Smidt is the chairman and chief executive of Harbor Freight Tools, a discount retailer. The Calabasas, California-based company has more than 1,600 stores in the US and annual revenue of $8.2 billion. The closely held company sells power tools and related products, including generators and plumbing supplies.
Smidt is the sole shareholder of Harbor Freight Tools, according to a legal complaint filed by his father against the company and his son in 2010. It has more than 1,600 stores, according to its website.
Harbor Freight has annual revenue of about $8.2 billion and is valued using the enterprise value-to-sales and average enterprise value-to-Ebitda multiples of four publicly traded peers: AutoZone Inc, Advance Auto Parts Inc, Ethan Allen Interiors Inc and Tile Shop Holdings Inc.
The discount retailer has paid out a series of debt financed dividends to shareholders, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from court documents, Moody's opinions and media reports. Smidt used his dividends to diversify his investments, including the purchase of property and art work, according to the 2010 lawsuit. The value of Smidt's cash investments is based on the after-tax proceeds of the dividends net of these purchases and adjusted for taxes and market performance.
Peter Adamson, a representative for Smidt's family office, didn't respond to a request for comment on the billionaire's net worth in January 2026.
Eric Smidt was born in Los Angeles in 1960, the son of Allan and Dorothy Smidt. At age 9, he was placed in an orphanage to allow his father to devote more time to caring for Dorothy, who was afflicted with multiple sclerosis, according to a 2016 profile by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. After living there for four years, he spent the next two with an aunt in Tennessee before returning home.
Eric moved out on his own at 16 and began working each afternoon for his father's telephone sales business. He and his father started Harbor Freight in 1977 in North Hollywood, California, according to the company's website. His work often involved traveling alone to Asia to source tools directly from factories and open stores across the U.S.
Eric became the sole shareholder of Harbor Freight in 1999, after buying his father's stake for $21 million. He was also alleged to have raised a $500 million loan against the company to buy property and artwork, according to a lawsuit his father filed in a Los Angeles court in 2010. Eric denied the allegations, and the case was settled a year later.
The billionaire lives in Los Angeles with his wife Susan.