George Soros

George Soros
Soros in 2017
George Soros
Born	György Schwartz 12 8, 1930
Birthplace	Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary
Nationality	Hungarian, American
Occupation	Investor, philanthropist, author
Known for	Soros Fund Management, Open Society Foundations, 1992 Black Wednesday short sale
Education	London School of Economics (BSc, MSc)
Spouse(s)	Annaliese Witschak (m. 1960; div. 1983) Susan Weber (m. 1983; div. 2005) Tamiko Bolton (m. 2013)
Children	5
Awards	Presidential Medal of Freedom (2025), European Civil Rights Prize of the Sinti and Roma (2025)
Website	[[opensocietyfoundations.org opensocietyfoundations.org] Official site]

George Soros (born György Schwartz; August 12, 1930) is a Hungarian-American investor, philanthropist, and author who founded Soros Fund Management, one of the most profitable hedge fund firms in financial history. Born in Budapest to a non-observant Jewish family, Soros survived the Nazi occupation of Hungary during World War II before emigrating to the United Kingdom in 1947, where he studied philosophy at the London School of Economics. After beginning his career in merchant banking in London and New York, he established his first hedge fund in 1969 and went on to build a fortune through global macro investing strategies. He gained international prominence in 1992 when he short-sold approximately US$10 billion worth of British pounds sterling during the Black Wednesday currency crisis, earning a profit of roughly $1 billion and the sobriquet "The Man Who Broke the Bank of England." Beyond finance, Soros has become one of the world's most prolific philanthropists. He has donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundations, a network of organizations he created to promote democracy, human rights, and civil society initiatives across the globe. His philanthropic and political activities have made him a subject of significant public attention and controversy, particularly from nationalist and far-right movements in both Europe and the United States.

Early Life

George Soros was born György Schwartz on August 12, 1930, in Budapest, in the Kingdom of Hungary, to Tivadar and Erzsébet Schwartz, a non-observant Jewish family. His father, Tivadar Soros, was a lawyer and a survivor of Russian captivity during World War I. Tivadar had changed the family surname from Schwartz to Soros, a Hungarian name that also functions as a future-tense verb meaning "will soar" in Esperanto, a language Tivadar spoke fluently.

The young Soros's formative years were shaped by the catastrophic events of World War II. In 1944, when Nazi Germany occupied Hungary, the 13-year-old Soros and his family faced the threat of deportation. Tivadar, drawing on his experience of surviving perilous circumstances, obtained false identity papers for the family and arranged for each member to assume a non-Jewish identity and find separate hiding places. Soros survived the occupation by posing as the Christian godson of a Hungarian government official. The experience of living under both Nazi and, subsequently, Soviet occupation left a deep imprint on Soros's worldview, particularly his later commitment to what he termed "open societies"—a concept he would encounter in his philosophical studies and that would become the organizing principle of his philanthropic work.

Soros had an older brother, Paul Soros, who also survived the war and later became an engineer and philanthropist in the United States.

In 1947, at the age of 17, Soros left Hungary for the United Kingdom. He arrived in London with limited resources and supported himself through a variety of jobs, including working as a railway porter and a waiter, while pursuing his education.

Education

Soros enrolled at the London School of Economics (LSE), one of the United Kingdom's leading institutions for the social sciences. He was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in philosophy in 1951, and subsequently completed a Master of Science degree, also in philosophy, in 1954.

While at the LSE, Soros studied under the philosopher Karl Popper, whose seminal work The Open Society and Its Enemies had a profound influence on Soros's intellectual development. Popper's concept of the "open society"—a society characterized by democratic governance, freedom of expression, and respect for individual rights, as opposed to totalitarian and authoritarian regimes—became central to Soros's later philanthropic philosophy. Soros has frequently cited Popper as the most important intellectual influence on his thinking, and his study of epistemology and the philosophy of science at the LSE would later inform his development of the theory of reflexivity, which he applied to financial markets.

Career

Early Career in Finance

After completing his studies at the London School of Economics, Soros began his career working in merchant banks in the United Kingdom. He subsequently moved to the United States, where he continued to work in the financial sector, taking positions at various American merchant banks and brokerage firms in New York City.

During this early period, Soros developed his understanding of global financial markets and honed the analytical approach that would later distinguish his investing style. His background in philosophy, and particularly his engagement with Popper's ideas about fallibility and the limits of knowledge, informed his evolving perspective on how market participants' perceptions and biases affect market prices—a framework he would formalize as the theory of reflexivity.

