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
Known for	Quantum Fund, Open Society Foundations, Black Wednesday currency trade
Education	London School of Economics (BSc, MSc)
Spouse(s)	Template:Plainlist
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 and philanthropist whose career across more than six decades has made him one of the most prominent figures in global finance and international philanthropy. Born in Budapest to a non-observant Jewish family, Soros survived the Nazi occupation of Hungary during World War II, an experience that shaped his worldview and later philanthropic commitments. After emigrating to the United Kingdom in 1947, he studied philosophy at the London School of Economics before embarking on a career in finance that would take him from London merchant banks to the pinnacle of the hedge fund industry in New York. He is known internationally as "The Man Who Broke the Bank of England" for his short sale of approximately US$10 billion worth of pounds sterling during the 1992 Black Wednesday UK currency crisis, a trade that earned him a profit of roughly $1 billion. Through the Open Society Foundations, Soros has donated more than $32 billion to philanthropic causes, making him, according to Forbes, the "most generous giver" in terms of percentage of net worth. His philanthropic activities have focused on promoting civil society, transparency, education, and poverty reduction around the world, while also making him a frequent target of political controversy and conspiracy theories.

Early Life

George Soros was born György Schwartz on August 12, 1930, in Budapest, in the Kingdom of Hungary, to a non-observant Jewish family. His father, Tivadar Soros, was an attorney and a survivor of Russian captivity during World War I. Tivadar, who was an Esperanto speaker and author, changed the family surname from Schwartz to Soros — a word that in Esperanto means "will soar." His brother, Paul Soros, would later become an engineer and philanthropist in the United States.

The Nazi occupation of Hungary in 1944 placed the Soros family in immediate mortal danger. Tivadar Soros, drawing upon his survival instincts honed during World War I, arranged for the family to assume false identities and secure forged documents that concealed their Jewish heritage. The young George survived the occupation through these measures, an experience that profoundly influenced his later thinking about open societies, authoritarianism, and the fragility of democratic institutions. The trauma of living under first Nazi and then Soviet totalitarian regimes became a formative element in Soros's intellectual development and his eventual dedication to supporting open societies around the world.

In 1947, at the age of 17, Soros left Hungary and emigrated to the United Kingdom. Post-war Budapest, falling increasingly under Soviet domination, offered limited prospects, and Soros sought educational and economic opportunities in the West. His departure from Hungary marked the beginning of a new chapter that would take him from the circumstances of a wartime refugee to the world of international finance and global philanthropy.

Education

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

During his time at the London School of Economics, Soros was influenced by the philosopher Karl Popper, whose work The Open Society and Its Enemies articulated a defense of liberal democracy against totalitarianism. Popper's concept of the "open society" — a society characterized by a reliance on critical thinking, tolerance, and the rule of law — left a lasting impression on Soros and became the intellectual foundation for much of his later philanthropic work. The name of his principal philanthropic organization, the Open Society Foundations, is a direct reference to Popper's philosophy.

Based on his philosophical studies, Soros later formulated what he called the "general theory of reflexivity" for capital markets. This theory posits that market participants' biased perceptions can influence the fundamentals that those perceptions are supposed to reflect, creating feedback loops that lead to asset bubbles and market distortions. Soros applied this framework throughout his investment career as a tool for identifying value discrepancies and making trading decisions, including those involving shorting and swapping stocks.

Career

Early Career in Finance

After completing his studies at the London School of Economics, Soros began his professional career working in merchant banks in the United Kingdom. He subsequently moved to the United States, where he continued working in finance at American merchant banks and brokerage firms. During this period, Soros developed his understanding of international financial markets and honed the analytical skills that would define his later career as a hedge fund manager.

