George Soros ranks in the world's 400 richest people with a $7.2 billion net worth, per Bloomberg.
The famed philanthropist has given away over $32 billion, according to his personal website.
He has purchased a sprawling network of homes in the New York area and spends big on politics.
Conspiracy theorists accuse former hedge-fund manager George Soros of aiding Nazis, conspiring to fill Budapest with refugees, and trying to start a civil war in the United States. While these theories lack support, little is actually known about how the 93-year-old billionaire passes his days.
Soros built his fortune running what was once the world's largest hedge fund — Quantum Fund.
After he passed his hedge fund to his sons in 2011, Soros has largely focused on his personal goal of creating a more open society through giving to both his personal foundation and a variety of progressive politicians, according to his personal website.
Here's how George Soros built his fortune, how he spends it — and why.
Soros was born as Gyorgy Schwartz into a Jewish family in Budapest on August 12, 1930. They later changed their surname to Soros.
Soros and his family stayed in Budapest through the city's Nazi occupation from 1944–1945, using fake IDs to hide their Jewish heritage. "Instead of submitting to our fate, we resisted an evil force that was much stronger than we were — yet we prevailed. Not only did we survive, but we managed to help others,” Soros is quoted as saying on his personal website.
Soros' family fled Hungary for London as the Soviets swept the country in 1947. In London, he worked part-time as a waiter in a nightclub and as a railroad porter.
Soros has been married three times, first to Annaliese Witschak from 1960 to 1983 and later to historian Susan Weber from 1983 to 2005. Soros married his current wife, Tamiko Bolton, in 2013.
The bomb was later detonated by authorities in a secluded area.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Hillary Clinton, George Soros, Barack Obama, Eric Holder, Maxine Waters, Andrew Cuomo and James Clapper.
REUTERS
Prominent Democrats including Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, George Soros, former President Barack Obama, former Attorney General Eric Holder, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and former US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper were also sent bombs. No one was hurt.
Closer to home, conspiracy theorists have accused Soros of attempting to start a civil war in the US and funding the violence at the 2017 "Unite the Right" protest in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Soros is often accused of collaborating with Nazis during the Holocaust. Comedian Roseanne Barr repeated this conspiracy theory on Twitter in 2018 in one of a series of tweets that resulted in the cancellation of her ABC sitcom.
The controversy around Soros isn't limited to conspiracy theories, however.
AP
Soros is sometimes called "the man who broke the Bank of England," after he made $1 billion betting against the British pound as it crashed on "Black Wednesday" in 1992.
The billionaire spends big on causes he believes in, including politics. He spent at least $25 million on voter mobilization efforts to help Clinton and other Democrats during the 2016 elections, one of his spokespeople told the Chicago Tribune.
Soros and Hilary Clinton speak with Dr. Guy Theodore in Haiti in 1998.
Soros also unsuccessfully supported several candidates during the 2018 midterm elections, despite donating $17 million. Several district attorney candidates he supported in California lost to incumbents.
"I had no idea he had political ambitions, but I didn't like his behavior as a businessman," Soros is quoted as saying in a June 2018 Chicago Tribune article.
Soros has not always been liberal, however. He supported Republican candidates until the invasion of Iraq under President George W. Bush in 2003 turned him against the party.
An American soldier runs for cover during a military operation in Tal Afar, Iraq in September 2005.
Soros doesn't just give money to politicians. He is the founder and chair of Open Society Foundations, a non-profit that disperses grants for education, human rights, criminal justice, and journalism projects.
Soros named the foundation after a book by Karl Popper, titled "Open Society and Its Enemies." In it, Popper writes how societies succeed only when they are democratic and protect human rights.
The foundation announced its decision to relocate from Budapest to Berlin in May 2019.
REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo
"The government of Hungary has denigrated and misrepresented our work and repressed civil society for the sake of political gain, using tactics unprecedented in the history of the European Union," Open Society Foundations' then-president Patrick Gaspard said in a statement.
Central European University, a graduate school founded by Soros, also plans to relocate from Budapest to Vienna due to tensions with the Hungarian government.
"It makes it very difficult for me to speak effectively because it can be taken out of context and used against me," Soros said about the conspiracy theories, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Billionaire investor George Soros is awarded the Schumpeter Prize in Vienna
Russian President Vladimir Putin pushed Soros' foundation out of Russia in 2017, where it had funded numerous projects, including an anti-torture program.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Moscow.
"He intervenes in things all over the world," Putin said of Soros in a 2018 television interview in Austria. "But the State Department will tell you that it has nothing to do with that, that this is the personal business of Mr. Soros."
Russian President Putin attends a televised phone-in show in Moscow
Outside of his philanthropic work, Soros has also written 14 books on a variety of topics, including the European Union and the global financial crisis.
At his 80th birthday party, Soros told his 350 guests: "I am a philanthropist. Some maybe think I’m a philanderer. My philosophy is very simple. I like to make a lot of money, so I can give away a lot of money.”
Elon Musk took aim at Soros in May 2023, writing on X that the Jewish billionaire reminded him of the X-Men villain Magneto, and that "Soros hates humanity."
In the summer of 2023, George Soros handed control of his $25 billion philanthropy empire to his son, Alex Soros, making him the chairman of the Open Society Foundations.