Soros Fund Management and the Quantum Fund

In 1969, Soros established his first hedge fund, called Double Eagle, with capital he had accumulated during his years in the financial industry. The profits generated from Double Eagle provided the seed money for the creation of Soros Fund Management in 1970, his second and ultimately more significant fund management vehicle. Double Eagle was subsequently renamed the Quantum Fund and became the principal fund that Soros advised and managed.

At its founding, the Quantum Fund had approximately $12 million in assets under management. Under Soros's stewardship, the fund achieved extraordinary returns over several decades, compounding at an annualized rate that far exceeded market averages. By 2011, the Quantum Fund had grown to approximately $25 billion in assets under management, representing the majority of Soros's overall net worth at that time.

The Quantum Fund became one of the most successful hedge funds in history, and Soros's management of the fund established him as one of the foremost practitioners of global macro investing—a strategy that involves taking large positions in currencies, interest rates, commodities, and equity markets based on macroeconomic analysis and geopolitical assessments.

Black Wednesday and "The Man Who Broke the Bank of England"

Soros's most famous trade occurred during the 1992 Black Wednesday currency crisis in the United Kingdom. On September 16, 1992, the British government was forced to withdraw the pound sterling from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) after being unable to keep the pound above its agreed lower limit. Soros had anticipated this outcome and positioned his fund accordingly.

Soros short-sold approximately US$10 billion worth of pounds sterling, betting that the British currency was overvalued within the ERM and that the Bank of England would ultimately be unable to defend the peg. When the pound collapsed and the UK withdrew from the ERM, Soros's position yielded a profit estimated at approximately $1 billion. The trade earned him the lasting epithet "The Man Who Broke the Bank of England," a phrase that became synonymous with Soros in financial circles and popular media worldwide.

The Black Wednesday trade exemplified Soros's approach to investing: a willingness to take large, concentrated positions based on macroeconomic analysis and a conviction that market imbalances, when they become severe enough, will inevitably correct. The trade also demonstrated the enormous influence that large institutional investors and hedge funds could exert on global currency markets, prompting broader discussions about the regulation of speculative capital flows.

Theory of Reflexivity

Drawing on his philosophical training at the London School of Economics, Soros developed the general theory of reflexivity for capital markets. The theory posits that market prices are not simply passive reflections of underlying fundamentals but are themselves influenced by the perceptions, biases, and actions of market participants. In Soros's framework, there is a two-way feedback loop between market participants' thinking and the situations in which they participate: participants' views influence events, and events in turn influence participants' views.

Soros applied the theory of reflexivity to provide insights into asset bubbles, the relationship between fundamental value and market value of securities, and value discrepancies that could be exploited through strategies such as shorting and swapping stocks. He argued that the traditional economic assumption of market equilibrium was flawed because it failed to account for the self-reinforcing dynamics that can drive prices far from fundamental values, creating boom-and-bust cycles.

Soros articulated these ideas in several books, including The Alchemy of Finance (1987), in which he laid out his investment philosophy and the theoretical framework underlying his trading approach. The theory of reflexivity has been discussed and debated within both academic economics and the investment community.

Later Investment Activities

Soros continued to be active in financial markets through Soros Fund Management in the decades following Black Wednesday. In 2016, The Wall Street Journal reported that Soros had returned to active trading, taking bearish positions in global markets.

In the fourth quarter of 2025, Soros Fund Management made significant changes to its U.S. stock portfolio, increasing its positions in artificial intelligence-related semiconductor stocks. The fund purchased approximately $137 million in AI chip stocks, including expanded holdings in companies such as TSMC and Nvidia, while trimming its position in Alphabet. The fund also opened a new position in Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange.

Philanthropy

Open Society Foundations

Soros is the founder and chairman of the Open Society Foundations (OSF), a network of philanthropic organizations active in more than 120 countries. Named after Karl Popper's concept of the open society, the OSF supports initiatives related to democracy, human rights, government transparency, civil liberties, education, and public health.

Soros began his philanthropic activities in 1979, when he started providing scholarships to Black students in South Africa during the apartheid era. His giving expanded significantly in the 1980s, particularly in Eastern Europe, where he funded programs aimed at supporting civil society and promoting democratic governance in countries under communist rule. His influence and financial support played a role in the transitions from communism in several Eastern European countries in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Between 1979 and 2011, Soros donated more than $11 billion to various philanthropic causes. By 2017, his cumulative donations to initiatives aimed at reducing poverty, increasing transparency, and supporting scholarships and universities around the world had reached approximately $12 billion. As of 2025, Soros has donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundations, of which $15 billion has already been distributed, representing approximately 64 percent of his original fortune. In 2020, Forbes described Soros as the "most generous giver" in terms of the percentage of net worth donated.