Founding of Hedge Funds

In 1969, Soros established his first hedge fund, Double Eagle. The profits generated by Double Eagle provided the seed capital for Soros Fund Management, his second and more significant fund, which he founded in 1970. Double Eagle was subsequently renamed the Quantum Fund and became the principal investment vehicle that Soros managed and advised. At its founding, the Quantum Fund had approximately $12 million in assets under management. Over the following decades, the fund grew substantially; as of 2011, it held approximately $25 billion in assets, representing the majority of Soros's overall net worth.

The Quantum Fund became one of the most successful hedge funds in history, generating average annual returns that placed it among the top-performing funds of its era. Soros's investment strategy drew upon his theory of reflexivity, which he had developed from his philosophical studies at LSE. He applied this framework to identify mispriced assets, anticipate market movements driven by feedback loops between perception and reality, and execute large-scale trades in currency, equity, and commodity markets.

Black Wednesday and the British Pound

Soros achieved international prominence — and earned the epithet "The Man Who Broke the Bank of England" — through his actions during the Black Wednesday currency crisis of September 16, 1992. In the lead-up to the crisis, Soros and his fund took a massive short position against the British pound sterling, betting that the currency was overvalued within the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) and that the British government would be unable to maintain the pound's value at the mandated level.

Soros's short sale totaled approximately US$10 billion worth of pounds sterling. When the British government was forced to withdraw the pound from the ERM and allow it to devalue, Soros realized a profit of approximately $1 billion on the trade. The event made Soros one of the most famous — and, in the United Kingdom, one of the most controversial — figures in global finance. The Black Wednesday trade demonstrated the capacity of large hedge funds to exert significant pressure on national currencies and central banks, and it prompted extensive debate about the regulation of international currency speculation.

Continued Investment Activities

Soros continued to manage and advise the Quantum Fund and related investment vehicles throughout the 1990s and 2000s. In 2011, Soros Fund Management returned outside investors' money and converted to a family office, continuing to manage Soros's personal and family wealth.

In 2016, The Wall Street Journal reported that Soros had returned to active trading, taking bearish positions in the market. His fund continued to make significant market moves in subsequent years. In the fourth quarter of 2025, Soros Fund Management made substantial investments in artificial intelligence-related stocks, purchasing approximately $137 million in AI chip stocks, including increased positions in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and Nvidia, while also opening a new position in Coinbase and trimming holdings in Alphabet.

Philanthropic Work and the Open Society Foundations

Soros's philanthropic activities represent one of the largest and most sustained individual charitable commitments in modern history. Through the Open Society Foundations — named after Karl Popper's philosophical concept — Soros has donated more than $32 billion to various causes. Of that amount, approximately $15 billion had been distributed as of 2025, representing approximately 64 percent of his original fortune. Forbes described Soros as the "most generous giver" in terms of percentage of net worth in 2020.

Between 1979 and 2011, Soros donated more than $11 billion to philanthropic causes. By 2017, his cumulative donations to "civil initiatives to reduce poverty and increase transparency, and on scholarships and universities around the world" had reached $12 billion. The Open Society Foundations operate in more than 120 countries and focus on a range of issues including democratic governance, human rights, education, public health, and independent media.

Soros's philanthropic work played a notable role in the political transformations that swept Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s. His funding of civil society organizations, independent media, and educational institutions in countries under communist rule contributed to the processes that led to the fall of communism in the region. Among his most significant educational investments was the establishment and endowment of the Central European University (CEU), originally located in Budapest, which received one of Europe's largest higher education endowments. The university, founded in 1991, was designed to promote critical thinking, open inquiry, and democratic values in post-communist societies.

Political Activities and Controversies

Soros supports progressive and liberal political causes and has made substantial donations to political campaigns, organizations, and advocacy groups, primarily in the United States and Europe. His political donations and the activities of the Open Society Foundations have generated significant controversy, particularly among conservative and far-right political movements.

