Peggy Cherng Net Worth

Peggy Cherng has an estimated net worth of $7.8 billion, according to Forbes Real-Time Billionaires, Peggy Cherng profile (figures as of October 20, 2026). That is up from $2.5 billion in 2023.

Peggy Cherng is an American businesswoman and computer scientist best known for cofounding Panda Express in 1983. She is the co-chief executive officer of Panda Restaurant Group. Before restaurants, she built a career in engineering after earning a Ph.D. in electrical engineering in the U.S. She worked at 3M and McDonnell Douglas, where she helped design battlefield simulators for the U.S. Navy. Her technical background later shaped how Panda Express grew.

She became rich by helping turn Panda Express into a major fast-food business. Cherng left engineering to help open the first Panda Express in a Glendale, California, shopping mall in 1983. She put in sales and analytics software earlier than many restaurant chains, helping the company grow into a Chinese fast-food chain with some 2,600 locations and estimated sales of $6.7 billion. Forbes put her net worth at $7.8 billion on its real-time tracker on October 20, 2026.

How Peggy Cherng makes money

Most of Cherng’s fortune comes from Panda Express, the chain she cofounded and now helps lead as co-CEO. Panda Express is part of Panda Restaurant Group and has some 2,600 locations, with estimated sales of $6.7 billion. Cherng’s role was not just opening stores. She also built the company’s sales and analytics systems early on, giving the business tighter control over operations and helping it become the leading Asian limited-service chain in America.

Her background in computing shaped the business from the start. For her 1974 doctoral thesis, she created a program that used an algorithm to scan digitized chest X-rays for signs of congenital heart disease. She later brought that problem-solving approach into restaurant operations. Outside Panda Express, the Cherngs invested in a group that bought the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Las Vegas for $214 million in 2018. Panda Restaurant Group is also the sole U.S. franchisee of Uncle Tetsu and runs Raising Cane's in Hawaii and Alaska.

Forbes net worth updates

Forbes has sharply raised its estimate of Cherng’s fortune in recent years. It placed her at $2.5 billion in 2023, then $3.1 billion in 2024 and $3.7 billion in 2025. In 2026, Forbes put her at $7.7 billion on its World's Billionaires List. Those gains track the scale of Panda Express, a private restaurant company with thousands of locations and multibillion-dollar estimated sales.

The current Forbes reading is slightly higher than that 2026 annual list estimate. On October 20, 2026, Forbes showed Cherng at $7.8 billion on its real-time billionaires tracker. Her wealth is tied to fast food and the Food & Beverage industry, with Panda Express at the center. Because the company remains private, the Forbes estimate reflects how valuable that business appears as Panda Restaurant Group keeps expanding its restaurant interests.