What is James Cox Chambers' net worth?
James Cox Chambers is an American actor, dancer, choreographer, and heir who has a net worth of $6 billion. As one of three heirs to Cox Enterprises, the privately held media, automotive, and communications giant founded by his grandfather James M. Cox, he controls a multibillion-dollar stake in the company yet has never sought a formal executive role. Instead, he has focused his time on renewable energy projects, biodynamic farming, film work, and philanthropy. His reputation is shaped far more by his low public profile and his support for education and social justice programs than by corporate boardrooms.
Early Life
James Cox Chambers was born in Atlanta, Georgia. He is the son of Robert W. Chambers and Anne Cox Chambers, who became one of the most influential figures in Cox Enterprises while also serving as United States Ambassador to Belgium. He grew up within a family known for its newspaper holdings, cable systems, and automotive auction businesses, all originally launched by his grandfather. Chambers attended Bard College in New York, where he developed interests in the arts and environmental studies. He graduated in the early 1980s.
Inheritance and Cox Enterprises Stake
In 2015, Anne Cox Chambers transferred her nearly 49% ownership of Cox Enterprises to her three children. The division granted James Cox Chambers roughly 16% of the company, putting him in the same wealth tier as his siblings Margaretta Taylor and Katharine Rayner. Cox Enterprises generates tens of billions in annual revenue through businesses that include Kelley Blue Book, AutoTrader, Cox Communications, and the nationwide Manheim auto auction network. Although he does not hold an operational role at the company, his ownership remains the foundation of his multibillion-dollar fortune.
Environmental, Creative, and Entrepreneurial Work
Chambers has long favored pursuits outside the corporate sphere. He is active in renewable energy entrepreneurship and has developed a biodynamic farm property where he puts regenerative agriculture philosophy into practice. His interest in creative work dates back to his early adulthood. He appeared in the 1984 film "Alphabet City," and he has since participated in small-scale arts and production projects.
These endeavors reflect a broader personal philosophy grounded in ecological stewardship, sustainable food systems, and community development. Chambers has directed resources toward environmental initiatives and has kept most of these efforts private, consistent with his preference for a quiet and largely media-free public life.
Philanthropy and Board Service
Education and youth support programs anchor much of Chambers's philanthropic work. He has served for many years on the Board of Trustees at Bard College and currently acts as its Chair, playing an important role in fundraising, institutional policy, and long-term academic planning. His connection to Bard runs back to his undergraduate years, and he has been one of the most influential trustees in the school's modern history.
Chambers also serves on the board of Communities In Schools, a national nonprofit dedicated to helping students in under-resourced communities stay engaged, supported, and on track to graduate. His involvement aligns with his long-standing interest in improving educational access and addressing systemic challenges that affect low-income families.
Personal Life
Chambers married actress Lauren Hamilton in the early 1980s. Lauren's mother, Margaret Hamilton, is a famous American computer scientist who led the development of the onboard software for NASA's Apollo Guidance Computer for the Apollo program. James and Lauren had one son, Jim "Fergie" Chambers. James and Lauren eventually divorced, and in 2004, he married Nabila Khashoggi. Nabila is the daughter of the late billionaire arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi.
James Cox Chambers divides his time between New York properties and the Hudson Valley, where he continues his farming and environmental projects while maintaining close involvement with his son's advocacy work and broader philanthropic interests.
Fergie Chambers
James and Lauren's son, Jim "Fergie" Chambers, has become a highly visible and polarizing figure in recent years. Raised in Brooklyn and educated at Saint Ann's School, he reportedly first grasped the scale of his family's fortune as a preteen when a classmate showed him a Forbes 400 list and he saw his grandmother, Anne Cox Chambers, ranked among the richest people in America. From that point forward, he gravitated less toward conventional elite paths and more toward punk culture, radical politics, and fringe social circles, even while moving among New York art and media families.
Fergie's adolescence and early adulthood were marked by serious struggles with addiction and mental health, leading to multiple stints in rehab, psychiatric institutions, and brief periods in jail. He attended Bard College, worked on his father's organic farm, spent time living in Russia, and later opened gyms and a café, first around Atlanta and later in western Massachusetts. As his trust distributions increased, he began using his inheritance to fund activist and leftist projects, including Occupy-adjacent organizing, pipeline protests, housing and anti-police activism, and later pro-Palestinian and anti-imperialist causes.
Over time, he has become an outspoken communist and a harsh public critic of his own family and Cox Enterprises, especially after the company helped fund the Atlanta "Cop City" police training center. In 2023, he announced that he had negotiated a buyout of his Cox Enterprises stake, trading his shares for a structured payout that included an initial $250 million lump sum. He has since used that windfall to underwrite organizing, land projects, and highly visible protest actions that have put him at odds with his family and drawn intense media scrutiny.
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