In the United States, Soros has been a major donor to Democratic Party causes and candidates. His political activities have drawn scrutiny and opposition from Republican officials. In August 2025, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced an investigation into a political action committee described as "Soros-funded" in connection with its alleged funding of Democratic legislators in Texas. In September 2025, The New York Times reported that a Justice Department official directed prosecutors to investigate the Open Society Foundations, describing the directive as a departure from decades of established practice separating political direction from prosecutorial decisions.

Soros's funding activities have also made him what the BBC described as a "bugaboo of European nationalists." In Hungary, the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán conducted a sustained public campaign against Soros, framing him as an outside influence attempting to undermine Hungarian sovereignty, particularly in the context of debates over immigration policy. The pressure contributed to the Central European University's decision to relocate much of its operations from Budapest to Vienna in 2018.

Numerous far-right theorists have promoted conspiracy theories characterizing Soros as a "puppet master" behind alleged global plots. These claims, directed at a Holocaust survivor, have been described by multiple observers and media organizations as antisemitic in nature. In 2018, The New York Times reported that "conspiracy theories about him have gone mainstream, to nearly every corner of the Republican Party."

Personal Life

George Soros has been married three times. He married Annaliese Witschak in 1960; the couple divorced in 1983. He married historian Susan Weber in 1983; they divorced in 2005. In 2013, he married Tamiko Bolton. Soros has five children, including Robert, Jonathan, and Alexander Soros. Alexander Soros has taken on an increasingly prominent role in the management of the Open Society Foundations and Soros Fund Management.

Soros's father, Tivadar Soros, authored a memoir about the family's survival during the Nazi occupation of Hungary. Soros's brother, Paul Soros (1926–2013), was an engineer and philanthropist who established the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, which provides graduate school funding to immigrants and children of immigrants in the United States.

Soros has authored numerous books on finance, economics, and political philosophy, articulating his theory of reflexivity and his views on open societies, globalization, and the challenges facing democratic governance.

Recognition

Soros has received numerous awards and honors in recognition of his investment career and philanthropic activities. In 2025, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the highest civilian honors in the United States.

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

Forbes has consistently ranked Soros among the wealthiest individuals in the world and in 2020 recognized him as the "most generous giver" based on the proportion of his fortune donated to charitable causes. He has received honorary degrees from multiple universities and has been recognized by various international organizations for his contributions to education, human rights, and democratic development.

The Central European University, which Soros founded and endowed, stands as one of his most visible institutional legacies in the field of education. The university has educated thousands of students from across Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and its programs in the social sciences, humanities, and public policy have contributed to the development of academic and civic capacity in the region.

Legacy

George Soros's legacy spans the worlds of finance, philanthropy, and political thought. In finance, his career demonstrated the power of macroeconomic analysis and large-scale currency trading, with the Black Wednesday trade of 1992 standing as one of the most consequential speculative trades in modern financial history. His theory of reflexivity, drawn from his philosophical training, offered a framework for understanding market behavior that challenged prevailing assumptions about market efficiency and rationality.

In philanthropy, Soros's cumulative giving of more than $32 billion through the Open Society Foundations represents one of the largest individual philanthropic commitments ever recorded. The scope of the foundations' work — spanning more than 120 countries and addressing issues from democratic governance to public health to education — has had a measurable impact on civil society development in numerous regions, particularly in post-communist Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Soros's role in supporting the political transitions in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s, through his funding of independent media, civic organizations, and educational institutions, placed him at the intersection of philanthropy and geopolitics in a manner that few private individuals have achieved. The Central European University, despite the political controversies that eventually forced its partial relocation from Budapest, remains a significant institution in European higher education.

At the same time, Soros's political activities and the scale of his philanthropic operations have made him a polarizing figure. He has been the subject of intense political opposition from nationalist and conservative movements in both Europe and the United States, and conspiracy theories targeting him have proliferated across political and media platforms. The antisemitic character of many of these attacks has been documented by journalists and scholars, placing Soros at the center of broader debates about the intersection of philanthropy, political influence, and prejudice in contemporary public life.