedom for All Americans reported that the Anschutz Foundation had given close to US$200,000 between 2010 and 2013 to the Alliance Defending Freedom, the National Christian Foundation and the Family Research Council. Snopes checked the foundation's tax filings and confirmed the grants, and found further grants to two of the groups as late as 2015.^[6] In 2017 Anschutz called reports that he was anti-LGBTQ "fake news" and said: "I unequivocally support the rights of all people without regard to sexual orientation". He said the foundation had stopped funding groups once it learned they supported such causes.^[6] In 2020 Billboard reported, from the foundation's 2017 tax return, grants totalling US$1.02 million to Colorado Christian University and the Sky Ranch camping organisation, both of which had made public statements against LGBTQ people. A foundation spokesperson said that less than 5 per cent of its grants went to conservative or faith-based organisations.^[7]

Political activity

OpenSecrets found that Anschutz and his wife had given more than US$5 million in state and federal contributions since at least 1989, more than US$3.7 million of it after the start of the 2016 cycle and almost all to Republican committees, candidates and conservative groups. This included US$960,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, more than US$632,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee and US$660,000 to the Republican National Committee.^[2] He has personally given US$1 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, and the Anschutz Corporation has given a further US$750,000.^[2] CJR described him as a publicity-shy Republican donor.^[9] Itemised federal records for 2021–2026 under his name and employer are summarised below.^[10]

Across the 47 non-memo records retrieved for the 2022–2026 cycles, the filtered total is US$3,711,200 (a lower bound). The largest recipient committees, as named in the filings, were NRSC (US$571,000), JOHNSON LEADERSHIP FUND (US$509,100), SENATE LEADERSHIP FUND (US$500,000), NRSC VICTORY (US$300,000), MCCARTHY VICTORY FUND (US$300,000).^[10]

Federal contributions (FEC Schedule A, itemised; lower bound)
Cycle	Total (US$, lower bound)	Records	Largest recipient committees (as filed with the FEC)
2022	$1,330,900	19	SENATE LEADERSHIP FUND ($500,000); NRSC ($271,000); MCCARTHY VICTORY FUND ($200,000); CONGRESSIONAL LEADERSHIP FUND ($125,000)
2024	$1,076,600	16	CORNYN VICTORY COMMITTEE ($200,000); GROW THE MAJORITY ($175,000); NRSC VICTORY ($150,000); NRSC ($150,000)
2026	$1,303,700	12	JOHNSON LEADERSHIP FUND ($509,100); ONE TEAM SENATE MAJORITY ($201,700); NRSC VICTORY ($150,000); NRSC ($150,000)

International and political links

This section uses the same ten headings for every profile in this series. Only specific, sourced actions are included; company-level and foundation-level actions are labelled as such. Where nothing was found, the entry reads "No documented involvement found in sources checked."