Central European University

One of Soros's most significant educational philanthropic projects was the founding and endowment of Central European University (CEU), which was established in 1991 in Budapest, Hungary. The university was created as a graduate institution focused on the social sciences, humanities, and public policy, with a mission to promote the values of open society and critical thinking in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe. Soros provided one of Europe's largest higher education endowments to the institution.

Political Activities

Soros has been a significant donor to progressive and liberal political causes in the United States and elsewhere. His political donations and the activities of organizations funded through the Open Society Foundations have generated substantial public debate and political controversy.

In 2025, the office of the Attorney General of Texas announced an investigation into the Texas Majority PAC, described as a political action committee that had received funding connected to Soros, alleging unlawful funding of Democratic legislators. Also in 2025, The New York Times reported that a U.S. Department of Justice official directed prosecutors to investigate the Open Society Foundations, a directive the newspaper characterized as a departure from decades of past practice intended to shield law enforcement from political influence.

Personal Life

Soros has been married three times. His first marriage was to Annaliese Witschak in 1960; the couple divorced in 1983. He married Susan Weber, a historian, in 1983; they divorced in 2005. Soros married Tamiko Bolton in 2013. He has five children, including Robert, Jonathan, and Alexander Soros. His son Alexander Soros has taken on an increasingly prominent role in the management of the Open Society Foundations and Soros family philanthropic activities.

Soros's older brother, Paul Soros (1926–2013), was a mechanical engineer and philanthropist who established the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, a graduate school fellowship program for immigrants and children of immigrants in the United States.

Soros holds both Hungarian and American citizenship.

Recognition

Awards and Honors

In 2025, Soros was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States.

Also in 2025, Soros received the European Civil Rights Prize of the Sinti and Roma, awarded in recognition of his contributions to civil rights and his support for marginalized communities across Europe.

Soros has been the subject of extensive media coverage throughout his career. He has been profiled in outlets including Bloomberg Businessweek, which in 1993 published a feature titled "The Man Who Moves Markets," and has appeared consistently on the Forbes list of the world's wealthiest individuals.

Conspiracy Theories and Controversies

Soros's extensive funding of political and social causes has made him a frequent target of criticism, particularly from nationalist and far-right political movements in both Europe and the United States. The BBC has described Soros as a "bugaboo of European nationalists." Numerous theories have characterized Soros as a figure exercising hidden influence over global events. Critics and scholars, including the BBC, have noted that many of these characterizations carry antisemitic overtones, given that Soros is a Holocaust survivor and that the tropes employed echo historical antisemitic conspiracy narratives about Jewish control of financial and political systems.

In 2018, The New York Times reported that conspiracy theories about Soros had entered the mainstream of the Republican Party in the United States. In Hungary, the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán conducted a sustained public campaign against Soros, framing him as a threat to Hungarian sovereignty due to his support for refugee resettlement and civil society organizations. These campaigns led to legislation widely referred to as the "Stop Soros" laws.

Legacy

George Soros's legacy spans the domains of finance, philanthropy, and political philosophy. In financial markets, his career as a hedge fund manager—spanning more than four decades—established practices and strategies in global macro investing that influenced subsequent generations of fund managers. The Quantum Fund, under his guidance, became one of the most profitable investment vehicles of the twentieth century, and his 1992 trade against the British pound remains one of the most referenced events in the history of currency markets.

His theory of reflexivity introduced a philosophical dimension to the analysis of financial markets, challenging the efficient-market hypothesis and the assumptions underlying much of mainstream financial economics. While the theory has been debated in academic circles, it has found a receptive audience among practitioners of macro investing and has contributed to broader discussions about market instability and the formation of asset bubbles.

As a philanthropist, Soros's contributions through the Open Society Foundations have had measurable effects on education, public health, and civil society in dozens of countries. His role in supporting the democratic transitions in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s and his founding of Central European University represent enduring contributions to the intellectual and institutional infrastructure of post-communist societies.

At the same time, Soros's political activities have made him one of the most polarizing figures in contemporary public life. His funding of progressive causes has drawn sustained opposition from conservative and nationalist movements worldwide, and his name has become a touchstone in debates about the role of wealthy individuals in democratic politics. The antisemitic dimensions of many attacks directed at Soros have been documented by journalists and scholars and remain a subject of ongoing public concern.

As of the mid-2020s, Soros Fund Management remained active in global markets, making significant investments in emerging sectors such as artificial intelligence. Soros's philanthropic network continued to operate across more than 120 countries, and the transition of leadership within the Soros family to the next generation suggested that the Open Society Foundations would continue to be a major force in global philanthropy for years to come.