Paul Singer

Paul Singer
Born	Template:Birth year and age
Nationality	American
Occupation	Hedge fund manager, investor
Title	Co-CEO, Elliott Investment Management
Known for	Founder and CEO of Elliott Investment Management

Paul Elliott Singer (born 1944) is an American billionaire hedge fund manager, investor, and philanthropist who founded Elliott Investment Management (formerly Elliott Management Corporation), one of the largest and most prominent activist investment firms in the world. Over more than four decades, Singer has built Elliott into a $76 billion fund that has become, according to Bloomberg, "arguably the most famous name in shareholder activism." Singer's investment career has spanned corporate activism, distressed debt investing, and sovereign debt disputes, with notable campaigns involving companies across multiple industries and continents. His firm's pursuit of sovereign debt from countries including Argentina and Peru drew both acclaim for its tenacity and criticism for its approach. In recent years, Singer has been a prominent political donor in the United States, contributing significant sums to Republican candidates and conservative causes. He served as Chairman of the Board of the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, before stepping down in 2025. His firm's acquisition of Citgo Petroleum, the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela's state oil company, through its affiliate Amber Energy, placed Singer at the intersection of American foreign policy and private finance during the mid-2020s.

Early Life

Paul Elliott Singer was born in 1944 in the United States. He grew up in a Jewish family in New Jersey. Singer attended the University of Rochester, where he studied psychology, before pursuing a legal education. Details about his early childhood and formative years prior to his career in finance are not extensively documented in available public sources.

Education

Singer earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Rochester. He subsequently obtained a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School. His legal training would later inform his approach to investing, particularly in the areas of distressed debt and sovereign debt litigation, where an understanding of legal frameworks and creditor rights proved central to his firm's strategies.

Career

Founding of Elliott Management

Singer founded Elliott Management Corporation in 1977, naming the firm after his middle name. The firm began with $1.3 million in capital. From its inception, Elliott focused on a strategy known as distressed debt investing — purchasing the debt obligations of financially troubled entities at steep discounts, then seeking full repayment through negotiation or litigation. This approach, sometimes controversially labeled "vulture investing" by critics, became a hallmark of Singer's investment philosophy.

Over the decades, Elliott grew from a small operation into one of the largest hedge funds in the world. By late 2025, the firm managed approximately $76 billion in assets, a scale that Bloomberg noted presented both opportunities and challenges for the fund's activist approach. The firm operates globally, with offices in New York, London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and other financial centers.

Activist Investing

Singer's firm became one of the foremost practitioners of shareholder activism, a strategy in which an investor acquires a significant stake in a publicly traded company and then pushes for changes intended to increase shareholder value. These changes can include management shakeups, corporate restructuring, asset sales, increased dividends or share buybacks, and strategic mergers or acquisitions.

Elliott's activist campaigns have targeted companies across a wide range of industries, including technology, energy, retail, telecommunications, and financial services. The firm's approach typically involves extensive research, the development of detailed plans for value creation, and, when necessary, public pressure campaigns or proxy fights to implement its proposals.

As Elliott's assets under management grew to $76 billion, Bloomberg observed that the firm faced "a growing challenge: size," noting that the fund was "playing for higher stakes now" and engaging in increasingly large and complex corporate campaigns. The scale of the fund required Elliott to pursue larger targets and higher-value transactions to generate meaningful returns, a dynamic that reshaped its strategy in the mid-2020s.

Singer's 13F filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission provide periodic snapshots of Elliott's public equity holdings. A February 2026 analysis highlighted Singer's strategic moves involving OR Royalties Inc, illustrating the breadth of Elliott's investment activity across sectors and asset classes.

Sovereign Debt Disputes

One of the most prominent and controversial aspects of Singer's career has been Elliott Management's involvement in sovereign debt disputes. The firm's strategy of purchasing distressed sovereign bonds at deep discounts and then aggressively pursuing full repayment, including through litigation, drew international attention and debate.

Elliott's most high-profile sovereign debt campaign involved Argentina. After the country defaulted on its debt in 2001, Elliott purchased Argentine bonds at a fraction of their face value and refused to participate in subsequent debt restructurings that saw other creditors accept significant losses. Instead, the firm pursued full repayment through the courts, eventually winning a landmark ruling from a U.S. federal judge that prohibited Argentina from paying its restructured bondholders unless it also paid Elliott and other holdout creditors. The case dragged on for over a decade and involved legal actions in multiple jurisdictions before Argentina ultimately settled with holdout creditors in 2016.

Singer's firm also pursued debt claims against other sovereign and quasi-sovereign entities, including the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as Peru. These campaigns earned Singer and Elliott both admiration in financial circles for their persistence and legal acumen, and criticism from development advocates and some policymakers who argued that the approach undermined sovereign debt restructuring processes.

Venezuela, Citgo, and Amber Energy

Elliott Management's involvement with Venezuelan debt and the acquisition of Citgo Petroleum became one of Singer's most consequential financial undertakings during the mid-2020s. The situation brought together distressed sovereign debt investing, geopolitics, and U.S. foreign policy in an unusually direct manner.

Venezuela's state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), had used shares in its U.S. subsidiary Citgo as collateral for bond issues. When Venezuela defaulted on its debts, creditors — including Elliott — moved to claim Citgo's assets. A U.S. court-ordered sale of Citgo was initiated to satisfy creditor claims.

Elliott's affiliate, Amber Energy, emerged as the buyer of Citgo at what multiple news outlets described as a below-market price. Fortune reported in January 2026 that "Elliott's Amber Energy is poised to close the sale of Citgo and receive more Venezuelan crude barrels." The timing of the acquisition coincided with a period of heightened U.S. government attention to Venezuela, including moves by the administration of President Donald Trump to pressure Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

NPR reported on the potential benefits Singer could derive from Maduro's removal, noting the financial implications of the geopolitical shift for Elliott's Venezuelan holdings.

The acquisition drew scrutiny from multiple angles. Common Dreams described Singer as a "billionaire Trump megadonor" who "bought Citgo, the US subsidiary of Venezuela's state oil company, at a rock-bottom price," raising questions about the intersection of political donations and policy outcomes that favored the donor's financial interests. Mother Jones similarly reported that "hedge funder Paul Singer, whose firm acquired Citgo at a bargain price, has much to gain from Nicolás Maduro's ouster," connecting Singer's political activity to the potential financial windfall.

The Citgo deal represented a continuation of Elliott's long-standing approach to distressed situations — identifying assets tied to financially troubled entities, acquiring them at discounted valuations, and positioning the firm to benefit from eventual resolution or recovery. In the case of Venezuela, the resolution was entangled with broader questions about U.S. foreign policy, sanctions regimes, and the political dynamics of Latin America.

Fund Performance and Growth

Elliott Management has maintained one of the longest track records in the hedge fund industry, having operated continuously since 1977. The firm's growth from $1.3 million in initial capital to approximately $76 billion in assets under management by 2025 reflects both sustained investment returns and the attraction of outside capital over decades.

The firm's size, while a testament to its track record, also created strategic considerations. As Bloomberg noted in November 2025, Elliott faced "a growing challenge: size," with the fund needing to pursue increasingly large and complex investments to move the needle on returns for such a large pool of capital. This dynamic pushed the firm toward larger activist campaigns, bigger positions in major corporations, and more complex multi-faceted investment strategies including the Citgo acquisition.

Political Activity and Philanthropy

Singer has been a prominent political donor in the United States, primarily supporting Republican candidates and conservative policy organizations. He has been described as a megadonor to the Republican Party and to individual Republican political campaigns, including those of Donald Trump.

Singer served for an extended period as Chairman of the Board of the Manhattan Institute, a New York-based conservative and libertarian think tank that focuses on economic policy, urban affairs, and other public policy issues. In May 2025, the Manhattan Institute announced that Singer was stepping down from the chairmanship after a lengthy tenure. Former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was named as his successor. The announcement characterized Singer's tenure as a significant period for the organization, during which it expanded its influence on public policy discussions.

Singer's political contributions and policy advocacy have attracted attention, particularly when they have intersected with his firm's financial interests. The Citgo acquisition in particular drew commentary from journalists and advocacy organizations who noted the overlap between Singer's donations to Trump and the Trump administration's Venezuela policy, which stood to benefit Elliott's investments.

Beyond conservative causes, Singer has been involved in philanthropic activities across a range of areas. He has supported causes related to LGBTQ rights, a stance that has at times placed him at odds with other elements of the Republican donor class and conservative movement.

Personal Life

Paul Singer resides in New York. He has been a private individual regarding personal matters despite his public prominence as an investor and political figure. Singer is Jewish and has been involved in Jewish communal and philanthropic organizations.

Singer's support for same-sex marriage has been a notable aspect of his public profile, given his broader alignment with conservative political causes. His advocacy on this issue was reportedly influenced by personal family circumstances.

Recognition

Singer has been recognized as one of the most influential figures in the hedge fund industry and in activist investing. Elliott Management's longevity — operating continuously since 1977 — and its growth to $76 billion in assets have made it one of the most prominent firms of its type globally.

Bloomberg described Elliott as "arguably the most famous name in shareholder activism," a characterization that reflects both the firm's track record and the high-profile nature of many of its campaigns. Singer's legal battles over sovereign debt, particularly the prolonged dispute with Argentina, attracted global attention and influenced debates about the structure of sovereign debt markets and the rights of holdout creditors.

Singer's role at the Manhattan Institute, where he served as board chairman before being succeeded by Betsy DeVos in 2025, reflected his influence in conservative policy circles beyond the financial sector.

The firm's Citgo acquisition and broader Venezuelan debt strategy drew significant media coverage in early 2026, with articles in NPR, Fortune, Common Dreams, Mother Jones, and other outlets examining the financial, political, and ethical dimensions of the deal.

Legacy

Paul Singer's career has been shaped by a consistent approach: identifying undervalued or distressed assets, pursuing claims with legal and financial tenacity, and maintaining positions over extended time horizons. This approach, applied across corporate activism, distressed debt, and sovereign debt disputes, has generated substantial returns for Elliott's investors while provoking ongoing debate about the role of activist investors and distressed debt funds in global markets.

Elliott Management's evolution from a small fund to a $76 billion operation reflects broader trends in the hedge fund industry, including the growth of activist investing as a mainstream strategy and the increasing scale and complexity of financial markets. Singer's willingness to engage in prolonged legal battles — sometimes lasting a decade or more — distinguished Elliott from many competitors and helped establish legal precedents in the area of sovereign debt enforcement.

The intersection of Singer's political activity and financial interests, particularly visible in the Citgo acquisition and Venezuelan debt strategy, has contributed to broader public discourse about the relationship between political donations and policy outcomes in the United States. Whether viewed as a savvy investor exercising legal rights or as a figure whose financial power shapes policy to his benefit, Singer's career has left a significant mark on the worlds of finance, politics, and international economics.

His firm's challenges in managing its size while maintaining its activist approach — the tension identified by Bloomberg in late 2025 — will continue to define Elliott's trajectory in the years ahead, and will serve as a case study in the scalability of activist investment strategies.